A List Of Aspirations For 2021 | My Goals

Oh hey there! It's the last blog post of 2020! Where did the year go (and what even was this year for the matter!)!? The year we all entered thinking this would be the one, yet come full circle, it really wasn't the one. Oops! - The lighthearted definition of the year. Despite all the downfalls of 2020, there were actually some incredible moments and memories in my year. For instance,

• I was able to properly re-launch my blog and start blogging again;
• I took the bravest step of my life and left my career that was eating away at me and my happiness; 
• I got to attend virtual events with Blogosphere (they are so much fun!);
• Won an incredible competition at one of the Blogosphere events for a mobile vlogging kit;
• Made some beautiful new blogging friends;
• And worked to make myself a better me and do more of what makes me happy!

Although we are all undoubtedly feeling a little drained from the year just gone and undoubtedly there will still be some differences in the world going into 2021, I have been most looking forward to the new year. Since re-starting my blog and making my huge career change, a little list of aspirations of personal goals for 2021 have been brewing in my head and I have been most excited about some adventures and endeavors I want to begin in the new year! So as a little happy blog post to end this inside-out but equally special year I have curated a list of my personal goals and aspirations for 2021!

And for anyone who reads all the way to the end of the post there's a little surprise at the end, a little different to my goals for 2021...

My Aspirations for 2021

• Start YouTube and vlogging. I've had an inckling to want to have a go at doing YouTube for a few years now and was actually looking back at cameras in 2019. For quite some time I've wanted to have a go at vlogging as sometimes my days and trips I have with my mum are just too funny to miss and I often say, "oh I wish I was vlogging right now"! Since blogging and with my love for YouTube going way back before I began this little typed world of me here I've loved the idea of sharing these things I love in video form too and taking part in video ideas that I watch and love seeing those I have followed make too. I'm not too certain on main video ventures yet but vlogging is definitely one of my aspirations for 2021 I 100% want to give a whirl.
• Settle into my happy new career path. I've already taken the leap and change in my career but I haven't quite found the beginning to the path I want to explore yet. I'm hoping out of all my goals for 2021 I'll find my start to my happy career, whatever and wherever it may be!
• Paint my nails more. As a teen, I remember I used to paint my nails for the week ahead every Sunday night ready for high school! (I vividly remember whilst watching Dancing on Ice on the Sunday evening telly). I haven't paint my nails in what I believe has been a year now! So I definitely need to getting cracking out and enjoying my ginormous collection of nail polishes - much like Lily Pebbles' nail polish collection she used to have on the back of her office door - does anyone else remember that and was also equally in absolute awe of her nail polish collection?
• Improve my photography skills. I think this one finds its self of my list of personal goals come every New Years. I believe my camera is a bridge camera, so it's like the best of both worlds and does a bit of macro and a bit, of kind, of telephoto but because it does a bit of everything it's not a super pro at everything so sometimes that can make things a little difficult in the trajectory to improving all aspects of my photography. My Fiji Film is definitely better for macro than full frame shots. Since starting my blog and getting my camera back in 2015 my love for saturating my knowledge with all things photography still rings true and each and every year I just get simply excited to get better and better at it. P.S I'm definitely still very much a beginner so don't think I'm bragging here, haha. 😀
• Improve my Instagram and phone-captured pictures. Again a similar one to above that I think I put on every New Year's list of my goals for the year ahead. This is going to be quite the work in progress but alas, I am still determined! 
• Do more beauty product reviews on my blog. These were exactly the thing that started my discovery and obsession with blogs and YouTube! Being the very first thing that introduced me to this online world of beauty and digital fun, my love for a classic beauty review has anything but dwindled. Being what started me on my blogging journey I have been most excited planning to do more of these on my blog in the new year.

I use way too many exclamation marks don't I? I MUST BE A TRUE BLOGGER!

• Do Blogmas, and maybe even Vlogmass! I CANNOT tell you how long in the years that I have been blogging that I have wanted to do Blogmas! Being studying for my degree and in a rather life-taking-over job post grad, I've never had the chance to truly dedicate time to producing a months worth of blog content, hence why I haven't given it a whirl in years gone by. On my swimmingly new trajectory in life and work however (we hope), I'm hoping 2021 is the year I can let my heart take flight in the absolute blogging magic that is Blogmas! Who knows, maybe I may even be giving the old vlogs a whirl still then?
• Do a one-second-a-day video, probably for my 24th birthday (SHOCK HORROR - how have I nearly been alive 23 years!). After seeing Zoe do this for one of her past birthday's, possibly her 26th, I just fell head over heels with the whole video idea. I mean, who doesn't love a montage of memories video? - I'd just like to add here, Hanna Mai's My YouTube Journey So Far video is one of my absolute most favourite montage videos on YouTube and makes me beam seeing all that she has achieved come being two years on YouTube!
• Complete my monthly favourites blog post for every month of the year. This is a post idea I have loved both watching in video form and reading in blog form by my favourite YouTubers and bloggers for the longest time. I have done a couple on my blog before - October Favourites and My Current Favourites - but really love the idea of making it my goal to post one for every month of the year on my blog. - I always feel as though there are such good finds in favourites videos and posts, especially everyday things to, like makeup staples or handy undiscovered everyday life bits and bobs.
• Wear makeup more often and picture (and share!) my makeup more! I was just saying to Lorna from Lorna Loves the other week, while we were writing our collab for our Festive Beauty Favourites | Blogger Babble Tag, that I definitely need to share my makeup looks more on Instagram as I was lusting over her beautiful makeup looks in her blog posts. I definitely started to wear my makeup more often come the end of the year after leaving my old job and have a fair few pictures of my daily makeup looks on my phone, but never felt they were worthy enough (in other words, "gramable" enough) for Insta so my goal is to sod that next year and get sharing my daily makeup excitement!
• Blog post plan and write better in advanced! I am so made up I am back blogging again and I am so proud of the content I have curated and shared this year - click here if you'd like to see all my posts from 2020. My entire life, as I imagine many peoples, in many ways in the grand scheme of 2020, has flipped 180 this year and I'm overjoyed I now actually have a work life balance and can blog once again! Although I've been doing really well to balance my time between working and blogging, something I've really not liked this year is times I've had to rush to get posts finished or posts uploaded, missing my planned upload date or being completely disappointed with my post pictures because I've missed the sunlight. Hence, next year one of my goals is to get producing my blog content well in advance so I can enjoy it even more and take away the anxieties of rushing to upload and give plenty of time for prospective readers to enjoy my seasonal posts!
• Blog more! No surprise there - and just ultimately do even more of what makes me happy!

Surprise!

For any of you who made it all the way to the end, I give to you...

My Top 10 Moments of 2020

1. Filming my first ever vlog - a trial vlog.
2. Connor surprising me with vegan chocolate with candles my birthday, in the bathroom.
3. The most inspiration thing I heard this year, from Andy Burgess at the Joby X Blogosphere event - just go for it, share it and just get creating.
4. Going to Amsterdam with Connor and seeing Amsterdam at night, sipping cocktails from the rooftop bar, before the world became over taken by germs (I am not going to even give the c-word a breath of air).
5. Sharing my first blog post of the year, Why I Started Blogging, on my return to blogging.
6. Getting my blood taken by my mum. 😂 (It was an honour!)
7. Going to the Blogosphere virtual events.
8. Elaine Malone following me (I was absolutely in awe, I bloody love her and everything she does and she is just bloody lovely!).
9. Going to Vix Meldrew's Insta Rebel webinar.
10. Taking a leap of faith and venturing into the unknown to follow my heart and live a life I love.

So that's it. My personal goals and aspirations for 2021, my special moments of this year gone by, and the end of 2020. There's been so much in this year, from every extreme to every plethora of happening, both in the world and in personal lives. It's been a year no one could have ever seen coming but, just like every moment, a year filled with incredible moments I never saw coming. I am so over joyed I began blogging again and I cannot believe the life adventures I have been on. I am so excited for the year ahead, for blogging, the beauty, the fashion, starting new ventures and the undiscovered special moments that lie ahead in the months to come. Come early January, I am planning to take a short break from the blog just to round myself up from over the festive period and sort and refresh for the new year ahead but it won't be for long. I already have posts planned for January! So keep you eyes peeled for what's to come in my year ever of blogging more than ever! And maybe some other ventures too!

I hope you all, wherever you are and whatever you may be up to, have a lovely, special New Years in and an abundantly beautiful new year, following your heart and doing all that you love! If you'll be blogging or vlogging or YouTubing in the new year too comment below and say hello, I'd love to see your content! Likewise, if you're a long time reader over here comment below and let me know when you've been following my blog since - I'd love to get to know you all a little more! 

Have a cosy, and delicious for anyone else having a New Years buffet tonight too, NYE and a wonderful start to 2021! 

Happy New Year!

Ellie Xx

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