What Are Your Goals for 2017? -

Christmas and new year came and went in a flash and we are now ten days into January 2017. It’s unbelievable how much time flies in at this time of the year.

I had a nice chilled time over the holidays and spent time with family. Normally, my week is really busy so it was good to just forget about my work for a while and relax.

Recharging my batteries gave me time to think about what I want to achieve this year.

I spoke about this in a video I recorded on 31st December 2016.

An interesting discussion regarding targets for this year arose from this video over on Rise Forums. I encourage you to check it out.

My Goals for 2017

If you look at the discussion regarding 2017 goals on Rise Forums you can see the goals I have set out for myself for 2017.

Whilst I do want to push myself this year, I have made all of my goals realistic and achievable. Whether I reach all of my goals by the end of the year is irrelevant. The important thing is to have something to strive towards throughout the year to ensure that my work and my life is heading in the direction I want it to.

I split my goals into three different categories: Personal goals, online goals (my online work), and YouTube goals. My online goals and YouTube goals compliment each other so as I succeed more in one area, I will succeed more in the other.

Personal Goals

My personal goals generally relate to health, fitness and my general happiness; all of which go hand in hand.

Improve my cardio
Improve my strength (both of these will help me lose weight and trim up)
Continue to improve my jiujistu
Travel more by spending more holidays and more weekends away to great cities and locations around the world
Make sure I spend more time relaxing away from my online work whenever I can

A knee injury which I developed in late 2015 has stopped me from running regularly and taking part in wrestling classes. This time last year I was doing weight training three times a week too, though I stopped going to the gym altogether due to time constraints.

Most weeks I was doing four or five jiujitsu classes last year so I was struggling to fit in doing so much training. This year I am hoping to get back into my old routine and do weights a few times a week and cardio a few times a week.

I want to focus more on enjoying myself too. I want to take more holidays and enjoy more weekends away with my girlfriend. Life is short so it is important to enjoy it to the fullest whenever you can.

Online Goals

Whilst I do have several other websites and discussion forums to my name, my online work is still centralised around this blog and my internet marketing community Rise Forums.

Add more content to my blog
Increase traffic to my blog
Improve the look of my blog
Make Rise Forums more active by attracting more good members
Increase my monthly income considerably
Attend a few WordCamps

I started spending more of my time on creating YouTube videos over the last few months. This has meant that I have updated this blog less.

Every week I continue to get several requests for guest posts on this blog. I have always been reluctant to accommodate guest posters as the standard of articles being submitted is consistently poor. Because of this, my answer is always no as accepting those guest posts requires me to spend a huge amount of time fixing them; Time which could be spent writing articles myself.

It is, however, very important for me to continue to update this blog so I am going to make a point of actively reviewing good products and services. I believe incorporating videos into my blog posts is a great way to connect with you all too. Rather than toiling over 3,000 word articles for days, I can discuss an issue through a video in a shorter space of time.

Rise Forums has never reached the dizzy heights I had hoped for it, but it remains a place I love hanging out. There is a great bunch of people who hang out there and this has helped attract other good members. The goal is to keep attracting good members and increase activity on the forums.

Finally, I want to attend a couple of WordCamps in 2017. After having a blast at WordCamp Europe and WordCamp Belfast last year, I am keen to attend more this year. They are always a great way of meeting good people from the WordPress community.

YouTube Goals

2016 was the year I launched the Rise Forums YouTube channel and stepped up the time and energy I invest in my my tech YouTube channel.

2017 is the year in which I want both channels to become more established.

Reach 1,000 subscribers on my main channel (tech channel) by the end of March 2017
Reach 5,000 subscribers on my main channel by the end of 2017
Reach 1,000 subscribers for the Rise Forums channel by the end of 2017
Increase my YouTube Google Adsense income to at least £500 by the end of 2017
Increase YouTube income for my channels from other areas e.g. sponsorships
Become better at producing videos – Better editing, better presence, better videos etc

I really enjoy creating videos and connecting with others through this medium. It would be amazing to be able to do it full time, but in the short term my goal is to increase the income I am generating through YouTube. Even if it only makes up a portion of my total income I will be happy.

Becoming successful on YouTube is no easy task, however it is something I am passionate about. This enthusiasm will help me get where I want to be.