lifestyle blogger – Allyson Huber

Goals for 2020 and My View on Resolutions

This year, I am not really doing any “Resolutions” per say. The reality is, resolutions have not been working for me the past few years. I think that’s due to the black and white nature I have been looking at towards Resolutions. So, instead, this year I will be taking a goal-based approach. I want to reach some goals this year, but I want to ease myself into it and be patient with myself. We are all human and we are all busy. It is hard to make everything happen sometimes especially as a busy young professional and grad student. So, here are some general goals I have for this year:

1. Publish Two Books

Secret of Words, the first Book in the Secret of Words Series, came out in December, but I am planning on preparing the second book in the series, Shadow of Pasts, for publishing by the end of 2020. The goal is to have it ready in October. I am also working on a second series called The Cursed Trilogy that I will be publishing simultaneously with my Secret of Words Series. I could have waited until I finished the Secret of Words Series, but that could take years as I am intending on publishing them one at a time. My goal is to publish the first book of the Cursed Trilogy (with tentative name “Stolen), around late summer time. To publish it, I need to get the ball rolling on editing (both by me and by a professional), getting a cover, and getting some beta readers. I have already read through it and I think it looks really good, but there is definitely some cleaning up needed before it will be published. Still, I am very excited about the prospective of publishing two books this year!

2. Work on my blog/website and Youtube Channel

Blogging and Making Videos has been two things I have been wanting to do forever, but haven’t fully committed too. I even have a blog and youtube channel from way back when I was fourteen that I never fully went with. Now, I am actively trying to work on my goals and will be making the necessary steps to publish content and gather followers over time. I am going to be realistic with it and don’t expect vast changes overnight, but I will be actively striving to get that content out there. Wish me luck! 😉

3. Keep working on my positive mental health

I haven’t talked about this on my blog yet, but I have had a lot of mental health struggles in my past that I am still working on. I think we all struggle with mental health in one way or another, but I would say the past two years have been stellar years for me with my mental health. Still, it is something I still want to actively work on and keep staying on top of. The main areas I want to focus on are keeping my thoughts towards myself and others more positive and patient, making sure to take the mental health time I need when I need it, and being receptive to change or failure. I can be very hard on myself and it is good to pull yourself out of that and remind yourself that you are human and you cannot be perfect.

Those are my main goals for 2020, but they might change or grow over time. All in all, I am feeling very positive about 2020 and hope it goes as well as (for the most part) 2019 did for me! Make sure to follow to stay up with me and my journey this year J

Also, what are some of your goals for 2020?

2019 Recap: The Good and The Bad

All in all, I feel like people tell me they have mixed feelings about 2019. It wasn’t the worse year, but it wasn’t the greatest. To be honest, 2019 has held some of the most important times of my life and some of the saddest. Still, I wouldn’t change this year for anything.

Here are some of the great things that happened to me this year:

1. I moved the Phoenix

Back in June, I moved to Phoenix, AZ, which was an awesome change! To be honest, after 10 years in Minneapolis, I was ready to spread my wings and go somewhere else. I had been itching to move since college and it became one of the best things that happened to me. Living in a new place allowed me to meet new people and be myself in a different context. After living in Minnesota, I had routine places and many friends. Switching the scenery forced me to explored out of my comfort zone and meet new people. So far, I love it here in Phoenix and I have met some incredible people. We aren’t sure how long we will stay in Phoenix, but for now we are happy!

2. Grad school

That’s right, I started grad school this fall at Arizona State University! It had always been one of my goals in life get a Masters degree. I always loved college and school. To be honest, I’ll probably get more than one Masters. Maybe even a doctorate. I have always wanted to be a well-learned, educated woman and starting grad school this year was a great step towards a long term goal of mine.

3. I got to spend it with my favorite person

Honestly, having Jonathan in my life has been one of the best things that’s happened to me. I got to spend this whole year with him, my favorite person, and we have had so many awesome memories! Some of my favorite times were meeting his family and going to Harry Potter World, some of our awesome dates in Minneapolis, eating Taco Bell while watching Parks and Rec xD, the list goes on. I am so fortunate that I am in such a healthy, loving relationship. He’s a good one!

4. I prepared my book for publishing AND published it

Publishing my writing and books was a huge goal for me most of my life. I started writing when I was eleven years old and thought for a good chunk of my life I was going to be a full time creative writing. Unfortunately bills, pragmatism, and having no creative writing degree at my college stifled that goal in some ways. Still, I have been sitting on books of unpublished works and hundreds of ideas. This year, I prepped my book for publishing, edited it both personally and professionally, and published my book. I am so excited to have Secret of Words out for public! Maybe, one day, I’ll have a book shelf of novels.

The bad:

1. I lost my mom

I believe, to be honest, this is one of the worse things that has happened to me in my life. Scratch that, it’s the worse. It had been some time since I had seen her and I lost her before I could make it down for the trip I was planning to see her. She died on April 1st of this year. At first, I thought it was the cruelest joke that had ever been made, but she was really gone. I don’t want to go into depth with it, but it was one of the hardest times in my life. She was too young to pass and I was too young to no longer have her. Often, I think of her, and it breaks my heart not having her with me. Not having her see all the things I knew she wished she could be here for.

All in all, I would say there were a lot of wins for me in 2019. Hopefully, 2020 will treat us all kindly.

What was the best thing that happened to you in 2019?

Tag: lifestyle blogger

My Goals for 2020

2019 Recap: The Good and The Bad