
We typically don’t make goal lists for the year, but we were recently inspired by Mackenzie Horan’s 101 Things in 1001 to create a list of things that we hope to accomplish by a certain timeframe. The intentionality of it is so cool, that we decided to try to make a list of our own. While the idea of publishing a list of goals we hope to accomplish for the entire year can feel a little challenging depending on what those goals are, the idea of extending that time frame felt more attainable. What you may not be able to accomplish in one year, you may be able to accomplish in year two or three.
However, there’s something about seeing the things we hope to accomplish in the next few years and being able to check them off, one by one. Even if everything isn’t checked, getting to see all of the things that have been accomplished, can feel encouraging. While this list doesn’t include all of our personal, professional and travel goals, it does include some of the ones that we’re hoping to be able to check off in the next 4 years.
If you’re curious to see which ones we’ve accomplished, feel free to refer to this post. We’ve also made it a link in our menu, so that we can refer to it throughout this time frame. We may also add some things as it nears that four-year mark.
BLOG
- Grow the readership on our blog. I’d love to double or triple the amount of viewers we currently have on our blog.
- Try to post more pins on Pinterest to promote our content.
- Work with local brands, places, and/or museums in Delaware or PA that align with what our audience. Maybe in the form of some sort of staycation or post where we get to highlight some more local establishments.
- Write for, get published with or collaborate with local magazines such as Out and About, VisitWilm, InWilm and/or others.
- Collaborate with other travel bloggers and ask them to write a guest post on our blog or vice versa.
- Consistently post on Instagram at least once or twice a week for at least one month straight.
- Try to engage on Instagram rather than posting and leaving.
- Try to grow our Instagram audience to 1K followers. It’s a bit of a formidable task at the moment.
- Try to grow our Twitter audience more.
- Post once or twice a month on our newsletters.
- Create Philadelphia and Delaware travel guides from our perspective as locals.
- Write more posts highlighting places in Philadelphia.
- Remove old opt-ins and posts that are irrelevant or outdated (I.E – remove posts of places that are no longer open for business, plugins we no longer use, posts that didn’t perform as well or consist of topics we no longer focus on).
- Create a YouTube Channel (H has been wanting to do this for a long time) or Vimeo to share our travel recaps and videos. I’m not sold on it yet, but putting this there because he might convince me after all.
- Update our blog portraits.
- Interview and feature more local brands or store owners on our blog in a series we’re starting.
- Maybe start a podcast or create audio versions of our posts for listeners who prefer to listen than read? Kinda unsure about this, but adding this here anyway since it IS technically something we’ve talked about over the years.
- Possibly switch website hosts, if we can find one with just as excellent customer service but more bandwidth space.
ETSY SHOP & PRESETS
- Reach 100+ sales in our Etsy shop
- Create a separate website to promote our presets and for photography-based posts so that our blog is primarily about travel and lifestyle.
- Rebrand our Etsy shop with a new name (potentially), new logo (potentially), and new branded colors to appear more cohesive.
- Create and share more freebies in our newsletter for our preset subscribers.
- Start recording brief videos to show examples of before and afters of our photographs.
- Invest more in our Etsy Ads to promote our shop.
- Create 10-15 more presets to share in the shop.
- Grow our shop IG audience.
- Try to develop a schedule for releasing new presets more consistently.
- Get back into making art and photography prints to add them to our Etsy shop.

TRAVEL
- Visit Vermont and New Hampshire, so we can say we’ve visited all of the states in New England.
- Visit the Biltmore Mansion and spend a weekend or a few days in North Carolina.
- Visit our friends in Maryland for a weekend that we don’t see often.
- Do a staycation in Philadelphia or Delaware.
- Spend a weekend in New York City.
- Visit Longwood Gardens during their Holiday exhibit. We’ve been before, but it’s been a while and it would be lovely to get to go again.
- Spend a weekend somewhere cool with our family.
- Visit another presidential library. We’ve already been to 3!
- Spend some time in Virginia visiting family.
- Spend a weekend in the Pocono Mountains.
- Spend a week or weekend in Newport during the summer again. Possibly turn it into a yearly thing.
- Go down the shore for a day or two.
- Spend a week or weekend in Newport during the winter.
R’S GOALS
- Create a separate Substack, Medium or another space where I can write creatively without worrying about SEO. I miss aspects of old-school blogging and I’d love to have a space where I can write more creative pieces that don’t pertain to travel and get back to the bare bones of blogging. That being said, I do love blogging here too!
- Speaking of, I’d love to do some writing on the side or help publish posts for an initiative that’s dear to our hearts.
- Learn how to bake things like bread and cookies from scratch.
- Try to host more. I am terrible at hosting events at home.
- Upgrade some elements of my wardrobe and eventually completely phase out of items that I no longer wear.
- Give back to our community. It could be finding another cause to support or volunteering if we have the time and are able to.
- Cultivate a soft life.
- Finally, accomplish the personal goal we’ve been praying for a long time for.
- Continue my health and fitness goals by improving my strength over the next three years and focusing on clean eating for the both of us.
H’S GOALS
- Travel more often, if possible.
- Try out new restaurants that we haven’t tried before.
- Read more books. I do not read as often as I used to, but I would like to get back into reading -, particularly books I have already purchased that I haven’t finished.
- Perfect the Philadelphia and the Boston accent.
- Cook the perfect steak. My steaks are already pretty good, but there’s always room for improvement.
- Visit new places or cities that we haven’t been to before.
- I would also love to eat at COTE in New York at least once…or twice…or thrice.
- To develop and maintain a healthier lifestyle through fitness and healthy eating.
- Purchase a new car at some point.
- Give back to some local communities and/or volunteer.