Where Did 2020 Leave Me?

While many of us may be ready to fully embrace the clean slate that comes with a new year, for me 2020 was one of the best years of my life. Although I never got to travel as much as I had naively anticipated, in the spirit of reviving my blog, I thought I’d take a look back at the goals I set for myself 12 months ago.

I tried to utilise as much of my ‘lockdown time’ as I could, but far from baking banana bread and exercising via Zoom, my 2020 instead saw me purchase my first home in London, build the foundations of my freelance business and get engaged. All being considered, I have a lot to be grateful for regardless of how many ‘goals’ I achieved, so let’s take a look.

Traveling

Somewhat ironically, travelling was one of my main objectives for 2020. While I never got to Australia, New Zealand or even Spain, I did manage trips to Italy and Malta before lockdown and for that, I am super grateful. I took a handful of ‘staycations’ too this year, venturing to Canterbury in September where I got engaged (more on that later).

Birthdays

Me, my partner and my mum got really lucky with our pre-lockdown birthdays falling in February and March. I got to spend my birthday in Italy. With how rapidly everything was changing in March, we decided against going to Dubai for Farhan’s 30th birthday as we had planned and instead popped to the stunning little Mediterranean island of Malta.

Pets

I did not get the dog that I had hoped for but after buying a flat without a garden, it’s probably for the best!

My Blog

In 2020, my blog completely fell by the wayside and I learnt to be okay with that. I started my blog, not be be ‘a blogger’, but rather to develop myself a habit of regularly writing, in order to become a full-time freelance writer. After laying the foundations to go freelance, I decided to make my blog a secondary element of my business, in that my blog will be linked on my main website, but will not be a main element for perusal. Please do check out my website here.

Lifestyle

In my goals for the year, I planned to get a part-time job to subsidize my freelancing and luckily, I managed to find something back in January. The little job I found was/is absolutely perfect for what I needed, giving me the freedom to pick and choose which freelance projects I took on while not needing to worry about having enough money each month. This freelance freedom has allowed me to develop my client base in genres that are of interest to me and has meant I didn’t need to take each and every freelance job just to ensure cash-flow. While it takes a little longer, it helped me to ensure quality clients over quantity of clients from day one.

Engagement

Something that wasn’t on my planned list of things to do in 2020 was getting engaged. That said, it came as an absolutely wonderful surprise from my partner on the third anniversary when we went on a ‘‘staycation’ to Canterbury.

Health

I had hoped for time to try new dishes in 2020 and boy-o-boy did I get that. While I skipped the baking of banana bread, I did experiment with a few new dishes. I also said that I wouldn’t be joining a gym but after moving to a new house that is literally a few minutes walk from a leisure club, I actually joined the gym. Although, in my defense, I only signed up to use the swimming pool and the sauna and have not used any of the actual ‘gym’ yet.

Skin

My skin has had a lot of ups and downs in the past year. It feels as though I am finishing the year with slightly better skin than when I started. I had a consultation with a Harley Street dermatologist which was very helpful in terms of putting together a custom skin care routine for my own skin. I decided to get creative with some experimental skincare products instead of opting for some invasive skin procedures and lengthy blood work investigation – so watch this space for more on if my face explodes.

With everything that has happened to the world in the last year, we can’t be hard on ourselves for not achieving this or that. It has been a ridiculously tough twelve months for many people and I really wanted to share some little rays of light from my own 2020 instead of the doom and gloom.

As we move into 2021, I hope the New Year mindset helps us all to move into a more positive year and I wish everyone reading this a very Happy New Year. What were the best things about 2020 for you? Let me know in the comments below.