It’s that time of year again where I see whether I actually managed to complete the goals I set this time last year!

I’ve found the exercise of publishing my goals a great reminder of where I’m going and what I’m trying to achieve. I do try to keep mental goals throughout the year but writing them and making them public makes you more determined to smash them out of the park!

This year has come and gone in the blink of an eye, much has been achieved and it’s been a roller coaster ride. From adventure travel in Menorca and Austria, to winter Independence Day and light festival celebrations in Riga, there’s been plenty of travel.

So let’s revisit 2015’s goals!

Move Flats

The pain, stress, frustration and excitement of of buying a place in London is draining and a real battle. For a lot of 2015 I was pretty preoccupied with the total slog of buying a place.

I finally gave the keys back to our tiny studio flat in zone 2 North West London and moved just South of the river to our own pad in North Greenwich. It’s a area that’s very modern and undergoing a huge amount of development, we’ve got the River Thames and the park a one minute walk away. We’ll have much more space and finally a decent sized kitchen with a freezer (the previous flat didn’t have one!), oven and even a dishwasher. Anything that saves me from tedious housework is a major plus. I’m hoping I’ll have a little bit more space for shooting YouTube videos too, all my previous videos featured most of the space in our studio flat!

Goal Status: Success
I was aiming to buy a flat in London towards the end of 2015, it was a close call but I made it, moving in just before Christmas!

Travel

OK, so as far as places I wanted to travel to this year I totally failed. I listed Thailand, Cuba and New York as places I wanted to go, but instead made it to Riga, Dublin, Austria, Berlin, Hamburg and Menorca twice!

Goal Status: Failed
It’s a bit harsh to call this one a failure as I travelled to some amazing places and had great experiences, just not the destinations I had pencilled in back in December 2014.

1 Video A Month

I’m calling it a success. I aimed to produce one youtube video per month this year and I pretty much made in with 11 solid videos up and on my YouTube Channel. I’ve eaten breakfast cereal in the afternoon at the cereal killer cafe, drank coffee in a public toilet, tested London’s cable car, climbed the Shard and taken a trip back to my childhood at the museum of childhood. By far and away my most popular video this year was my video of The Sky Garden (above).

Goal Status: Success

2000 YouTube Subscribers

So I aimed high, it was ambitious. I totally fell short of 2000 subscribers this year with just 374 (You can subscribe here to help me out!). I put this failure down to only uploading a video once a month and also not producing particularly sharable video content. I’m looking for fresh new ideas on a format I can replicate throughout the year for my new videos.

If you’ve seen any of my videos I’d love to hear your thoughts on the direction and style of videos for 2016. Leave me a comment!

Goal Status: Fail

Blogging More Often

Although I may have not blogged as much as I’d have liked this year (I’ve had a lot on my plate!) I have made some changes to my blog. I’ve started to introduce itineraries to provide useful content for anyone looking to travel to places I’ve been. I’ve also been trying to blog about more personal topics with the most difficult post I’ve published being “Crippling Anxiety, Chronic Blushing & Why I Wanted To Travel The World” and also talking about life as a part-time blogger. Overall I pleased with the direction of my blog this year and think it’s worth labelling a success!

Goal Status: Success

Overall I think I’ve done pretty well in achieving most of my goals. The exercise was really to focus myself on the areas I wanted to improve. Setting goals and actually publishing them gives you something just a little more concrete to aim for and to remind you just which direction you’re supposed to going in.

I’m still finalising my goals for 2016 but once I’m ready to commit I’ll be publishing them on the blog. Stay tuned.