New Year’s Eve was so much fun this year. My boyfriend and I celebrated at a nice dinner and house party surrounded by some of our favorite people. I am so excited for everything that 2020 will bring and have been working to write my New Year’s resolutions for a few days now.
I have always loved writing New Year’s resolutions and I look back and cross off my goals throughout the year. I had a wonderful 2019 and, looking back at my 2019 document, I am proud of everything I accomplished.
2020 is going to be a big year of change and I cannot wait to share all of the exciting adventures this new year will hold.
When writing out my plan, I always divide my yearly goal setting into four main components:
- Travel
- Career
- Relationships (friends, personal and partner)
- Goals + Resolutions
Travel
2020 is really shaping up to be a big travel year for me and I cannot wait to share the exciting destinations I have in store for later this year. I’m not going to share everywhere I plan on traveling this year since there are a lot of factors still to hash out. Instead, I think it will be most helpful to share my 2019 travel.
I always divide travel into two components: this year’s destinations and bucket list destinations. Here is where I traveled in 2019:
2019 Destinations:
- Benton, AR (January 25-27)
- New York City (President’s Day Weekend)
- Philadelphia, PA (President’s Day Weekend)
- Baltimore, MD (March 23)
- New Orleans (Memorial Day Weekend)
- Denver, CO (July 3-7)
- Lima + Cusco, Peru (September 7-15)
- El Paso, TX (October 25-27)
- Benton, AR (November 27 – December 1)
- Denver, CO (December 20-30)
I must say, traveling to Peru and Machu Picchu was definitely my favorite travel destination of 2019 – it was an incredible trip that Drew and I will cherish for our lifetime. You can learn more about our trip in this blog post about Lima, this post and this post about Cusco and this post about Machu Picchu.
Bucket List Destinations:
My bucket list consists of both domestic and foreign places I’m not traveling to this year. Though I won’t include my entire list, here are a few places I’d love to explore:
- Domestic
- Pacific Coast Highway
- Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Oregon
- Washington state Wine Country
- Monterrey, CA
- Sedona, AZ
- Foreign
- London + Edinburgh, U.K.
- Greece + Croatia
- Iceland
- Egypt
Career
2019 was a big year of transition for my career. I left my very political job as a press secretary here in Washington, DC and started a new job working in health care. Last year’s goals focused on creating a work-life balance (does that even exist?!) and switching career fields to try something new and challenging.
As I wrote my career goals for the New Year, I focused on what I want to achieve professionally and the skills I want to nurture or master in 2020. I looked at my current job duties and wrote out areas where I would like to improve on specific work tasks. For example, I want to widen my knowledge in health care policy and improve the quality of the daily newsletter I write for my company’s membership.
Relationships
One of my mantras for 2020 is going to be to plug in. I have been so lucky to have found great friends in every city I’ve lived in. Between growing up in Denver, going to college in Texas, moving around on campaigns and living the transient city of Washington, DC, I have friends in cities across the country. One of my goals this year is to stay plugged in an reach out to friends near and far. Unpopular opinion: I love talking on the phone. I want to be better about just chatting on the phone with my loved ones.
I love spending quality time with my friends. But I feel like most of the time we’re reuniting at weddings or going out on Friday nights. In 2020, I want to be better about meeting friends day to day and grabbing dinner, going to a workout class or seeing a movie. We don’t always need to be going out or grabbing drinks – a social standard in DC!
I am also making a personal goal to join another social or professional group to meet new people in the New Year. I’d like to join another PR group or a women’s group like Junior League.
Of course I also do a personal goal setting for my relationship with Drew. 2019 was a big year – we moved in together! As for 2020, I just know there are plenty of exciting memories to create and ways we will grow together.
Goals + Resolutions:
And finally, here is an incomplete list of some of my goals for this year:
- GET A PUPPY
- Pick back up guitar
- Start a new hobby like pottery
- Join Junior League or a PR group
- Get into the habit of doing yoga
- Be more consistent with my blog
- Start journaling more frequently
- Create a vision board to spark inspiration
- Continue to workout 2-3 per week
- Read at least one book per month
- Manage my guilty conscience – I feel bad about any and everything!
- Cultivate a good work-life balance – there is so much more to life!
- Be intentional with long-distance friends
- Meet with a financial adviser
What are your New Year’s resolutions? Do you set goals each year and stick to them? I’d love to hear your thoughts and learn about what you are looking forward to in 2020.
xx,
Cait
Girl at Altitude 