Happy New Year guys! It’s the start of another year and that means, for a few days or so, everyone feels super motivated to make 2017 their year (myself included) and I’m all for it. Though most may find their resolutions over before they’ve even begun, the New Year is a good time to evaluate where you are in life and where you want to be.

Brixton

Messer Fedora

Form & Thread

Grey Melange Essential Sweatshirt

Timex

Navy weekender strap

Opperman and London

Tan cardholder

For me, the last few months of 2016 were a chance to see if freelancing was for me. Working for myself and having complete freedom. I’m in quite a happy position to start off the new year where I've learnt that freelancing can be extremely rewarding, but brings plenty of challenges as well.

Now, I really want to kick on with the blog and freelancing. To help, I’m sharing my five goals on here so I try my upmost to honour them. They are a mixture of blog goals and personal ones that will hopefully make 2017 a good’un!

Drumroll… I’m redesigning my blog!

This is the big one! You’ll find inspiration clippings everywhere on my laptop and now I’m ready. I’ve found a designer that I’m excited to work with, who also happens to own my favourite café in Dorset. It’s been on my mind for the whole of last year and I’m going to be writing up a post soon asking for your thoughts on the blog and what you'd like to see happen.

Focus on content

It’s far too easy to get trapped into overthinking social media at the minute. I say to people “I want to get to 10k on Instagram and then I’ll be satisfied,” but does it matter when it happens? I'm proud of the photos I take, although I know there’s room for improvement! If I keep it up I’m sure I’ll pass 10,000 followers this year. But following positive chats with the blogging community and friends, quality content comes first and followers second.

New York I’m coming for you

So one of the places that’s eluded me for too long is New York. It’s somewhere that is right up there on my list, but because I know I’ll visit there one day, there’s been no urgency to visit. Well, I want to make it this year! I see more and more of my friends making the trip over and with my girlfriend being NYC’s number one fan, I want to visit New York with Emily so I can experience it all for myself. Tourist hat is most definitely on.

Snap away just for myself

I don’t spend enough time taking photos for myself. Ones that don’t need to be symmetrical or completely in focus. I just want more photos on my camera roll where I can look back on things in a less perfected way, a raw way.

Laptop off, phone off, book open

I’ve actually started this one already. I enjoy finding new magazines to read and learning something new when I pick it up. I’m no longer skimming an article to get to the next, I’m taking it in and re-reading a line if I didn’t quite get it. I might try and carry this on into fictional books, but I have no idea where to start. Suggestions below please.

These are five simple goals I have set myself for the next twelve months. Hopefully I’ll be able to tick all of them off. I’d definitely encourage others to set goals for the year, it’s a way of staying motivated and stops you feeling lost. Feel free to share yours below, I’d love to hear what your aiming for this year. Happy New Year folks!jbicon

Photography by Matthew Pike