Hi everyone! Today I’m back to take a look at the goals and challenges I am setting myself for 2018. There are bookish and blog goals and challenges as well as some personal goals I am setting myself for the year ahead too.

I have to begin by saying that I really don’t live by the statement “New Year, New Me” because I strongly believe that if something in my life needs changing enough then I will do what I can to change it at any given point in the year. That being said, I do understand why the new year is a good time for people to choose to start over so whilst I don’t make ‘resolutions’ or big changes, I do take time to think about what I would like to do for the year ahead for myself.

This post will be split into different sections: Blogging Goals, Bookish Goals, 2018 Reading Challenges and Personal Goals. I love lists so that’s pretty much what this post will be! 🙂

Over the last year my little corner of the blogging community has really become something I’m proud of and enjoy pouring myself into. In 2018, I hope to keep this up and maybe to even grow a little bit more. Here are some things I hope to accomplish this year!

• Post regularly – stick to a schedule but not to beat myself up if I don’t or can’t blog for a little while, breaks are good!
• Hit 1,000 WP followers – this is a pretty big goal but it would be amazing to do!
• Write more discussion posts about things I love including books and teaching
• Comment more actively – definitely something I need to improve on!
• Host more guest posts – if you would be interested please do let me know!
• Take part in more blog tours to promote upcoming releases.
• Create a bookish post/meme of my own and have people take part in it – something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately!
• Share more of my journal – those posts are always successful and I hope to share more this year.

All that really matters to me when it comes to my blogging is that I am doing it for ‘me’. This is my little outlet into the world that I can control and take where I would like and if none of those goals above happen then that’s fine as long as I’m still enjoying myself.

So, the big one for us book bloggers. What are our bookish goals for 2018? I have a couple here and this will be followed by my 2018 reading challenges of which there are a few.

• Read every day – I pretty much do this anyway, but I’m designating time each day to make sure I am able to fit in my reading during those busy work periods.
• Read more MG books.
• Read more Non-Fiction – I only read 3 in the whole of 2017, I need to do better this year!
• Reduce my TBR – my phsyical TBR that is. I need to focus on reading some of the books I have had on my shelves for a long, long time.
• Attend more bookish events – YAShot and YALC 2018 are definites but I hope to attend some other events in between.
• Stay on top of my NetGalley – I’ve recently had a cull on there and things are now manageable, my aim is to stay on top of upcoming titles and be timely with those reviews! (Watch this space…)
• Read what I want and not feel pressured into reading or not reading different books.

And here we have it, the reading challenges of 2018! Let’s get the big one out of the way shall we?

My Goodreads goal for 2018 is to read 100 books. I choose 100 every year because it’s a number that is manageable to me, not because I want to look ‘better’ than anyone else. It’s just a nice number and to be honest I really wouldn’t mind if I didn’t hit it, I know the challenge makes some readers feel pressured but I’m lucky that it doesn’t make me feel that way it just spurs me on.

I’m also taking part in the British Books Challenge again this year where we aim to read as many books as possible that come under the UK publishing umbrella. They can be from any genre/age range but most of mine will surely be UKYA. You can find out more about it and sign up here, our lovely host Chelle also arranges lots of prize packs throughout the year to spur us on to link up our reviews and give those British authors and their books some well deserved recognition.

As well as the traditional Goodreads challenge, a couple of years ago I joined a challenge group within the GR community and every year, quarter and month they host a range of different reading challenges to help us wade our way through the TBRs (although, admittedly, they also add many books to my TBR too!). I particularly like using their yearly challenges as a way to tick books off the TBR and it’s satisfying to see the lists filling up in my little corner of the world. Some of the challenges for this year include a Series Reading challenge, the PopSugar challenge, an A-Z titles challenge and the Let’s Turn Pages challenge. To find out more about these you can check out my page here or on Goodreads.

And then we were at the personal part. I don’t have huge dreams or aspirations for what this year will hold, my hopes and dreams are for things to be nice for my family and friends. For all of my family and friends to feel loved and happy. I am going back to work knowing that in a month or so’s time I will be stepping up into a new role for a year. A role I have always aspired to and I am both thrilled and nervous at the prospect of so much change but I am ready for the challenge and know I will also thrive off it too. With that in mind, here are some personal goals for this year.

• Mindfulness – taking time for myself will be important so I don’t feel overwhelmed.
• Eat more healthily – not a strict diet but just so I can feel better about myself.
• Start to exercise – I am not fit by any means but starting off small with some long walks will help.
• Talk – I have the best friends and family a girl could ask for and sometimes I think I need to lean on them more than I do.
• Say ‘Yes’ more – so what if I’m a little tired? Maybe that plan I turned down could have been the thing that made my week and I never would have known.
• Say ‘No’ more – something I started to embrace last term. It’s okay sometimes to say that you can’t do something. I need to do that more.

Most importantly I want to remind myself that it’s okay not to be okay sometimes. But that just as equally it is also okay to let myself feel sad or happy or to laugh or to cry, whatever emotion it is that I need for that day. In 2018 I just want to be ME.

What goals have you set for yourself for 2018? 

What reading challenges are you taking part in this year? Have you set a Goodreads goal? 

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