We’re now a few weeks into 2019 which means I’ve had the chance to think about my goals for this year (yes, I know I should have set them before but I was really rather busy!). Every year I set goals to be more confident, more mindful of others and to work harder at keeping in contact with far off friends – and I like to think that each year I get better at these things – but I like to set practical goals too, ones I can physically work towards throughout the year. For a little recap on 2018, read this post.

Whilst studying at university and college, these goals were easy to set and based on what grades I wanted to achieve that year. This is my first year out of education for a long time and I brainstormed what personal projects I could set my mind to outside of work hours.

If you’ve known me for a while, you know I always used to have my head stuck in a book, but during my studies over the last few years, this habit has slipped down my list of priorities – mainly because I know that if I get engrossed in a book, I will be unable to concentrate on an essay until I find out what’s happened. With extra time in the evenings and on weekends which are now no longer dedicated to academic readings, writing up lecture notes and seminar prep, I have set myself my own 2019 reading challenge – to fall in love with this pastime again and discourage hours of scrolling through social media for the sake of it. If you want the cheesy reason, I want to rediscover who I am outside of education – this entity which has absorbed and truly taken over my life for the last few years.

If you search for #2019readingchallenge on Instagram or Twitter, there are lots of set challenges which you can follow but my own is fairly simple. I’m aiming to read 20-25 books this year (and so far it’s going quite well!). If you want to follow my reading journey, I will be posting each novel on my Instagram highlights and who knows, maybe I’ll post a review here and there! You can also follow my challenge by adding me on Goodreads.

So yes, use the new year as an opportunity to make changes to your habits and lifestyle for the better, but remember that this doesn’t have to mean new year, new you; it could very well take the form of rediscovering the old you.

Now, time to put the kettle on and crack open the next book – I can already feel that 2019 is going to be the best year yet!