The Promise of New Beginnings — 2024 Thoughts & Goals

 

January is almost coming to an end, and here I am finally sharing this post after a little time off, but hey, better late than never, right? By the way, I hope you all are having a great 2024 so far! :)

With the new year, there is this hope that everything will be and get better. Once again, the fact of just being able to open my eyes and wake up to a new day, breathing and being alive and healthy it's truly something to be always thankful for and for 366 days, (yes, it's a leap year) that's a win. 

I am have previously mentioned before that I am not one to set or have that many goals, because I either do not stick to them and things go differently, so I kinda go with the flow now, and taking it day by day, putting my day before God's presence and welcoming whatever it comes, like every day does feels like a little surprise and I don't know what I'll be getting but if there's something that I've also mentioned is setting realistic goals and these goals are the same ones every single day as well as year and even if they seem to be the same, sometimes I either don't try my best and fail at those but again, there's this need to stand up and keep on going, right?

There are some life aspects I would love to work on (more like keep on working on) this year:

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SPIRITUAL

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This is my number one and most important pillar, building and reinforcing my relationship with God. With Him, I feel like I have it all and I can't now imagine a life without Him. I have known Him for over 20years, basically my whole life. But even if it's been 20 years or a day, I still do feel like there is a lot I need to work on and that's exactly what I plan on continue doing. 

Besides that, which I won't go into much details and keep it for myself, I want to continue reading, studying, scrutinizing the Bible, I just started the New Testament and it is incredible how much I can understand now, for me the Old Testament is still difficult to understand, but little by little I am getting there, there is so many dates, time, names , and it is difficult for me to get into context, but I will just give time to time. I even take notes and if I have got questions, I will write them in the chapter, verse that I am reading because I know I will get those questions answered later at some point. 

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PERSONAL

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Wardrobe change: It's not new news that I have been changing and exploring a little bit with my style and I plan on improving and dressing the way I would love to. I won't say a lot much about this, since I already have a upcoming post talking about it more in depth. 

Keep track of my 'finances' (aka savings) the way I have been doing it as of late: After using apps or even Excel / Google sheets, I went back to carrying a little notebook and keeping track of my 'income' as well as all my expenses, so that I could have a better understament of where my money is going, because sometimes numbers did not match my math.  That's very old school plus I started a new 'method', 'system' you name it, which again I don't stick to it as much as I would love to, because I am not working, meaning I don't get a paycheck but again, keep track of money that comes in the form of exchange of work or gift. I could also dedicate a whole post dedicated to 'finances', because I have never been good with numbers but slowly I've been learning and WHAT A PROGRESS! I honestly feel proud of myself, it's been a very long journey, one of so much learning too. 

To stay healthy and exercise: I plan on also continue working out, just for the sake of moving and not having a sedentary lifestyle, staying healthy and gaining some strength and why not, little muscles too. My one goal is to be able to do a proper push-up. I feel like my arms are still weak but I hope that if I continue working the way I have been so far, I may be able to reach that goal either by the end of the year or hopefully before it. I also do not want this to become an obsession in my life. I just want to be healthy, tone my body and that's it. I have also found that 30mins or 45mins works best for me.  

Last year, I found some amazing and cool programs thanks to a girl I follow on IG and she shares the routines she does, and kinda motivates you to move your body too, I was curious and clicked the link she'd shared. I had a look, I tried them and loving them so far. I won't gatekeep this from you all but I have been doing Caroline Girvan youtube's workout. So far I have done the EPIC III series, Beast Mode, Tempo Week, Iron Series and right now I'm halfway through her FUEL Series. I love it simply because they don't take that long, she explains and give tips on how to do each exercise and it's not like those influencer type of workouts. I have been noticing slight and small changes and the best of all is I can go at my own pace and the workouts are not that long either plus you need to little to no equipment at all, as there's also a mix of dumbbells, yoga block, a mat and a chair and some workouts are all about bodyweight. Out of all the workouts I have done, I honestly can say that Caroline's are the best ones for me, they're so much fun too. I just love her and her workouts. 

Read more: I am not the type of person to read books, I have a few saved as PDF files but I just can not read them while staring at the screen, I feel like it would hurt my eyes and give me the most terrible headaches as well, there's nothing like flipping through the pages of a physical book, making notes, highlighting your favorites quotes, etc. (I sound like a book worm and expert, but this is what I see people doing and I am sure I would do the exact same thing, lol - but I know you get my point) 

Also, I am very picky when it comes to books, I'd mostly love if they're small reads (to get me started) and also of my interest. At the same time, they can be quite expensive but if I happen to save some cash, I'd buy them without thinking about their cost, plus if I end up loving it, I can go back and read it as many times as I can. I plan on getting books in English language so I can practice and learn more new vocabulary because this is not my mother tongue. I am interested in topics that has to do with art, architecture, fashion and photography (just to keep me inspired and creative) and I love anything romantic, like a novel or so. Oh, and also poetry. So, if you love reading this type of books, I accept recommendations or of any other types, I will try my best to find them at the bookstores. :)

Get back to blogging: After my last posts, and seeing that blogging is not dead and how beautiful the community is (it has always been like this for me tho) it brought lots of memories back and how much I used to enjoy writing from the heart and posting content that would make me and others happy, I would spend hours checking other blogs out in order to interact and keep in touch, etc. I would love doing that and that's exactly what I've been doing lately. I know blogging may not be the same as it was when I started 12 years ago, I know there's been a decrease and some just simply stopped their blogging journey and dedicated full time to other social medias, but after checking out some other blogs that are like new to me, I feel very motivated and inspired to keep blogging again, in fact as I write this post, I have about 2-3 more posts I will work on and get done once this goes up. 

Now, I will not put pressure on myself to be consistent or anything like that, it's been years since I post whenever I feel like doing so, I never force myself to blog or that it feels like a chore, I just do it for fun. I know what I said earlier but I'm just thinking what could be considered ideal to post, I feel like one post per week may not be a lot to someone but to me it's is, so I don't know! I'm thinking about sharing 2 posts a month or maybe just one? I don't know. I will not stress myself now and figure it all out after I am done with the rest of posts that are in my draft and get them scheduled. :)

Just know that I am really happy to be back again, to write and share more of my thoughts and whatnot, and your comments on my recents posts as well as checking out some of your blogs have truly motivated me A LOT you have no idea how much and I am just so excited! 🩷

To continue practing the art of noticing and romanticizing life: This really felt like therapy to me, it helped me 'heal', deal with grief, and at the same time, as mentioned in my last post, it made my year a lot more beautiful. At this point, looking at the images I take and share here on the blog or over my Instagram, you can perceive I love nature and I really do, it brings so much joy to my life as well as inspiration, that's why I want to keep admiring the sunsets from the balcony, or the sound of the birds chirp, the flowers, and more and hopefully documenting it aka taking some photos of it too whenever possible, just for the of memories.  

And this concludes my goals for 2024, I guess everything's been the same as always, except for the read and blog more often and being able to do a proper push-up, haha. But these goals are very realistic to me, ones I can do over and over again instead of making long lists that would be hard to achieve or stick to it. This works best for me. Once again, I hope you're all having a great start of 2024 so far. Let me know in the comment box below, what are your goals for this year or what are you most excited for or looking foward to to this year or are you not into making resolutions or goals? Let me know! :)

I hope you're all having a beautiful mid-week so far and see you next Wednesday with another new post (I already had this one thought out, planned and scheduled to go on the 31st) Until next time! xx