In my last post I revisited by 2020 health and fitness goals, so in this post I thought I’d also update my 2020 lifestyle and travel goals. 

2020 travel goals update 

All my travel plans for this year have been cancelled for obvious reasons. 

Although we are allowed to travel again within the UK and abroad (to certain countries), I personally don’t want to risk it, so have decided that this year I will be staying home. 

I did manage one trip to Cardiff – which is one of my favourite UK cities – a few weeks before the lockdown. During the trip I had been planning to watch the Wales v Scotland 6 Nations game, but it got cancelled literally as my train was pulling into Cardiff station. We had a great night out in Cardiff that evening and then headed home the next day.

Luckily I hadn’t got around to booking my planned trips to Budapest, Spain or Cyprus so I didn’t lose any money when we couldn’t travel. I’ve postponed my planned trip to Edinburgh to 2021 and I’m still hoping I will be able to run the marathon there, which I was originally planning to do in May this year. 

2020 lifestyle goals update

I’ve been more successful with my lifestyle goals this year. 

One of my main goals was to have a healthier approach to social media and feel I now use it in a more mindful way. For a few months I would put my phone out of reach, especially when I was watching TV or a film, so I couldn’t mindlessly scroll through social feeds.With my phone out of reach and physically having to get up to check it, I became much more used to not always looking at social media. As well as this, I gave myself certain times of the day when I could check social sites. Soon this became a habit and, although I’m careful not to fall back into bad social media habits, I find I’m using it a lot less. 

I’ve also become a lot more conscious about spending money on clothes that I won’t wear very often. During lockdown I had a huge clearout of my wardrobe and got rid of anything that no longer fitted or which I didn’t wear (they have been donated to charity shops). Since then I’ve gradually been spending a little bit more on individual pieces, but I’ve been buying less so that I know I will wear what I buy and not throw it out after six months.

2020 reading goals 

I’m not sure I’m going to get through my ambitious target of 50 books this year even with the lockdown! But I have got into the habit of reading a lot more than I used to and now read almost everyday. After the Black Lives Matter protests I’m planning to read a lot more books about race and racism. Currently on my reading wishlist are: 

• Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
• Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch 
• How to Argue With a Racist by Adam Rutherford 

These are just a few I want to read, but let me know if there are any others you would recommend in the comments below. 

At the moment I’m reading the final in the Hilary Mantel trilogy – I’ve spent the last few months reading Wolf Hall, Bringing Up the Bodies and now I’m on The Mirror and the Light. 

2020 creative goals update 

Since the easing of the lockdown I’ve been to the coast a lot more taking photographs, which was one of my main creative 2020 goals. 

During lockdown I think I was one of the few people who wasn’t cooking or baking everyday. But since the lockdown has eased I’ve been cooking a lot more and have been experimenting with new recipes. 

For the next six months I’m planning on writing more and have lots of plans for this blog which I’ve already started working on. I’m really excited about what I’m working on and I’m looking forward to sharing a lot more content on here over the next few months.