2019

Hello there!

It’s been a HOT minute. No excuses, no explanations. It’s just not okay to justify procrastination and laziness.

So, without further a do, let’s get to business.

Today I’ll talk about my goals for this new and exciting year 2019!

P.C. Marc Colilla @marccolilla

Before that I just want to sum up a bit what 2018 has been like. You can read about a part of it in my older posts but to be honest, the sentence that would resume 2018 for me would be: “It was a disaster party”. Some ups and way too many downs in some aspects of life.

The thing is that although there were many good things, what you finish your year with (and we all do that) is the last weeks or months. And for me, just on the last two to three weeks the year was having an awesome ending. The past months though… those were tough!

Entering a different environment to take regular trainings in, knowing absolutely no one because I didn’t keep a ton of friendships in Barcelona and I was so uncertain about my future, losing my independence and how the atmosphere was in general; it wasn’t the best.

People usually says : “Time will heal you”. Never believed it until now. Of course I’ve had other bad things happen that with time they developed to be just a not so good memory but I really thought that I would have to push so so much to be able to be ok with my new situation that for a moment I wasn’t 100% sure I could do it. I was saying out loud that everything was going to be great and that I was so excited to be home, which I was, but then I realized it wasn’t all about happy flowers and thoughts 24/7.

Yes, it’s been quite a ride but I’ve finished the year much better than expected and with actual mental strength to achieve all my goals and face challenges ahead. And this time is for real.

2019: what do I want to achieve?

Well I won’t tell you my wishes because it’s bad luck to tell them but I’ll explain my list of goals.

1.- Be more organized in all aspects of life.

P.C. Kiko Viñas @kikovinasfotografia

I’m a bit of a mess and I know that I need to keep my room, closets, calendars and head organized and clear in order to do all tasks I set myself to. This applies to anything from washing my leotards on a certain day to prepare a full new class for a specific group of students or get ready for an audition.

I told myself to do certain tasks on a daily basis and they are mandatory in order to have a successful day, otherwise I’ll tell myself that the day is not fully accomplished.

These are the tasks I must do:

• Always make my bed.
• Revise and write down every day's schedule in the agenda. When the day is over, highlight all finished tasks and write down new ones if necessary.
• Check my email everyday and respond to all emails on the day.
• Keep my room clean and organized. 

Four easy tasks. Most of them I already did but the one that was a bit of a struggle was the organization in my room. I tended to tell myself that tomorrow would be a new day to do it and I kept procrastinating on tasks that make myself happy and realized that although they are super simple they change my perspective to face the day.

I would say that this is a very good exercise for everyone and you can set different tasks every month into your routine when the first ones are fully incorporated and come natural to you! 

2.- Read on a regular basis - minimum of 24 books this year

P.C. Marc Colilla @marccolilla

Last year I set myself to read one book a month and although I needed to rush the last books, I almost made it with eleven books and a half (I couldn’t finish the last one before December 31st!)

This is the list of books I read on 2018:

• “Room of one’s own”, Virgina Woolf
• “Fahrenheit 451”, Ray Bradbury
• “Americanah”, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• “We should all be feminists”, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone”, J.K. Rowling
• “The bookshop”, Penelope Fitzgerald
• “Jardí vora el mar”, Mercè Rodoreda
• “Lolita”, Vladímir Nabókov
• “The lord of the flies”, William Golding
• “Ballet Shoes”, Noel Streatfeild
• “Aunt Julia and the scriptwriter”, Mario Vargas Llosa
• “The never ending story”, Michael Ende (1/2 of it)

I mix up genres and époques but for this year I have at least two books I would love to read which are “Anna Karenina” by Lev Tolstoi and “Miss Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf, among many others.

I talked to a friend about it not too long ago: I missed the habit of reading for so long and now that I’ve “forced” myself into it again I regret so much not reading as much and regularly before. It brought me back to when I was younger and I used to read constantly. The universes a book can transport you to are infinite and because I read in three different languages it also allows me to improve my vocabulary and knowledge of the three at the same time, which I find extremely helpful.

I can make some post/video about books in general if you’re interested as well, so don’t hesitate to tell me in the comments :)

3.- Reduce the consumption of plastic and reduce my environmental print  in the planet.

P.C. Kiko Viñas @kikovinasfotografia

I’m very aware of the damage modern society is doing to planet Earth and I really want to commit to change the current situation and make myself part of the group of persons that actually cares for the future of the planet.

One of the most efficient ways is reducing to a minimum all waste and specially plastic as its one of the most damaging materials right now due to the fact that it takes way too much to decompose and its production damages air quality and uses not ethical or reusable sources to be produced.

I also want to change other aspects that I know impact our world, so little by little I want to make a full transition into a lifestyle where I feel comfortable in and I know I’m trying my best to take care of beautiful planet Earth <3

4.- Be more active and constant on the blog and YT channel

P.C. Paula Losada @paula_ballerina

Do I need to explain myself here?

I really want to make this a habit because I really feel its beneficial for me! I write down things I care for and I believe they might interest someone even though I really don’t care if I don’t have many readers. Best of all this, it allows me to push my creativity, specially in YouTube, and I do have tons of ideas, I just need to make them happen and not procrastinate as much. So, basically is having point number 1 assumed from now and work for it!

For the moment, these are four of my goals for the new year and as I said I might add some more if I see some of the ones mentioned become a habit fast enough. I believe in my will power so I hope I can show you in 2020 that I accomplished all of them and maybe more!

I wish you a beautiful 2019 and I hope your first week of the year was a very good one as well. 

I’ll see you soon!

Love,

Muriel

P.D. The spam of pictures of myself is because one of the things I want to introduce is posting with pictures or drawings that I've made myself or friends of mine only and not just taken from the internet. Hope you enjoy the upgrade!