Well, here we are…we’ve made it through to the end of 2022. Some of you told yourself that you’d make this year the best year possible, which you did and you should be proud! Some of you may have struggled a bit and didn’t do as well, but you still should be proud of yourselves because you made it to the end! It doesn’t matter whether you’ve checked every goal off your list or one thing off your list, every accomplishment deserves to be praised and awarded.

When I came into this year, I had big goals and high hopes for myself. I never imagined to have the rough yea that I did, but I am proud of myself for getting through it (despite having to take some issues with me into the new year).

Despite not getting everything done that I wanted this year, I was still able to push through and check some things off of my 2021 goal list! Let’s look back and see what I managed to get done this year!

Open my shop and make sales. I’m so proud of myself for accomplishing this goal because I wasn’t sure if I was actually going to make it happen. Not only did I open up my shop, but I made sales the first week of its opening! Thank you to anyone who purchased something from it, shared it, or did both! I’m forever grateful. Unfortunately, I had to also close it this year, but that is temporary! It will be back open will upgrades and all and I can’t wait to start working toward that!

1500 podcast plays. I screamed for joy when I saw that I hit my goal! Again, I’m so grateful for all of you who tune into my podcast or share it in general. Thank you all so much! I currently have a new goal of hitting 2k plays before 2022 ends and as you’re reading this, I am at 1,900 plays! It is a pretty close call, but if you’d like to help me out, you can listen to my podcast here as well as any streaming platform by searching “The Black Princess Diaries”.

Continue my fight for self love and health. I will say that I have continued my fight, however, I can’t say that I won the fight. I still have a very long way to go, but I won’t stop fighting.

Check up on friends and family more. I still have a lot of work to do on this, unfortunately. This year has just been so much mentally that I wasn’t all there mentally to be there for others like I wanted to be. When it comes to mental health, there’s no way to predict how your days are going to go, but I pray to have more up days than down so that I’m able to be there the way that I plan to be.

Learn to take more breaks when needed. If this year taught me anything, it was to take breaks! I absolutely took some breaks because my brain needed them so much this year. I wasn’t as consistent as I wanted to be, but sometimes things have to be sacrificed in order to help your mental health.

Create a self care routine. I still need to work on this, but I’ve developed at least a pretty solid morning routine if nothing else. Self care is hard for me and it takes a lot of energy that I don’t have, but I want to learn to push through. I am proud of myself for keeping up with my morning routine and I hope to expand to having full self care days!

I’m so proud of everything that I’ve accomplished this year, big and small! I love doing these annual updates because if you asked me, I would tell you that I only accomplished two things this year and nothing else. Looking back really shows me that I did so much more than my brain believes and that keeps me excited for what’s to come in the new year.

Speaking of the new year, it’s time to list my goals for 2023 (and remember that these are goals for the ENTIRE year so there are more goals than normal)!

My goals for 2023

Blog/business goals:

• Reach 5k podcast plays
• Look into possible shop vendors
• Figure out a plan and execute it to make revenue
• Post more on podcast Instagram
• Make a come back to blog instagram
• Reach out to at least 1-2 brands
• Take more photoshoots
• Reach 100 email subscribers
• Improve my DA score

Personal

• Eat healthier
• Read at least 5 books
• Learn basic words in ASL
• Practice saving money
• Exercise at least 3x/week
• Go to bed earlier/wake up earlier
• Check in with myself every Sunday
• Become closer to God
• Take time for friends and family more

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As I said, this year has been very rough for me and I truly want to put it behind me, but seeing everything I’ve managed to do and all the support I’ve received keeps me hopeful for the year to come. With that being said, I’m taking my usual “end of the year” break, but I’ll be back after a few weeks! My hope is to come back mid to late January, however, I’m going to listen to my mind and come back when I know I’m ready to attack everything with full force!

Thank you all so much for continuing to support me and I hope to see you all in the new year. What are you most proud of accomplishing this year? Let me know in the comments!

Happy New Year!