I set my goals weeks ago, but it’s already February and I haven’t shared them with you yet! In today’s post, I’ll be introducing my goals in categories such as health, home, languages, and more. I’ll also be explaining in-depth my reasoning behind why I’m trying to achieve them this year. Keep reading if you’re curious or just want some inspiration for setting your own goals!

This year, I set up some goals pages in the back of my Inamio 24 Planner. I came up with six life categories to work on and then filled in each category with the goals and habits I’m most eager to work on in 2022. I kept the layout rather simple but added some pizazz with colorful markers, washi tape, and stickers. You can see an overview and close-ups of these pages down below!

Now, I’ll be going through each goal in each category, and explaining a bit about what they mean to me and how I’ll be working on them over the course of this year.

Home

Since we have a baby on the way, I really want to get everything in our home in order before she arrives. I’m hoping to get most of these items done before my due date, but the last two tasks on the list don’t have any deadline.

1. Prepare for baby to arrive – This would include getting all of the necessary furniture, supplies, and clothes before Baby arrives, and perhaps doing some baby-proofing around the apartment, too.
2. Hang up our uncle’s painting – My husband’s uncle is a really skilled watercolor artist and gifted us a beautiful painting of azalea flowers when we first got married. It used to hang on the wall at our previous apartment, but right now it’s gathering dust in the closet. It deserves to be displayed properly!
3. Declutter to the “click point” – This is something that Marie Kondo talks about in her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It means that you’ve decluttered to a point where you feel comfortable and confident in your home and there is nothing left to declutter. I think our home is pretty tidy, but I don’t feel that “click” yet.
4. Reorganize paper storage – Papers are the hardest clutter category for me to stay on top of and my storage gets a bit muddled every few months. I need to go through everything and streamline my organization system.
5. Finish organizing the closet room – We live in a two-bedroom apartment, and we use one room as a walk-in closet/office/game room. We recently replaced our desk and we’re working on decluttering and reorganizing. It’s our most disheveled space in the house.
6. Clear out my emails – I hate dealing with emails and just ignore all the random subscription emails that show up in my inboxes daily! I heard having an overstuffed email inbox is actually bad for the environment so I want to tackle my inboxes this year. I also have an old email account that I need to properly close and delete.
7. Track my spending – This is more of a habit than a goal, but I want to be more aware of my money habits. My husband and I don’t keep a budget currently, but I think having a baby is going to force us to change our ways this year.

Health

My most important concern this year is having a healthy pregnancy, and then keeping my baby healthy and happy! I have no idea what my body will feel like or look like post-partum, so I’m not putting any expectations on myself to “lose the baby weight” right away.

1. Maintain good daily habits during my pregnancy – I’ve been trying my best to stick to a few key habits to keep me healthy. Every morning I take several different vitamins, I always apply lotion after showering to treat my dry pregnancy skin and to prevent stretch marks, and I try my best to do my dental hygiene routine morning and night. I struggled with dental hygiene in my first trimester because of the constant nausea, but now that I’m feeling less sick I’m able to keep up much better. I also need to exercise regularly to prepare for delivery, and that is my biggest struggle at the moment. I hate making time for exercise, but I know I need to do it!
2. Go to the dentist after my pregnancy – I mentioned in a previous post that I had wanted to get a checkup and do some dental work last year, but couldn’t once I found out I was pregnant. (Any non-urgent procedures are recommended to be postponed until after giving birth.) So I would like to go to the dentist after my pregnancy is over to finally get my teeth properly taken care of! I have a terrible phobia of dentistry and haven’t been to the dentist in a few years because of it, so this is long overdue.
3. Go outside at least once a week – During COVID times and the cold winter months, it’s really easy for me to spend an entire week indoors without venturing outside once. But I think it’s good for me to get out of the house every now and then to get some fresh air and sunlight, and a change of scenery is good for my mental health. My husband and I have been venturing out on the weekends to grocery shop or visit family, which has really helped a lot.

Self-Development & Self-Care

While some of these goals are for active self-development, many of them are just fun or inspiring bucket list items that will make me happy this year.

1. Read 36 books – This is a goal I failed last year but would like to attempt again! I’m not doing great at the moment, however. I just haven’t been in the mood to read and have lots of other things on my mind besides reading for leisure. But it’s still really early in the year, so I’m still hoping I can make this happen!
2. Keep a reading journal – I wanted to do this last year, too, but never put pen to paper. I would really like to jot down some quick thoughts in my notebook about each book I read this year, and then use those notes to help me write book reviews on my blog.
3. Make something – I made a little gemstone “painting” last month, which was tedious work but also fun, and it was satisfying to hold something I made in my hands. I’m inspired to try and make something else this year but I don’t have any preference for what type of thing I make. It could be a scarf, a watercolor painting, a pair of earrings, or some pottery. I’d just like to feel that satisfaction again of making something with my own two hands!
4. Do something good – I also don’t have any criteria for this goal, but some ideas I have include making a monetary contribution to an important cause, volunteering in person somewhere, helping out a friend in need, or even helping English language learners on sites like Busuu or Accentia. I’d like to do a few different things if I can.
5. Visit one new place in Korea – This is something I try to do every year that I’ve lived in Korea. There are so many wonderful places to visit here! I love seeing different landscapes and architecture. Since Korea is small (compared to the US), it’s easy for my husband and I to take a day trip out of town and see someplace new.
6. Eat at a French restaurant – I’ve never tried French cuisine before! I thought it would be fun and interesting to try. For our anniversary next month, we’ll try to get a reservation at one of the top French restaurants in Seoul!

Languages

I have been getting more and more into studying Spanish as time goes on, but I’ve let my Korean studies slip as a result. I really want to put as much energy as I can into studying these two languages because 1) studying Spanish is a really fun hobby that I enjoy and 2) I think part of being a good parent to my future child is being able to navigate life in Korea without much help, so it’s time to up my game. I need to be ready to support my child’s development in two languages (Korean and English), engage in their school life, and bridge our eventual cultural gap as best I can.

1. Pass the Spanish A2 level test on Busuu – Last year, I passed the A1 test! I’ve been diligently working on Busuu lessons this year, so I think I can pass the A2 test within the next month or two.
2. Read Harry Potter in Korean – I have kept The Sorcerer’s Stone on my shelf for a few years now and have never really tried to read it on my own! (Once when I injured my back and was bedridden, my husband read a few pages to me to cheer me up, but that’s it!!) I’m trying to study Korean more diligently this year, so hopefully, that will help me tackle this book. I just need to get over my fear of reading longer texts!
3. Use up the TTMIK 100-day Study Journal – I’ve had this journal for a few years as well, but have yet to use up all of the pages. It’s a perfectly good study tool and I just don’t like it sitting on my shelf as a waste of space. I’d like to use it up properly and then get rid of it!
4. Make flashcards for 2000 Essential Korean Words Beginner – This is a book of vocabulary divided into topics with mini quizzes after each section. Since it’s beginner level, I am familiar with many of the words, but there are still some that I either only slightly remember or don’t know at all. I’ve studied with it in the past and whenever I ran into an unknown word, I made a flashcard for it, but I’ve yet to complete the whole book. It’s a doable task, but 2000 words is kind of a lot! So my goal is to finish making all the flashcards this year.
5. Finish 4 Korean textbooks – Four books is a lot, I know! I might be biting off more than I can chew… But I didn’t finish ANY books last year, and I am sick and tired of having all of these great resources on my shelf but not actually using them! And I am so desperate to try other textbook series, but I don’t have room on my textbook shelf because it’s FULL. I need to make some space by finishing what I have before I allow myself to buy any new books. The 2000 Essential Korean Words Beginner book will count toward this goal.
6. Finish the Spanish course on the Speekoo app – This is a nifty little app that combines language education with cultural tidbits. They have a very extensive Spanish course that I’d like to complete, though I must say that after the most recent update, the cultural content is much more boring. Kind of a shame. But the language content is still interesting because it’s very conversational, which can be hard to come across in other apps.
7. Finish all of the content on the Tobo Korean app – This is a vocab flashcard app with games and review functions. I know some people are really against learning vocab out of context, but honestly, I learned so much vocab through flashcard apps early on in my journey and I still like to use flashcards to learn new words. It’s a fun daily challenge for me to memorize new words, though they are often really random.
8. Finally master kana – I’ve been trying to learn hiragana and katakana for ages! I think I have a pretty solid grip on hiragana (just recognizing it, not writing it) but I’m really intimidated by katakana. I need to get over this hurdle so that I can start to learn Japanese properly! I would like to practice writing hiragana and memorize katakana this year.

Blog & Business

It might seem like bad timing to be getting more active online since I’ll soon have my hands full with an infant, but I am feeling really motivated this year to work harder on this blog and my YouTube channel. I also have dreams of opening my own business and helping to support my family with multiple streams of income, so I’m going to work hard to achieve this!

1. Get 10k subscribers on YouTube – I’ve been hovering at just under 2k for what feels like forever and I want to have a breakthrough this year. I know I don’t have any actual control over this, but I hope that by putting out quality content on a consistent basis, I can create a channel worth subscribing to.
2. Get 1k followers on this blog – Similarly, I’m hoping that by writing and posting more regularly, I can build up this blog to be worthy of gaining more followers. (Please subscribe if you haven’t yet!!)
3. Get my YouTube channel monetized – With more subscribers hopefully will come more watch hours! If I can hit the 4,000 hours of watch-time benchmark, then I can finally monetize my channel and earn a little money with AdSense. That would be really wonderful!
4. Register a business in Korea – I have been dabbling in designing my own planners for a while now, and I think I finally have some designs worth selling, but I want to make sure I’m selling them in a legal way. So for me, the first step is to register a business in Korea, then open a business checking account at a bank, then use that account to open a Korean PayPal account (it has to be a business account for PayPal to work, for some reason), and THEN use PayPal to sell products on an e-commerce platform that is available to use in Korea (all platforms basically require PayPal for payouts…and did you know Etsy does not support opening shops in Korea at the moment??). THEN I’ll have to figure out the complexities of filing my taxes in Korea and back home as a small business owner. Lots of little, tedious, annoying steps to get to the end goal but I have to try!
5. Design a planner for 2023 – I tried designing a planner for 2022 last year, and while I didn’t end up using it, it was a very educational experience. I think I can make something even better for next year that not only I would love to use, but others would enjoy planning with as well.
6. Make my first sale – If I can get a proper business going and refine my designs, then I would be really thrilled and honored to make my first sale by the end of the year!

Relationships (?)

I don’t have many goals for this category because I really don’t expect to do much socializing during COVID. I’ve only thought of two goals for now, but I’m sure I’ll consider new goals and priorities once Baby is here.

1. Renew my visa – I’m currently on the F-6 spousal visa which is due to expire this coming April. I absolutely have to complete this goal in order to stay in Korea so it’s a top, urgent priority! Thankfully, I’ve heard that renewing an F-6 visa is easier than obtaining it for the first time, so hopefully, it’s a smooth process.
2. Go on a date with my husband once a month – We don’t “date” much anymore because we actually spend a lot of time together at home, and we really enjoy each other’s company. Most of our time is couple time! But I think once our little one arrives this summer, we’ll realize how precious our one-on-one couple time really is! It might be nice to get dressed up and go out to a restaurant once in a while. Or if we can’t leave the house, we can at least make really fancy, romantic meals at home instead.

I added a few pages to my goals section in my planner to help me track my progress for some of these goals. I have a growth tracker for my social media, a study tracker to support my language study habits, and a reading tracker and reading log to help encourage me to read more books this year.

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So those are my goals for 2022! I’m really excited to get to work and start checking off as many items as I can.

What are some goals that you have set for yourself this year? Let me know down in the comments!

Thanks for reading!