Hello everyone! Today I thought I’d provide an update to the goals I have for my life!

---

I’m using this post as a sort of updated version of my previously called “actual life goals” post. It’s almost the same thing but I just dropped the “actual”. For some background, when I started BirthMay years ago I had “actual” life goals and then goals that were more aspirational. But I figured I’d just share the goals I had and name it more simply. I also don’t want to keep rolling over each goal I’ve previously shared. For some, I just don’t feel pulled to them anymore! For others, there’s really nothing I can share as an update and also I don’t want this post to be super long.

Now, I will say I feel weird doing this post as I’ve heard multiple times that sharing goals is actually kind of harmful in the process of meeting them. Apparently, when we talk about our goals, something in our brains thinks that we have already somewhat accomplished them. It’s weird though because I feel like I’ve also heard that when we share our goals we feel more accountable and responsible for them. I’m not sure but here’s what I have so far.

Oh! If you’re new here (newer than May 2020) you might be wondering, what’s BirthMay? Well, every year I blog every day in May because it is my birth month. I just figured it was something fun to do, and it has proven to be really enjoyable for me. This will be the fifth BirthMay on my blog! No matter how many BirthMays you’ve been through with me, thank you for being here this BirthMay and thank you for your support!

---

My Life Goals

Publish a book – I feel like I’m much, much closer to this one! In the past six months I’ve finished two first drafts of two different novels. I think I’m still pretty far from this one as I haven’t even started editing either one, but I feel so much closer to this goal already.

Start my own company/business – I am struggling with this one. When I lost my job last year in the pandemic, I thought maybe it was a sign that it was time for me to try to create my own opportunities. But as I started my research for a few business ideas I had, the more I struggled with envisioning them. Most of my issues were actually around sustainability and minimalism (due to sustainability). For example, a few years ago a former coworker told me that she thought if I set up a boutique business, I’d be highly successful because she said my style was perfect for that sort of business. So that idea had been in my mind for years and I started to research about putting together a boutique. But I quickly realized that I was getting stressed about how unsustainable the fashion industry is. I considered doing a mostly home decor boutique business, because I love home decor as well as fashion, but that conflicted with the pull I felt towards minimalism. I still haven’t found the right opportunity yet for this goal, but I’m still looking!

Become an advocate for a good cause – every year I think “well, what’s stopping me???” It’s so weird that I haven’t done more for this goal. After all, my yearly goal once was “speak up”. I also recently found some binders of work I did in undergrad and it was full of aspirations for advocacy work. When I found that old work, I realized I was heartbroken that I’d become so disconnected from this goal. In my previous posts with this goal I’ve listed an interest in working on women’s rights, Hispanic focused issues, and equal opportunities for quality education. So this year I’m making it a legit goal to find an organization that I might be able to volunteer time to for maybe helping with their marketing or something? I’m putting it out there that if anyone has any suggestions for groups I might be able to look up, let me know!

Move to Texas – I’ve wanted to move to Texas for years and in the past few months I’ve felt an even stronger pull to pick up and do so. I am hopeful that this will be the year at last.

Travel More – Well, not right now, but in the future I do want to resume traveling and exploring new places again! I’ll be fully vaccinated by the end of this month but I still want to give the world some time to recover from everything we’ve been through even after more people are vaccinated.

Save for a home – This is going to be a sort of an update for my previous goal to become more fiscally responsible. I feel like I really have managed to do so in the past year, motivated by a year of unemployment. I’ve managed to almost quadruple my savings by cutting way back on my spending and have met many smaller savings goals like having an emergency fund and saving for a car down payment. Now, I want to focus on saving for a home down payment. I have maybe half of what I think I need as a minimum payment, but I do want to put down more than the minimum so it’s still going to require quite a bit of saving to do so!

Pay off my student loans – This is a big one for me! In the year before the pandemic started, I paid a huge chunk of my student loans off. Every month I was paying over double my minimum payments and making huge strides towards the finish line. I was so excited to pay them off and I could see that the end was near. When the forbearance for federal loans was put in place, I did stop paying my loans off because I was unemployed and I wasn’t sure how long I would be out of work. I was getting unemployment, but that wasn’t going to be forever and I wasn’t sure if there would be a gap. For now, I think I will restart my payments, but I don’t think I’ll be paying as much as I was previously so I can focus on my savings.

---

So those are some of my life goals! I think it’s a good amount but I do think I have a long way to go for some of these too. I can’t wait to continue to work on these and I hope to have good updates for you on these next year!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

Follow me on social media!

Instagram | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter | Bloglovin‘ |Pinterest | Poshmark | Email