Achieving 21 Goals for 2021

I’m a week late in joining the bandwagon for putting my goals for 2021 out there for some accountability. No excuses this year. I’m going to put every effort into making these happen. I was a little more than 60% complete for meeting last year’s goals. I’m all ready to a great start with two new writing jobs one as a News Break Content Creator and the other as the lead adventure content writer for a new travel app launching later this year. Here’s to making all my dreams and goals happen in 2021! Here are my 21 goals for 2021!

Travel

1. Visit six new destinations this year – Although this one is definitely dependent on how travel opens up in the next few months. On my list for the year so far is New Orleans in June and Phuket in October. Hopefully, I will be adding many more destinations after my first travel conference at the end of January.
2. Travel by Train – I really enjoyed traveling by train last year. And I would love to take more travels by train to some new destinations. It is relaxing to travel by train and watch the scenery go by without the hassle and craziness at the airport.
3. Hike a Trail that Challenges Me – This is a carryover one from last year. I’m going to keep this open as I’m not sure where I will be traveling to. But, this also ties to personal goal #2 to get outside more.
4. Travel with my niece and nephew – As this is why I started blogging in the first place, I would love to take my youngest niece and nephew somewhere new this year.

Travel Blogging

1. Make RaulersonGirlsTravel blog self-sustainable and be profitable – This is a big goal for me this year. I want to be generating a regular income from the blog this year. I added ads to my site at the end of the year, and with traffic increasing every month, the outlook looks great. I will also be creating a resource travel page for you to find all my favorite links right from the top of my website. The other part I will be adding is a Work With Me page. It is about time that I started charging for my services as it is a business after all.
2. Add more travel videos to my YouTube channel – This is one of my social media sites I have neglected this past year. I have taken videos of my travels, but I need to learn how to edit them and put them together better. As I get ready to do this, go ahead and subscribe to my channel and follow my travel journey.
3. Start adding content to my TikTok channel – Yep, I’m going to embrace this new social media channel. I have one video of my nephew on my site right now. I will be adding many, many, more this year as I learn this new way of communicating with the masses.
4. Participate in two travel conferences – These all won’t be conferences I travel to this year. The first conference is one that I accepted for the first time. IMM 2021 is completely virtual at the end of January. However, I have been prepping for this conference for weeks, so hopefully, good things will come out of this conference.
5. Embrace my new role as a travel influencer and participate in three campaigns – Yes, I said it. I am an influencer! I have finally reached the numbers where brands and companies want me to review their products and share that with my followers. I just finished my first campaign with Covergirl, and I have applied to work with several more companies. Such an exciting time for me.
6. Finish and publish my coloring books – This is something that I should have finished last year. However, I lost all of my pages that I completed for my first book and now have to do them all over again. Then, I need to learn the software Magic Book Binder to put the book together. Has anyone used this software before and could give me some tips?

Photography

1. Add 50 photos to stock agencies/month – This is a goal I should be doing automatically. Selling photos on stock is completely a numbers game, and to do well, you have to have tons of photos available. I am contributing to four stock agencies at the moment. And I would like to have at least a thousand photos on all of the sites by the end of the year.
2. Enter 10 Photo Contests this year – I was entering contests frequently last year. However, this year I hope to enter many more. And maybe I will win this year!
3. Add more photos to my SmugMug site for sale – Besides adding more photos to the site, I want to make sure that I’m promoting it often. People won’t know about my amazing photos unless I tell them and show them how awesome they will look in their homes.
4. Pick up more photography gigs – I have been working as a Freelance Photographer with a company out of France that sends me out on gigs for Uber Eats and GrubHub. It has been fun learning how to improve my food photography and get paid for it. I also started my Facebook photography page. I have been expanding my skills by adding portrait shoots. If you might be interested in having you or your family photographed, send me a Facebook message.

Freelance Writing

1. Procure 10 new bylines – Last year was big for my freelance writing career. I was published in five new outlets. Already this year, I have submitted one new outlet, and it will be published soon. Plus, I’m working with that same editor on three more stories for them. I have hundreds of magazines and outlets to write for. I need to get writing!
2. Pitch a story/week – This is what I need to do better on, or should I say be more consistent. I have so many stories that need to be written and shared. The possibilities are endless as long as I maintain consistent pitching to editors.
3. Write 2 articles/month for outlets – My goal this year is to get published twice a month. So, I definitely need to do the above two goals!

Personal

1. Read a book a month – You can’t be a writer if you don’t read. Since I am fully embracing my freelance career, I need to keep up on my reading. I started buying books again, and a couple that I’m reading for January is Ghosted by Rosie Walsh and The Byline Bible by Susan Shapiro.
2. Get outside more – With more writing comes with sitting on my butt more. This year, I need to spend more time walking and running again outside. I need to find a balance between my writing career and my health.
3. Learn a new skill – I’m going to leave this one open. I have many dreams that want to be made into a reality, but we will see what happens. I’m ready, though!
4. Establish a home base – This is one that I didn’t realize until recently that is very important to me. I have been busting my butt trying to build up my financial stability last year, and finally, it looks like I am almost there. I’m still planning on traveling, but I want someplace to come back to—time for the next stage of my life.

I have faith that I will be able to meet these goals, although they will be challenging. I think the biggest thing is going to be Time Management for me to get everything done. But I do want to add one more goal to the list – Be Happy! I know that I deserve happiness and success and nothing is going to stop me in achieving it this year! Happy 2021 everyone!