I found a little list of New Year’s resolutions that I made last year for 2016 and while reading through it, I had to start smiling because I achieved like 90% of what I wrote down or even surpassed my goals.

I’m not too serious when it comes to these resolutions because I believe in setting new goals anytime during the year. I also don’t think you need to start with working to achieve what you want right at the beginning of the year. For example: A lot of people have the goal to lose weight but maybe the start of the year isn’t really the time for them to start working on this because they lack motivation, have a lot of other troubles etc. and that’s why they fail anyway and because of that give up again. Maybe if they just started focusing on losing weight in March for example, they would succeed.

Anyway, somehow a new year always feels like a fresh start and that’s why I like to reflect on the year that has passed and to think about what I’d like to change for next year, what I want to add to my life and what I need to let go.

So, what about 2016?

This year has not been too exciting to be honest – most of the time. I started my new and pretty boring office job at the end of 2015 and kept it through the whole year of 2016. So I’ve been working a lot this year and there wasn’t too much time left for other things such as travelling. Anyway, I’m happy to have this job right now to be able to save money for some plans I have for the future. I went of 3 trips anyway:

I finally visited Venice in May what I dreamt about as long as I can remember and I visited Morocco 2 times, in March and July. After 4 years of not surfing as I thought that it’s just not my thing because I felt so scared of the waves when I tried it, I pretty spontaneously booked a flight to Morocco to visit a surfcamp and take some lessons again. I still have no idea why I did this but somehow I felt like doing something that scares me – and I’m so grateful I did! I discovered that I was wrong. I faced my fears, beat my fears and discovered that surfing actually seems to be totally my thing. That’s why I booked another trip to Morocco in summer to take surf lessons with my surf instructor I met the first time and who I consider to be my friend now. Which leads me to the next point..

This was my first full year of being single again after a long time and it actually felt good. I’m so grateful for all the amazing new people I’ve met this year, not sure if this would have happened if I’d still been in a relationship. I met people who share the same interests as me and understand what my dreams and goals are about. I realized how important it is to have people like this in your life, people that motivate you and make you feel so much more positive about life. They also help you to deal better with the negative people around you, people that don’t support you or just are on a completely different energy level than you are. I’m also grateful for meeting people I’ve already known for a long time again this year,it’s so easy to lose contact in our fast and stressful lives.

What about health and fitness? In the beginning of the year I was feeling pretty fit until April when I got a vaccination, after that I got problems with my arm, knee, leg,.. I’m not sure if all of this has anything to do with this vaccination, I just remember that after it, after this one night of a heavy fever and arm pain, everything went downhill somehow. The worst was the knee pain that I always got after running and surfing. I stopped running for 3 months in autumn and just started running again a few days ago. So far everything is fine with my knee but let’s see..

For my mental health I started getting into meditation but to be honest, at the moment I’m not practising regularly anymore. But even with leaving meditation aside, my mindset has changed so much. I’m a lot more positive, open for new things, excited about the future, aware of my (negative) thoughts etc. In general I feel like a completely different person when thinking back to even just 1 year ago. Maybe it also helped that I drank as little alcohol as never before this year, maybe once every 6-8 weeks. For some this might sound a lot but for me it’s a huge improvement.

And what about 2017?

I made a list of goals for next year but I’m not going into detail here as this is pretty personal to me. So just a quick overlook:

The most important thing for me is to make my dream of travelling and surfing come true in the last quarter of the year. Until then I’m staying at my job, living my „normal“ life and trying to save as much money as possible to make it all work. I want to use this time to get as fit and healthy as I possibly can again and to really feel at peace with my body and mind.

I want to cut back on drinking alcohol even more. Instead of partying and drinking, I want to spend my freetime working on my blog and instagram, getting fit and healthy, taking photos, being in nature, meeting people who make me feel good and inspire me,.. Not saying that I’m not going out at all in 2017 – a little party never hurt nobody. I just want to do it very rarely and to not waste my money, health and time on it.

I want to learn to say Yes to chances and opportunities more often. I tend to say No too quickly because I’m scared of changes and challenges and afterwards ask myself „What if..„.

While I have big dreams for my future, I really want to learn to live more in the present moment because this very moment is the only time I can actually do something and change something. The past is over and the future is uncertain.

Another little thing I was thinking about is refreshing my French skills that are pretty.. weak. I’ve learned this language in school over 10 years ago and when I stayed in Morocco, I felt that the words are coming back but the time was just too short to really get back into it. As French is my favourite language and I plan on visiting Morocco again anyway, this really would be a great thing to do.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something. – Neil Gaiman