Accomplishments from 2018 and Travel Goals looking forward to 2019

It’s that time of year where we all look back at what we accomplished over the previous year, how well we did at holding ourselves accountable, and what progress we made towards the travel goals we set. While it’s nice to look back, it’s much more important to look forward, set new goals, and manifest our future for the coming year.

A Quick Summary of 2018’s Travel

In 2018, I only took one international trip where I visited Bali and Japan, two places that have been near the top of my bucket list for a very long time. The rest of my travels took me through the United States, seeing a ton of beautiful places that have basically been hiding in my backyard. I took two long road trips, one through the midwest with my brother, and another from Florida, across the southern half of the country to Las Vegas with Mallory. It was an incredible year of adventure, and some of the stats below still blow my mind.

• 33 states visited (23 new states)
• Over 80,000 miles flown within the United States
• Approximately 10,000 miles driven on road trips
• More than 30,000 photos taken ?

My Travel Goals for 2018

At the beginning of 2018, I set seven travel-related goals for myself. I wanted to visit my 50th country, which I did in February crossing Japan off the bucket list. I wanted to visit Bali, Iceland, and Peru, I only was able to check Bali off that list. I hoped to take a flying lesson and a hot air balloon ride, but I was not able to cross either of those off the list. I wanted to get my advanced scuba diver certification, which I didn’t do, but may have the opportunity to do so early this year. I wanted to take a road trip, and I managed to take two 3,000+ mile road trips in 2018!

My last goal was to create more GOOD content. I hoped to publish a blog post or YouTube video every Friday, and while I started the year off strong, I crashed pretty quickly after returning from Bali and Japan. In 2018 I published 28 blog posts (one more than 2017!) and 9 YouTube videos (3 less than 2017). Consistently writing and creating video content will be a focus of mine in 2019.

Other Accomplishments of 2018

After finishing my goal of 50 countries a couple years ahead of my goal I realized how little of my own country I had seen, which led to a new goal of visiting all 50 states before my 29th birthday, and while it now seems that goal was a little farfetched, I managed to see 23 new states and I visited 33/50 in a single year. Some of the states that remain are Alaska, Oregon, and Maine, which are all places I’d love to spend a significant amount of time exploring, so we may plan some summer/fall trips to see these great places.

I hoped to grow my community on Instagram to 10,000 followers in 2018, which thanks to you amazing people happened! Instagram is one of the most inspiring, yet frustrating things in the whole world, but I will continue to use it as my main platform in 2019.

Not travel related, but an accomplishment nonetheless, I ran a full marathon last January, and while it hurt… A LOT… it is still amazing to me that I finished it. I also started my own business as an Airbnb host and now have two rental properties here in the Tampa area.

Looking Forward to 2019

I’m sure that 2019 is going to be amazing. We already have a couple potential long weekend trips in the works for the first 3 months of the year including a couple ski trips out west. I would still love to complete all of the goals above that we didn’t get a chance to do in 2018, but I think I need to be more specific, or else I won’t be able to easily hold myself accountable.

Travel Goals for 2019

In 2019 I plan on finishing off visiting the 50 US States. Alaska, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, and Oregon are the five states that I have left.

I would love to visit South America, specifically Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.

I will visit Iceland this year some way or another since its been on my goals list the last two years!

I want to begin taking flying lessons towards my private pilots license by this summer.

If we go back to Hawaii this year (I’m pushing for it during my birthday) I would love to complete the advanced scuba certification!

I want to write more blog posts, create more videos, and be more engaged on the blog and social media platforms, but not let it consume me, which sometimes happens if I try to juggle too many things. I think a good goal would be consistently posting either a video or blog post every other week, and once I find a rhythm move to every week, but I need to feel it out.

I want to find a space in Tampa that could serve as an office, studio, gallery space. I would love to branch out and do more portrait and product photography, and having a dedicated studio space would make that much easier to do.

In 2019 I would love to get my first press trip with a tourism board.

I want to do more collaboration in 2019. The creative atmosphere during the Institute of Code in Bali was out of this world, so I would love to find some like-minded creatives to work with both while at home here in Florida, but also during some of our travels this year.

Continued Learning = Growth

I believe that the only way to grow is through continuous learning. I am constantly taking online courses, watching how-to videos on YouTube and Skillshare, and talking to others about their techniques and workflow. In 2019 I plan to continue that trend and keep on learning. I also want to be able to have a conversation in Spanish by the end of the year!

What are your goals for 2019?

I would love to hear some of your goals for 2019! You can share them below in the comments, or tweet them at me @passports2life.

Make sure you are following along all of our adventure in 2019 on Instagram- @passports2life! If my goals go as planned there should be a lot more action on our YouTube Channel this year so head over and subscribe so you don’t miss any videos!

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