How I Am Going To Spend This Year

Hi everyone!

I hope you guys are having a fantastic 2013! 
Last year I didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped to, I wanted to start ballet, hip hop, participate in the annual dance show, win the science trophy at my school and complete Grade 4 on the piano, but alas, I didn't achieve that as my anxiety prevented me from continuing with what I love. I know this sounds like a lousy excuse, but anyone with anxiety will know how difficult it is to not let the anxiety control your life. But this year, I am definitely going to focus on achieving the goals, and I'm not going to let anything get in the way. 

This year I want to focus on becoming a more knowledgeable person and improving my talents. My one friend told me about this amazing website called Memrise, where it teaches you all this amazing stuff to memorize and there's a scientific theory behind it. But honestly, you need to check this website out, its...AMAZING! At the moment I am learning French and the composers of famous compositions and what all the emoticons we see around on the internet mean. But that is three of literally thousands of stuff you can learn.

I want to study fun stuff this year. Learn information about tragic events in history, learn about all the exotic places in the world that I haven't yet had the privilege to visit and any other pieces of information that interest me. I want this year to be a year of making memories, learning stuff, becoming more knowledgeable and wiser and improving my talents. 

My goals for this year are:
1. To learn French
(I have been learning French on Memrise the past few days. I use to do French when I resided in the UK and I LOVED it, so I'm really enjoying being able to learn the language again.)
2. Complete Grade 4 on piano
(We sold my piano, and will be getting me a new one that is better once our house is built! I am really hoping that I will be able to get a Yamaha or Kawai Upright piano, or a grand piano. I adore piano, and I want to reach my Grade 8 before I turn 18.)
3. Go for guitar lessons
(I am a musical person and music fills most of my daily life. We've always had a guitar in our household as my dad plays, and I've always been interested in playing but never really thought much about it. However, a couple of weeks back, I heard The A Team by Ed Sheeran and loved how the guitar sounded so. I picked up my dad's guitar (which is half my guitar now), googled the chords for The A Team and the strumming pattern and I taught myself the song. At first it sounded absolutely atrocious, but since I've been practicing every day, its sounding a lot better!)
4. Go for art lessons
(I LOVE drawing and people have said that I am quite talented at it. My mom is going to find me an art teacher as I would love to improve in my art work.)
5. Go back to dancing
(I adore dancing, I use to do ballet as a little girl but then I quit :(, I really want to go back to dancing, as I went for lessons last year and I had the most wonderful teacher and the most amazing kids in my dance group, so I definitely want to go back this year.)
6. Write a bit towards my novel every week
(I have been saying that I am going to write a book since I was nine years old and I still haven't yet. But I am going to try and write a little bit each week.)
7. Raise money for charity
(I think that it is very important that we help the less fortunate. Whenever I see a homeless person out on the street I tear up, its just not fair that their are people like the Kardashians and Paris Hilton who have millions of dollars, yet they don't do much to help the needy, just buy them self more designer clothes and another Lamborghini, and then their are people sitting on the streets with no roof over their heads and no food or water. I believe that it is up to us to make a difference in the world and that's what I shall aim for this year.)
8. Open a business to make money to buy me a telescope...not sure what yet? Maybe baking and selling stuff? Even though I am an utter disaster in the kitchen x_x
(I really want to try and make money this year. I created a swear jar, so that whenever someone swears around me they have to pay me 50 cents per word, the "f" word costing one rand. And so far I've made quite a lot, I can tell you that! I was thinking of maybe making a baking business, but I'm not really a baking type of person, so I don't think that would work..)
9. Travel somewhere...
(I want to make every day of my life interesting. I can't just sit around and wait for something interesting or wonderful or amazing to happen, I have to go out there and make something happen. I would love to travel somewhere, even if its just staying in a local hotel for two nights, just have a different surrounding and experiencing an adventure.)
10. Read my bible every night and possibly join a youth group
(I am a Christian, but sometimes it feels like I'm not that close to God any more  Sometimes life can distract us from being close to God and pull us away from Him, and this year, every day, I'm going to take time just to thank Him for all I have and spend time with him in prayer and bible reading.

These are my goals for this year, goals that I'm going to strive towards every day. I really want to accomplish more this year, and now knowing what I actually want to accomplish, is already one step in the right direction. 

Aside from writing about books on Blog of a Bookaholic, I will be posting how its going with my goals...hopefully there will be a lot of positive update posts about the list in the future :D