Hey guys, it’s Veronica.

Today, I wanted to share my goals and intentions for 2019. It might seem like they’re the same thing, but there is a difference between the two! And while most people preach the importance of setting “SMART” goals, I think that also setting intentions, which are not as easily measured, can contribute to cultivating the mindset needed for achieving your goals. But I’m not a psychologist, so what do I know!

In this post, I’ll be going through some of my most important intentions for the year, as well as detailing each of my goals. If you’re looking for ideas or inspiration for your own 2019 goals, read on!

My Intentions for 2019

Intentions, in my opinion, are like goals but are a lot more broad and hard to measure. For example I could set an intention to focus on my overall health more, and within that I could set goals to lose a specific amount of weight or run a marathon. With that distinction in mind, I’d like to share some of my intentions for 2019:

1. Take more couple photos – When I’m out with my boyfriend, I tend to take pictures of our meal or a funny candid of my boyfriend. But we really don’t have many photos of the two of us together, and I’d like to start taking more couple photos so that in the future we’ll have pictures worth framing and looking back on. I don’t have a specific number of pictures I want to take, so I’m counting this one as an intention rather than a goal.
2. Seriously focus on my Korean studies – I’ve been studying Korean for a few years now and I’ve made considerable progress but I’ve gotten comfortable with my intermediate level and haven’t actively studied in an attempt to improve for several months. I want to try taking the TOPIK II and also improve my quality of life and personal relationships by speaking more advanced, fluent Korean. I’ll go over this more below in the goals section.
3. Don’t let work drain me – I’ve been an English teacher in Korea for a few years now, and it’s a great job with great benefits, but I sometimes let the job get me down. I get frustrated at my low social position as a foreigner, I take it really personally when students act up or lack enthusiasm in class, and I sometimes over-complicate lessons and tasks. Being an educator is an important job, but no job should drain you to the point that you don’t have energy to enjoy the other aspects of your life. I’m going to try to learn to roll with the punches, keep things simple, have more empathy for my students, and keep work stress at work.
4. Make healthy choices – I’m pretty lazy when it comes to many aspects of my health. I tend to eat poorly, I avoid getting check ups and visiting the dentist, I forego sunscreen and dust masks, I slouch, I hate flossing, etc. I’ve been taking my quickly vanishing youth for granted, so I really want to be considering my health whenever I’m faced with an opportunity to make a healthier choice. It’s time to start properly caring for this one body I’ve been given.
5. Create content consistently – I’ve taken a pretty lengthy hiatus from Youtube and Instagram and I know I’ve done so for good reasons (mental health). Honestly, this is an intention I’m going to have to reexamine and decide if it’s worth honoring. I do (or did) get lots of joy from sharing videos and photos online and I wanted to commit to being more consistent in my uploads but I’ve been feeling kind of mentally vulnerable lately so I’m not sure. We’ll see. I think blogging again is a good first step into getting back into the swing of things.

“The first step in a new direction doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be a step.”

Cassie Nightingale, Good Witch

Goals

My goals are quite a lot more tangible and measurable. These are all things that I can check off of a list and know concretely whether I’ve done them or not.

1. Lose 10 kilograms – It’s weird for me to be measuring in kgs but that’s what happens when you live outside of the United States! I’ve literally never been slim, even as a kid, but over the past 1.5 years I’ve gained more weight than I’d like to admit. It’s hard to tell since I still fit in most of my clothes, but the scale doesn’t lie. I used to track my weight in my bullet journal so I have evidence that I’ve clearly gained weight and it makes me uncomfortable and worried for my health. So I really want to focus on eating well, and start adding movement back into my daily life since I’ve become quite sedentary.
2. Move – This year I would really like to move apartments. I actually really love where I live- it’s a wonderful neighborhood and I feel really comfortable after living here for almost 4 years. But I hate the distance from my boyfriend, who lives far away for work, and the terrible construction noises outside my window, and the fact that the AC doesn’t work in the summer. I’ll either take a gamble on a new school assignment, or keep my current school and just move apartments. Either way, I want to move in the summer!
3. Get a pet – Once I move (into somewhere hopefully bigger) I would really like to get a pet cat or dog, or even a guinea pig! I feel a bit lonely at home alone sometimes and I think it would be nice to have a furry friend to care for. And with a dog especially, I’d be getting more physical activity by taking them on walks every day.
4. Go up Lotte Tower – This isn’t really an achievement, but it’s just something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I looove going up tall buildings or going to viewpoints in big cities – I’ve gone up N Seoul Tower, 63 Building, Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Skytree, another tall government building in Tokyo, Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, a tall bank building in HK, Taipei 101…I think I’m obsessed.
5. Visit one new city – Every year I make an effort to visit one city in Korea that I’ve never been to before and I have been successful every year so far, so I’d like to continue the tradition. I’m excited to research interesting places and learn more about Korea’s history and culture through travel.
6. Eat one new thing – I’ve tried a LOT of different Korean dishes but truthfully I’m not very adventurous when it comes to trying new things. Anything too slimy, too bony, or too chewy turns me off, and I struggle to sometimes accept foods that would not be regularly eaten or even considered edible in my home country. I want to work on my mindset and be more adventurous in my food choices this year. Eating at least one new dish will make me feel accomplished in this regard.
7. Make something – I’d like to get a bit crafty this year and make something with my hands that I can feel proud of. I used to do all kinds of hands-on activities, whether it be painting just for fun, or hand sewing something useful, or doing some other DIY project around the house. It’s been a long time so I’d like to get my creative juices flowing again. I noticed recently that Daiso now sells a variety of yarns, knitting needles and crochet hooks, and at Art Box there are a lot DIY craft sets for sale, so I might try something like that.
8. Read 12 books – That works out to a book a month, which I think is a reasonable pace. I love reading, but I struggle to make time for it (due to too much binge-watching Youtube and Netflix).
9. Post 12 blog posts – Again, it works out to a post a month. I definitely want to be more active than posting once a month, but even posting once a month would be an improvement on my performance from 2018. I’m already at two with this post so let’s keep the momentum going!
10. Volunteer – I want to do something good for the world or humanity. I used to volunteer a lot as a student and I realize it’s been too long since I’ve done anything related to helping others. Even if it’s something small, I’d like to try volunteering this year. It’s good for the world, it’s good for my mental health, so why not?
11. Do a thorough spring cleaning – I love organizing my house…but actually cleaning? Like, scrubbing and dusting and wiping? Not so much…It’s really one of my worst qualities. So at least once this year, I’d like to do a really through deep clean of my entire house because I tend to only spot clean, which really isn’t the same thing.
12. Register to vote – I’m 27 years old and have never voted! Not once! I never felt qualified to vote because I didn’t feel like I knew enough about politics and the different candidates, but these days I’ve been trying to educate myself on different issues, and now that I see the rather poor state of politics in the US, I realize how important it is to use my right to vote. Also, as a woman I want to honor those who fought before me to give me the right to vote. There won’t be another major election until 2020, but I’d like to tick this off of my list asap.
13. Take the TOPIK II – Last year, after finally completing the last level of the KIIP program, I took a long hiatus from studying Korean intensely. Now, I feel like my language ability has slipped so I’d really like to start focusing on my studies again. For many personal and professional reasons, TOPIK level 6 is my eventual goal, but for now I think registering for the test is a good way to motivate myself to study again. Also, my test results will give me a clearer sense of my current abilities.
14. Take a long walk – Near my house, there is a really long walking path that I’ve always wanted to walk from start to end. I’ve walked portions of it for leisure but never the whole thing, so I’d like to try to walk the entire length of it in one go this year!
15. Hit 10K subscribers – Again, I have to reevaluate how important Youtube really is to me, but it was a goal I wrote down so I’m including it on this list. I might reevaluate and realize I’d rather focus just on this blog, or focus on my study Instagram instead. Or maybe I’ll realize the number isn’t actually important at all. I’ll be reflecting on this one so I can decide what’s best for me.

So that’s everything! Sorry for this insanely long and detailed list, but honestly I wrote this as much for my benefit as for anyone else’s. It was a good exercise for me to think about how I might achieve these goals and also why I want to achieve them.

Good luck to anyone else who has decided to pursue their goals and intentions for 2019!

Thanks for reading!