Hey guys. I’m back after a month-long hiatus. This was an unplanned break. But I’m really happy that I got the chance to visit my parents and be with them for a month. Of course, there was no break from work. The break was from reading and this account. I honestly don’t remember the last time I took a month-long break from reading! Can you believe I didn’t read a single page during this month! This also means I haven’t completed my Goodreads challenge for the year. But that’s ok. I love reading but we do need a break every now and then. And I think with the year that 2020 has been, I can give myself a bit of slack.
From last year, I had decided that I am going to set myself goals at the start of each year and stick to them. No matter what!
My first goal was to write reviews for every book that I read. And for this reason, I even reduced my reading goals to one book a week. I was nearly successful. I’m proud to say that I wrote detailed reviews of every single book I read until late November. I was unable to review the last series I read since I came on vacation during the first week of December. Even though I missed one, I still feel I have made a huge accomplishment for someone who doesn’t like writing!
My second goal was to get started with my YouTube channel before the year ended. I had a head start on this when there was a lot of time in March during the lockdown. I was consistent for some time but then work took over and I haven’t been able to continue with my videos. But I’m still happy since my goal was only to get started with the channel.
The third goal was improving myself through Toastmasters. This has been my biggest achievement so far this year. I haven’t really given a lot of speeches but my mentors made sure I took up a few leadership roles. The biggest impact of this was that I had the confidence to start my channel and speak in front of a camera. Some of the best people I met this year have been through Toastmasters. And there’s a HUGE difference in the book reviews that I used to write before and after I joined Toastmasters.
The fourth was to upgrade myself professionally. I have started a new phase in my professional life and loving it so far. Being a Trainer and helping others by sharing knowledge is a really satisfying work. There’s still a long way to go but I do have a start. Again, this was kind of unplanned. Even though it was my goal, I seriously had no idea how I was going to achieve it at the start of 2020. Just goes to show the power of goal setting. Having a goal brings a lot of difference to your life and you subconsciously start working towards it.
I also had another wish. I never set this as a goal since I was not sure how I would go about it. From the time I started my Bookstagram account and saw everyone reading ARC’s (Advanced Readers Copy) of books before they were released, I always had a wish that one day I would get this chance and be contacted by authors to review their books. This was just a wish and not a goal at the start of 2020. I am so happy to tell you that I have been fortunate enough to be contacted by a couple of authors to review their books. It’s not a huge number but it’s a start. I am also part of a book review group where we get paid for the books that we review. If you ask me, this is the best way to earn. Doing what we love. Again, this was never on my list of goals but thankfully it happened.
Now that I look back, 2020 wasn’t so bad after all, was it?
Stay tuned to find out what my goals for 2021 are going to be.
