This post is sponsored by Opendoor. As always, all opinions are my own.

Each year we typically make a list of New Year’s resolutions–I know I did last year! We make a list of specific things that we want to change or improve on. Sometimes we meet them and other times we forget about them 1 month into the new year! With 2019 starting, I was curious if I stuck with my 2018 goals. I took a look back to my blog post of my 2018 goals to see if I met them. So what was the verdict? Was I able to stick with them?

Yes and no! So I honestly think I did a pretty decent job–I did get more organized and stuck with my planner for the entire year (but always room for improvement in the organization department LOL). Stephen and I did start a podcast, whooo! We traveled, a lot. And I continued to live a truly balanced lifestyle (something that was very foreign to me in past years).

So where did I fall short? Well, Stephen and I started a YouTube channel but pretty quickly realized that it was A LOT of work and not something that we had the time and energy to take on. So we pivoted and focused our time elsewhere. As far as consistently posting blogs 2x a week, I didn’t exactly hit this goal. Towards the end of the year though I realized that I needed to use other resources to help free up my time so I could focus more on things like I loved–like blogging! And well, reading 5 books? I swapped those out for podcasts due to lack of time. Kind of the same thing right? Hehe

When looking back on the resolutions and goals that I didn’t meet though, two things stood out to me. It was a lack of time and/or planning that prevented me from meeting them! So going into 2019, I am definitely keeping that in mind when setting my goals.

One of my first goals is to continue to push myself out of my comfort zone when it comes to my workouts and diet! I used to be so scared to deviate from my macros, or try a new workout but throughout last year I started to accept that nothing is permanent! Trying new things is how you learn and grow. If you don’t like the results, you can always go back to your other routine. I’m going to start playing around with my macros more to see how my body responds to certain ratios, and I may even try more intuitive eating. I am also going to start exploring other weight-training routines and just see what I enjoy. As always, I will keep you guys posted!

Okay so this last one was a huge accomplishment of 2018–we bought a house! And some of my 2019 goals definitely revolve around our new home. I will say though, looking back I’m honestly shocked that buying a house wasn’t included in my 2018 goals. But I think at the time the process of being a homeowner seemed kind of overwhelming and we didn’t know if buying would be realistic! Not to mention, trying to find the perfect home was stressful and took a lot of time and effort. Especially with the Raleigh market–houses were selling SO fast. Trying to keep up with everything that was going on the market was tough. We felt like we had to be checking 10 different websites constantly so we weren’t missing any listings. I WISH we would have been more familiar with Opendoor. The home buying process would have been much less stressful and overall more simplified! Whether you’re buying or selling, they can really streamline the whole process so you can do everything in one place. Would have been SO much less stressful!

So if you’re looking to buy a home this year, Opendoor lets you select your city (they currently operate in almost 20 metro areas including right here in Raleigh) and then shows hundreds of homes for you to look through. Again, so much easier than trying to keep up with 10 different websites. And then if you download their app you can actually use it as your key to unlock the for-sale homes that you’re viewing for a self-guided tour, any day of the week from 6am-9pm–so cool (and convenient)! If you’re selling, they will give you a free, competitive offer on your home–you can input information about your home and they use market data and local real estate experts evaluate your home to give you a competitive offer within 48 hours that is broken down so you can needed repair costs, transaction fees, etc. And if you’re just starting the home buying or selling process they are a great resource for all your FAQs. Will definitely be visiting Opendoor when it comes time to sell our home!

That being said, now that we have the house, one of my 2019 goals is to continue making our house a home! While we have a lot of major projects done so at this point it’s focusing on the little things. Hanging art work, including our wedding photos (eek! over a year later), creating an office and desk space that inspires me more, adding house plants etc. Just little things that end up making a big difference! Another goal is to get our sunroom refinished–that will be the one big project that we will tackle!

Alright so last but not least–now that we HAVE the house, and we did a ton of traveling, 2019 is going to be the year of saving! Stephen and I are meeting with a financial planner this month to start getting a better handle on our finances. I wouldn’t say that we spend frivolously, but we don’t keep close track of our spending. I know there are definitely areas to improve upon and it’s good to know where your money is going. It can be very easy to spend a little here, and a little there and before you know it you’ve blown through waaay more than you think! In general, we live in a society that promotes purchasing and it can be really easy to get caught up with what everyone else has. This year, I want to be more focused on planning financially to set us up for the long run instead of getting caught up in buying things just because I can.

Are you guys the type to set goals or resolutions every new year? I also like to think in general that the new year isn’t so much a time to look back and focus on what we didn’t do but more so what made us happy and aim to do more of that. Would love to hear what some of your goals are for this year or what you’re aiming to do more of!