Reading, Blogging & Life Goals for 2015!

Hi lovelies, today I’m going to talk to you all about what I want to achieve in this new year.

When I sat down and thought about my blog, I started to think about where I want it to go in this new year. Firstly, however, I had to figure out exactly what my blog is.

When I began my blog back in February 2014, I thought I’d just be doing book reviews, and posts relating to that, like book hauls. I quickly realised that I wasn’t getting through books quick enough to be able to keep up with all of the posts I needed to write. I started adding different content to my blog, for example, I began writing movie reviews for adaptations I have seen.

Then I began doing tag posts, and DIY posts, such as my TBR jar and Halloween cupcakes, and more. I gathered this was a natural progression for my blog. I decided a long time ago that I didn’t want to catergorise my blog into being just a ‘book blog’, because I really enjoyed posting all of these different things.

I have been identified as a ‘lifestyle’ blogger by a few fellow bloggers, and I still have no real idea what that means. I’m guessing it’s just what it says on the tin, and is just blogs about my life. I have written about my holidays, and going to my first book signing, and about my thoughts on different topics like organisation and scheduling.

Blogging Goals

Honestly though, my blogging goal in 2015 is to just carry on as I am. I’ve been really happy with the blog posts I’m producing and don’t feel like it’s becoming dull in any way. I am going to strive to not put so much pressure on myself. My blog is for me ultimately, it’s a place where I can rave about the things I love or rant about things that are bothering me, and I want it to stay that way.

This year I really want to connect more with different bloggers, so I’m going to be posting a series of ‘Blogs I love’ so I can share which bloggers I’m loving. I’ve found some great blogs through reading other people’s ‘blogs I love’ posts and I wanted to share the love too. Infact, I was very kindly mentioned in a post of this nature, and this is where they mentioned that I do lifestyle posts too, so I learnt a lot about my own blog as well as others.

I’m also looking for some input from you guys, is there anything you might want to see on my blog? Which posts do you like reading the most? I’d love to hear what you think.

Reading goals

In terms of my own personal reading goals, I have decided to participate in another goodreads challenge. This time I set my goal at 50 books. For the vast majority of bloggers, and book lovers, this might seem like a small goal. In 2014, I completed 38 books which I was very happy about. I had been struck by several reading slumps and I found life got in the way (either work or socially) and I didn’t get to dedicate as much time to this hobby as I would have liked. This year I’m not going to force the reading too much as I think that’s what caused me to fall into the slump, I’m just going to read what I fancy at the time and see how I get on. I’m not going to feel guilty about not enjoying a book, afterall, there’s no point forcing myself to get to the end of a book that isn’t for me when I could be using that time to fall in love with something else.

Life Goals

I’m not really into the whole ‘new year, new me’ sort of thing, I’m not going to jump into a crazy diet or suddenly join a gym. I do like setting life goals though. I’d consider last year a success, I passed my driving test and got my first car. I moved in with Stewart, and we got our kitten, Dobby. This year there are a few things that need to happen. We will be moving again, definitely before the end of June but if we find somewhere suitable before then we’ll be go sooner.

I’m going to make sure my finances are in good order, and that we’re settled wherever we are. Not only so that we can comfortable, and stress free but also so that we can think about other things in our future. We’d love to travel, and go on holiday. We also want to have children at some point so being any kind of prepared will be handy.

Not really a life ambition but I’m rather looking forward to going to The Harry Potter Studio Tour in April with Stewart and my family. We’re going for my brother, Ricky’s 21st birthday (which was in December but we struggled finding dates we were all free) and it happens to be my 7 year anniversary with Stew too. I’m looking forward to celebrating my first blogiversary, and losing the ‘newbie’ status. I’m hoping to go to more book signings, I have one this month to go to, and hopefully more later in the year.

I know nothing incredibly ambitious but I feel like I’m thankful to be happy with how things are going in life already, and more of the same please!

Once again, I’d like to wish you all the best for the new year and may it bring you lots of good opportunities, and fond memories. Let me know what your blogging and reading goals are for the new year!