Picture Creds: @artsyaffirmations

As we wind ourselves up for another trip around the sun, I feel it's important to not only reflect on the year that's gone by but also start creating new goals to look forward to attaining. I've never been much of a new years resolution type of person. At least not one who ever kept my resolutions. Like most people, I would create some broad statement resolution every new year along the lines of "Go to the gym more" or "Eat healthier." Sure these are things I wanted to attain but I'm finding that the more specific you are with your goals, the higher the chances of achieving them is. It also helps to create goals that are more in tune with where you are in your life at the moment. For instance, it wasn't making much sense for me to be striving towards eating healthier when I had little to no knowledge on proper health and nutrition and had never cooked a meal in my life. It would've made more sense for me to set a goal like doing some research on healthy foods or taking steps towards learning to cook. You see what I'm getting at here? Specification is key when it comes to goal making and it's helped me tons on my never ending journey to self improvement.

In the spirit of the new year, I've created a list of goals that I'm going to achieve this year. I'm a big believer in letting the universe know exactly what it is that you'd like for yourself so what better way to reach the universe than through my first real blog post?

1. #Blogger

One of the things I'm looking most forward to in 2020 is the upkeep of minamash.com. I've already gone on my spiel about how much working on this project means to me in my intro post (which if you haven't checked out by now, is right here) but needless to say, I'm coming into the year with great energy and expectations for myself. More specifically, I'm setting a goal to have published at least 40 posts before the end of 2020. I'm still pretty unsure about what my pace as a blogger will be once I really get into the swing of things but I think holding myself accountable for 40 posts is a good place to start.

2. Time is money

As I'm sure all my closest friends can attest to, I've never been the greatest at my time management. Whether I blame it on moving at CPT (Colored-People-Time) or my need to always be fashionably late, I'm ready to admit that this is a real fault that I need to combat. I've found that scheduling my day out with tasks to have completed by a particular time works well for me so I'm going to make it a point to schedule in timings for the things that usually make me late. That includes only giving myself 15 minutes to lay in bed and scroll through my phone after waking up and even trying to give myself a deadline for how long I can take to do my makeup. It's never a good feeling being that person receiving "OMW" texts and only having just stepped out of the shower. It's also a disrespect to whoever might be kept waiting on me so it's a habit I'm ready to let go of. Here's to being on time and having more time in 2020!

3. Chef #MinaMash

So remember earlier when I gave that eating healthier example and made it seem like not being able to cook was an issue of the past? ...I might’ve meant past as in an hour ago. I'll be the first to admit that I've never been very drawn to the art of cooking. There's all these steps to follow and ingredients and measurements and the worst - the waiting time. My impatience definitely gets the best of me when it comes to matters in the kitchen. I'm the type of person that will stand there and watch the whole bag of popcorn expand until the microwave timer turns off. It's a shortcoming that I'm slowly but surely working on.

Some of my favorite memories as a child were simply being around my mother in the kitchen as she effortlessly threw down some of the best tasting Pakistani food to exist. As I grow older and get more in tune with my Pakistani-American identity, I'm finding an increasing desire to keep the tradition of great food going for any of the future generations to come. One of my main goals this year is to learn and successfully prepare a tradition Pakistani entree. Since I have little to no experience in the kitchen, I'm going to be easy on myself and make a simple goal of completing 1 meal before 2020 ends. This doesn't mean I won't be exploring other recipes and meals. In fact, this will be the perfect opportunity to finally execute the overall healthier eating habits I've been trying to create for myself. Learning to cook will be one more step towards independence and self improvement which I'm constantly looking forward to.

4. Class of 2020

Lastly and most importantly, 2020 is the year I'm expecting to graduate with my undergraduate degree. Actually, let me restate that - 2020 is the year I will be graduating with my undergraduate degree. College is a topic I plan on making more posts about later on to go deeper into my experiences but needless to say, this is something I've been working towards for quite some time. I'm going to continue to push myself to keep up with my senior year and maintain the discipline I've adapted to come out with the best grades I can earn. My expected graduation date is sometime in December of this year and there's no doubt in my mind that I'll get to walk across the stage with my diploma. I'm putting this out there for everyone reading to be able to hold me accountable and wish me nothing but the best.


I'm already feeling insane energy coming into 2020 and look forward to everything my peers and I accomplish. If you're reading this and have been thinking about working on starting a passion project of your own, let this be your sign! I want to see all my fellow creatives going after their dreams and creating their ultimate lives for themselves. I hope my list of goals resonated with you all and would love to know what kind of things you're striving for as well. What are some goals you have for your 2020?