My 2021 Goals & How I’m Keeping Track of Them

Hello 2021! As we all well know, 2020 was quite the year and I’m ready to start this new year with a clean slate and a fresh state of mind. The Covid-19 vaccine is rolling out (I got mine last weekend!) and I am so ready to never hear to phrases “social distancing” and “new normal” again.

Reflecting on 2020

2020 was supposed to be a really big year for me, and in a lot of ways it still was. I graduated is the spring and while it took a little (a lot) longer than planned, I got to start a job to kick off my career in healthcare. Starting in that field during the middle of a pandemic seems very daunting but I feel like there’s no better time. I know that if I can handle it during something as challenging as a pandemic, I can handle anything that gets thrown at me down the line.

All my appreciation and respect goes out to all the new and veteran nurses of 2020, especially the ones working in COVID units and nursing homes. In the past couple weeks I’ve gotten a first hand look at what it’s like and I don’t think I’d ever be able to be as much of a rockstar at what they do.

Of course, I wish that I could have sat at graduation, walked across the stage and taken picture with my friends but in all honesty when we got sent home in March I was really ready to be home. I like to think in that sense, things worked in my favor a little bit. I also had a bit of an excuse to just relax and enjoy my last totally free summer before becoming a working gal.

I think 2020 was a really great year to reflect on the things we really wanted to do and which ones we are more comfortable letting go of than we might have thought before. Now we can go into 2021 with a more clear vison of what to go after this year.

My 2021 Goals

1. De-clutter

I am so envious of minimalists. In theory I would love to be one of them but in reality I just like all the extra frills and accessories to get rid of that much. I do, however, want to take a more Marie Kondo type approach and just cut it down to the things that really add value and that it’ll use. I want to come up with an organization system to keep every thing clean and is easy to maintain. I’ll probably be sharing some update post on this goal throughout this year, so it you don’t want to miss those, make sure you sign up for my email list.

2. Put my health and wellness first

I think most of us let our fitness fall to the way-side this year and while there’s nothing wrong with that in a year like 2020. In 2021 I want to prioritize not only my physical fitness but my mental wellness. I’ve been working a ton lately and have found myself coming home and laying in bed for hours after getting home. I want to slowly start to use my time after work more productively, whether it be going on a walk (I’ll be trying the 12-3-30 walking treadmill workout this month) or taking time to write in the journal or planner. Of course a few masks and manis will be sprinkled in there too #selfcaresunday.

3. Grow my brand

I want to make 2021 the year that I really dedicate myself to making my brand the best that it can be. I always see all these blog posts, Instagram photos and Pinterest posts from other bloggers and wish my content looked more like theirs, but there really isn’t any reason it can’t. A few years ago I got my first DSLR and I still don’t feel 100% confident taking great pictures with it. I’m going to focus on improving the quality of my content and I also want to expand into some other areas (Did someone say Etsy shop? 😉 ) Make sure you go follow my Instagram @Leah.Carolynn as it will be the hub where you can find details on all my new endeavors.

How I’m Tracking My 2021 Goals

I am a huge fan of utilizing a planner. I got the most beautiful, dream planner for Christmas this year which I plan on doing a whole post about once I get everything all set up for the year. This year I also have a planner for the blog in the line up and I’m adding a GYST binder. You can read more about it from the creator of the idea here, but the general idea is that it’s the go-to binder to store and organize important papers, lists and documents for the whole year. I’ll be adding a goals section to mine where I’m going to put some printable inserts from Pinterest to break down and track my goals for the year.

For my binder I picked up a sugar + paper binder from Target that came with dividers, some trading card pages to store smaller things like photos or coupons and some basic white folders to add within the tabs for things like receipts or documents I don’t want to hole punch. You can really get as fancy with this as you want and for whatever your budget is, but I’m going to link everything I purchased for mine down below.

I hope that 2021 can be filled with all the things that we missed out on in 2020 and so much more! What are your goals fir this year?