In the beginning of 2017, I set goals for myself. Let’s see whether I have achieved any of these goals. Here, is a look back at 2017.
I was hoping to finish revising and editing my novel by the end of the year. This did not happen. I’m still working on it. It has taken more time than I expected. I’m just not happy with the current draft. I think it will take a while before I’m pleased with it.
For 2017, I wanted to earn an income from my artwork (my watercolours and photographs). To achieve this goal, I put my paintings and some photos on Fine Art America in February. So far I haven’t made any sales. It’s quite disappointing. I also put my photos on Shutterstock. I was pleased that I was accepted into the program and that many of my photos were approved. However, I haven’t earned very much from my photos. I also started writing online articles on Hubpages. Like Shutterstock, I haven’t earned very much from my writing either. So it seems selling and earning an income on the internet has been very difficult for me.
Another goal was to learn and master Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. This goal was mostly a flop. I took a few Photoshop and Illustrator courses on Lynda.com, but I honestly can’t remember much as I didn’t get to practice on the actual software. I decided not to purchase the software in 2017 (it was too much) so had no access to the programs and no way of practicing.
I did manage to make a new friend in 2017. We met initially at a Christmas party in 2015, but didn’t talk to each other afterwards. In the fall of 2017, she started to play badminton, a sport that I have been playing since 2015. It was fun playing badminton with her and reconnecting. We started emailing each other. And later on, we went out for lunches a few times. I now consider her a good friend of mine.
Health-wise, my anxiety was really bad this year. My physical symptoms of anxiety are nausea, gagging and vomiting. I would often feel like throwing up doing some of the most mundane things such as cleaning, going to the gym, flossing and brushing my teeth. It was really severe when I had to go to the doctor’s appointment and particularly the dentist. It doesn’t help that I have a sensitive gag reflex either. I’m always afraid of vomiting at the dentist office, which so far hasn’t happen yet. In any case, the anxiety and associated symptoms are very uncomfortable.
I have done many things to try to alleviate my anxiety, including going to the gym regularly, playing badminton, doing yoga, and deep breathing. Some of these things help, but it hasn’t completely gone away.
Overall, most of my goals weren’t achieved in 2017. But I think some of them are just initial steps in a much bigger endpoint. So I will continue to turn these goals into reality for next year. What I’m most happy about this year is for the friendship that I gained. I’m also happy that I was physically very active, which helps to maintain mental and physical health. Taken together, it wasn’t a bad year after all.
The start of 2018 means it’s time for setting goals for a new year. Setting goals help keep me focused on tasks and help keep me motivated. Here are my goals for 2018.
Creating Mind 