Let’s recap my 2018 resolutions for a minute (See full previous post here):

In summary,

Creativity, Consistency, & Discipline
“…more Youtube videos, more content, more me.”
Travel
“…This year, I'm taking things to a whole new level by traveling to places outside my comfort zone for the first time.”
Staying Active
“For 2018 and onward, I'm going to get back into dancing and exercising as a whole. It's an important part of maintaining my health, something I've definitely taken for granted for a while now.”
Supporting Businesses Who Value Diversity
“…I'm appreciating companies like Topshop and Asos more now than ever before, because they value diversity as apart of their brand. They'll place models of different races in their store windows and/or on their website's homepage without hesitation… I'm talking about one black model out of every 5 photos or less…”

Now a year later, what have I truly accomplished in 2018? In cross-referencing with the recap, below are percentages I’ve personally graded myself for each resolution and their reasons:

Creativity, Consistency, & Discipline - 65%
With school out of my stress load, I thought consistency and discipline with posts and youtube content would become easier, however it became even harder as my adulting situations increased. The pressure of school loans, financial security and career plans. began to surface. The only benefit I gained from graduating, was off-season travel opportunities, which I took advantage of the most. Much of my other time was mainly spent on creativity. I pushed limits, stayed true to myself with my personal editing style, learned and adapted more retouching techniques, upgraded to a professional camera, and started offering photography services.
Staying Active - 60%
With placing so much focus on creativity, content creation and improving my brand, I neglected my health on a number of occasions. For example, I’d literally wake up and go on my computer or phone and check analytics and edit photos. I would skip breakfast and sometimes lunch just so I can reach my personal photo-edit quota by the end of the day. My work-life balance was not balanced at all.
Travel - 100%
6 countries, 4 first time visits, 8 total destinations, all in one year.
I’d like to say I went a bit past my limit, especially for a part-time influencer. Paris, London, Barcelona, Portugal, Jamaica, Toronto, Miami, and Los Angeles. How many people can say they have traveled that much in one year as a full-time student? I honestly have so much to be thankful for.
Supporting Businesses Who Value Diversity - 100%
This will forever be a concern of mine. I have turned away many brands because of this and am continuing to place my focus on brands who share my values.
it may take one to realize the flaw in an industry, but it will take a community to invoke change.
I am apart of that community and I hope we’ll see an increasing diverse perspective online and offline in the coming years.

Lastly, this wasn’t a resolution since I knew it was going to happen but, my most important accomplishment had to be graduating with my Bachelors Degree in Marketing (100% and a pat on the back). I had an opportunity, I pushed through and I succeeded. I’ll forever be grateful for that experience.

Now after all that, some would say, “You’re not giving yourself enough credit,” or “You’re being too hard on yourself.” From the front lines, with all the content I’ve offered, you would think everything is okay. However, the fact I set up personal goals for myself and they were not completely achieved, the question, “What could I have done better?” is all I can think of.

Starting Anew

I will never believe in the saying, “New Year, new me.” Being a known fact and from personal experience,

time cannot change the qualities of a person.

Nevertheless, I do believe through more experiences paired with the right amount of persistence, self-improvement in any quality is attainable.

With a couple resolutions carried over, here are a few things I’ll be working on this year:

Accountability
Starting with this blog post, you could see I’ve held myself accountable for a number of things. It’s definitely the one act I didn’t do enough of in 2018. Since reaching my goals would be difficult without it, I’ll be owning up to my broken promises and creating new ones that I’m 100% sure I can complete.
Less writing, More Visuals
Since I’m a visual learner, I want to concentrate more on that aspect of myself through the content I provide. Photography has always been my forte and but I’d like to push videos as well. It’s been a challenge for me to create videos because I’m still trying to find my groove like I did with Instagram. Still images are easy for me because they can capture one moment and still tell a story. Videos however, capture a series of moments and mostly require continuous conversation with a camera, which for some reason, terrifies me to this day. I’m hoping this year will finally be the year I grow out of this fear and get all the videos I ever wanted to record, completed.
Lightroom Presets
I mentioned at one point last year, that I will be releasing my personal presets by the end of the 2018. I’ve changed my mind recently and instead, I‘ve decided to release them when I’ve reached my milestone of 10,000+ followers. The presets and my brand are so dear to me that I want to take the time to build my brand identity first before offering anything for sale. Great thing is, I’m almost there. :)
Self-Care & Getting Active
I’m carrying this one over because I know it’s the most important habit to implement. Without health, there is no wealth. Once I get back into my weekly routines at a dance studio or two, it’ll be off the list for next year, as it’ll become apart of my lifestyle.
Creativity, Consistency & Discipline
I will never stop being a creative, if anything, I will learn more and hone my skills. As long as whatever I do is within my means, I believe it‘ll all fall into place eventually.
As for consistency and discipline, this will continue to be a challenge for me because I’ve experienced failures with it for so long. I’m still trying to find the best way to organize myself and deliver on a consistent basis with the thing called "‘LIFE” going on in the background. I’m hoping multiple trial and error self-tests will show me the way. It’s helping so far, slow and steadily.

Will I conquer these challenges?

Well, I won’t officially know until I assess myself in 2020. Until then, please continue following along and thank you so much for your love, support and patience on this challenging journey of mine! Words cannot express how happy I am that you’re still following me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!