Did I Keep My Resolutions For 2018?

Well, well, well!

Look what we have here; another year coming to an end, another year beginning!

Fresh beginnings are the best. I've always loved fresh beginnings. As a kid I used to be in love with fresh pages in my school's journals. I'd flip to a fresh new page, smell it, feel it, and then carefully begin writing with my pen. Ah, that feeling. The feeling of getting to start something new, something you hope will be clean and precise and better than before. I get the same feeling around this time when an year is ending, only to be followed with a fresh new one.

2018, I am so ready to say goodbye to you. It has not been my year at all. Yes, some very good things happened in my life like the arrival of my second niece Chunky in my world and the release of Crimes of Grindelwald and my birthday and my bakings and cakings. But some terrible stuff happened too. Emotionally and physically this year was draining. I was constantly and am constantly running a race against time to try and find a few seconds of the day for myself. Manic! And now that it is coming to an end it is that time again when I go back to check on my resolutions and figure out how successful I was in keeping them. So lets see ... did I fulfill my goals for 2018 or was I a total failure this year?

Love myself truly, madly, deeply: Self love was one of those most crucial things that helped me survive 2018. It was a terrible year considering how horrible people were to me, the things I had to hear, the behaviors I had to tolerate, the shit everyone threw at me. To try and put it in the simplest and least harsh words: it was bad. But the only thing that kept me sane was my love for myself. I knew, more than I have ever known before, who I am and what I am and I have loved myself intensely. I knew where I was right and where I was wrong and that kept me on the right track. It is true that I would have liked more me time to look after myself - that was an area I didn't do too well in - but with the little time I had all year I think I was pretty good to myself. - SUCCESS!

Try cooking lots of new recipes: This, I failed at. Not because I didn't try but because there were lots of dietary restrictions in my house this year. Chunky darling had tummy troubles which meant the doctors made SIL restrict all kinds of allergens. No eggs, wheat, soy, dairy. So lots of recipes that were on my list got held off because I didn't want to cook super delicious new recipes and have my SIL crave them, unable to eat. My brother went through some phases too: vegan, wheat free, no rice, no milk. Ugh! All of the phases came to an end, duh! But that left me with very few options. I did cook some new recipes before the troubles began sometime around June or so, I think. However, I had planned on trying a lot more than that. - FAILED!

Engage in lots of creative projects: At the start of 2018 I had planned on restarting my scrapbook, continuing wreckage in my Wreck This Journal, and being creative with The Crafty Files. And what happened? I did NONE of this. I am actually so ashamed of myself. I did bake some seriously beautiful cakes and put together some pretty display boards in my room. But the three main creative projects I had planned remain untouched. - FAILED!

Find and break a bad habit: I've been working on my bad habits since the past two years, I think, breaking one each year. The past two years I actually had a bad habit in mind and I'd successfully broken it. This year I resolved to find and break one but truth is, I never found one. This year was busy and I didn't even ponder enough over it to find something to improve upon. But if you ask me, I did improve overall as a person. So I don't really know if this one is considered a success or a failure? - NOT APPLICABLE!

Become spiritually stronger: Yes, I did become spiritually stronger for sure. It is still not as strong as I wanted to become but I have improved. So this one is a sure shot - SUCCESS!

Work towards my weight goals: Did I reach the weight I wanted to be? No. Did I at least come close? No. But did I work towards achieving the goal? Yes. I did workout this year and tried to lose some weight. I lost some but then I gained some in Ramadan (story of my life each year). So overall I did not reach my ideal weight goal. But I definitely did work towards it! - SUCCESS!

Grow as a blogger: Sooooo, how was I as a blogger this year? I was dead with a pathetic writer's block for at least two months on and off I think but then I did lots of blogging otherwise. I was pretty good and consistent January through March. In April I fabulously blogged through the April A to Z Challenge. In May I started faltering slightly but still wrote some fab blog posts. June was dead for me - I literally died and wrote like two or so posts. July was awesome and I celebrated the Potterific July. In August I resurfaced for a bit but had problems writing in September again. October set me in birthday mode so I was slightly better off. In November I did the NoJoMo challenge for the first time in my life and it was a success. December was pretty nice too. Overall I think I was good to my blog! - SUCCESS!

Be a better person: Oh for sure I did become a better person in various ways this year. I've understood so much, learnt so much, realized so much, experienced so much, and all of this has shaped me into a stronger better human. There are still big big big things to achieve in this regard but I did become a better version of myself compared to last year. - SUCCESS!

For a minute there I was sure I had failed at everything this year. But hey, looks like I didn't do so bad, did I? I was successful at keeping five out of seven applicable resolutions. One I declared inapplicable and two I failed at. I usually set very realistic and attainable goals for myself each year and since the past couple times I have been managing to succeed at all of them. This year, and this is not surprising at all, I knew I wouldn't. This year was just not my year. And still I managed so much! Congratulations to me.

Here's hoping 2019 will be better!

I'm off to think of new goals for the new year!