We are now in mid-January of 2019, so it’s time to check in on how my 18 in 2018 went.

It all began thanks to an episode of the Happier Podcast.

The task was simple, set 18 goals/tasks for the year and complete them.

So how did it go?

18 in 2018

.1. Read 40 Books

I’ve read over 40 books for the year, quite easily, however this year it just didn’t happen.  I managed to read 36, which I’m happy about all things considered.

1. The Pretty Delicious Cafe – Danielle Hawkins
2. Nightshades – Melissa F. Olson
3. One Would Think the Deep – Claire Zorn
4. Plague – Michael Grant
5. The Shadow Wife – Diane Chamberlain
6. Mr & Mrs – J.A Huss
7. Shoe Strings – Christy Hayes
8. Wishtree – Katherine Applegate
9. Wife on the Run – Fiona Higgins
10. Confessions of a fitness model – Madelyn Moon
11. Go Girl – Natalie Cook
12. Running with Curves – Jill Angie
13. Red Queen – Victoria Aveyard
14. From fear and failure – Cindy Starke
15. Rainfall – Melissa Delport
16. Unbreakable Runner – T.J Murphy
17. Three Two One – J.A Huss
18. The Four Tendencies – Gretchen Rubin
19. The Natural Way of Living – Enck Kanaj
20. Eat for Heat – Matt Stone
21. What Milo Saw – Virginia Macgregor
22. The Girl with No Past – Kathryn Croft
23. 30 First Dates – Stacey Wiedower
24. Beckoning Light – Alyssa Rose Ivy
25. Perilous Light – Alyssa Rose Ivy
26. Enduring Light – Alyssa Rose Ivy
27. 80/20 Running – Matt Fitzgerald
28. Alpha – Jasinda Wilder
29. 47 Things – Lilliana Anderson
30. Secret Daughter – Kelly Rimmer
31. Torment – Lauren Kate
32. Passion – Lauren Kate
33. Grit – Angela Duckworth
34. Fear – Michael Grant
35. One Hundred Years of Dirt – Rick Morton
36. Everything, Everything – Nicola Yoon

My aim for 2018 was to read books that I bought ages ago on my iPad, and also on my bookshelf.

I also wanted to re:read the Lauren Kate “Fallen” series.  I still have 2 books left in the series to go and hope to have that done this year.

There were a few crap books, to be honest.  Like “The Natural Way of Living”.  I couldn’t tell you a thing about it, except it left no impression on me it was that bad.

Books I found to be unexpected surprises were Wishtree and Everything, Everything.  I devoured these books, and highly recommend you to add them to your reading list.

The Afterglow trilogy had so much potential but fell short, but for a teen, it’s a great introduction to the fantasy world.

.2. Listen to 20 books

If I didn’t love podcasts as much as I do, then I totally would have smashed out 20 audiobooks quite easily.

Again I fell short, I blame the podcasts.

These are the books that I listened to:

1. Cinder Marissa Meyer
2. Down the Dirt Roads – Rachael Treasure
3. Scarlet – Marissa Meyer
4. Cress – Marissa Meyer
5. Winter – Marissa Meyer
6. Landline – Rainbow Rowell
7. South of Darkness – John Marsden
8. Stars Above – Marissa Meyer
9. Jillaroo – Rachael Treasure
10. Last Seen Alive – Claire Douglas
11. High-Performance Habits – Brendon Burchard
12. The Little Book of Big Happiness – Bernadette Fisers
13. Winging it – Emma Isaacs
14. Back, After the Break – Osher Gunsberg

I was quite hesitant about listening to Cinder (aka The Lunar Chronicles).  The blurb sounded really interesting, but I didn’t want to start a series get sucked in and then have to read them all.

Wow, the Lunar Chronicles were not at all what I expected, and I loved them! Think fairy tales reimagined into futuristic stories.  If you love the TV series “Once Upon a Time” then this series is for you. I will definitely be reading this series again.

The audiobook I was totally disappointed in was John Marsden’s “South of Darkness”.  Having grown up reading all his books like the Tomorrow Series, I had high hopes for this book.  When it finally got interesting it finished.  Needless to say, if he releases another book apart of the series I won’t be reading it.

.3. Finish Kayla’s Watermelon poncho

.4. Finish my 2017 Training Blanket

I’m so glad this one is done.  I learned a lot from this project.

Will I do another blanket?  Yes, but not this large.  I ended up having to do this as two 6 month blankets.  It also got quite costly, and I used way more wool than expected.

.5. Start and Finish my Crochet Wrap

Loved the colour, but wasn’t happy with the pattern.  So I decided to modify a knitting pattern and crochet it in Granny Strips.  It’s light and cute, but it’s small.

I ended up making it again using leftover wool and included a different design for the hood.

I’m really happy with how it turned out.  It’s so warm.  Will be my comfort this winter.

.6. Try 18 new recipes and blog about it

The whole point of this particular challenge was to get out of my comfort zone and try new recipes.  Sure, there were plenty of duds.  These were the winners.

There were other recipes that have potential, once I tweak them to my liking I shall share them here.

In the meantime, you can find all my recipes by clicking here.

.7. Start building the house

We had A LOT of delays with this one, and unfortunately, we had many setbacks thanks to “requirements” from the council.

Red tape sucks.

.8. Run 1900km

Secretly I really wanted to run the year 2018 and run the year I did.  In fact more, 2068km!

.9. Run a Half Marathon in 1h45

Totally exceeded my expectations and smashed this out of the park at the Australian Running Festival.

A new road half marathon PB was achieved with a time of 1h43m24s

.10. Find 18 Geocaches

Surprisingly we found way more than I expected. Finding 29  caches for the year.  Which really isn’t a lot, that just tells me we simply need to get out and about more often.

.11. Finish Chalean Extreme

This program has to be one of my favourite weight training programs. It’s easy to follow and gets the job done.

Glad I chose to do this one and will do it again for sure. Was a great compliment to my running.

.12. Complete a cycle of PIIT28

The cycle is 2 rounds of 14 workouts, making it 28 days.

I did 1 round (14 workouts).  I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it.

.13. Complete True Yoga

If you didn’t already know, mobility is a big part of my life.  So when Yoga with Adriene, created a free 30-day yoga challenge, I decided to add it to my list.

While I didn’t do it in January (2018), I did the workouts as part of my movement and mobility routine.

She has another challenge “Delicate” happening now, which I will complete sometime during the year.

Her workouts are for anyone looking to add relaxation, meditation and mindfulness into their lives.

.14. Create an 18 in 18 Inspiration Series

This one took a lot of thought and planning.

You’ll find this series under the tag Mindset.

On Instagram, you’ll find them as part of my story highlights.

.15. Use and complete a Polar Training Plan

It took two weeks before I binned the plan.  It was boring and had no variety.  Glad I ditched it and went back to a plan from my Operation Move Group.

.16. Go to a parkrun I haven’t been to before

There seem to be new parkruns beginning everywhere, and it’s great because it will mean I will get to them all, eventually.  Alas, this one didn’t happen either.

.17. Run 5 Parkruns

Going back through my history I discovered I only ran 2 Parkrun’s for 2018, 2!

I’ll be 70 before I get my 50 Parkrun’s t-shirt.

.18. Complete the barefoot running e-course

Err, let’s just say I’m 80% of the way through.  I have 2 modules left, or thereabouts.  I’ll get there eventually.

---

So there you have it.  My 18 in 2018 list.

While some things didn’t happen or I fell short, I’m still happy with my progress.

What’s on my 19 in 2019 list, ooh, you’ll find out all in good time.