2017 was a truly crucial and very determining year in my life. It was turbulent and rich in events, but I can say it was generally a very successful year with many of my 2017 Yearly goals achieved, such as coming to live back in my dear homeland, as well as starting a new fantastic career, through to making a modest start on my own olive plantation.

As this very year is now notably progressing, I don’t want to be too late with the 2018 Yearly goals. That’s why, before it’s half-way through the year, it is time to sit down and reflect on where you want to be by the end of the current year. Here are the main goals I would like to set to myself (I have already started working on these):

• Consolidation: 2017 was the year of movement, change and some groundbreaking events and new beginnings. This year, however, I would really like to stabilise what I have, focus on the here and now. No major plans ahead. To mention a few of the newities, I started a humble olive plantation in Sandanski area, southwest Bulgaria, I started a new job, moved to a “new” old country, and started learning Greek (a new language). Plenty to digest. I feel the need to stop “eating” new experiences is very present. It is really time to “digest”. 
  
  
• Start the project “Elate si” (come back home). For as contradictory to the previous goal as it may look, this idea is now for a long time maturing in my head. I have long been a vivid propagator of it, but now I want to give it an official form, with its own website and path.
• The project: in the last one generation (~25 years+), my beautiful homeland of Bulgaria has lost between 25 and 30% of its population, approx. 1/3 (~9mln in 1990, less than 6mln in 2018). No other crisis in our written history has seen such a biblical exodus of its population.
  
  
• The better part of these evacuees (yes, it’s a perfectly fitting word) are in fact craving to return. Most of them are not so extremely better off, but they have a more stable, albeit not easy life. Many are surrounded by other Bulgarians, watch Bulgarian TV, dream of coming back, count the minutes to come back for a holiday… They are secretly craving to return for good. Who on earth wants to live far away from where family, friends, and heart lie? Well, my message will be directed to those: “Come back!”. Our country is in a dire need of you, just as you need it, too. There is no other place that you can call home. It’s a cause worth fighting for. 
  
  
• How can we reverse these catastrophic, apocalyptic demographic processes that appear irreversible? By acting on micro-level, with a macro-awareness in our head in the background. The macro-picture is indeed, sad and very grim. What we are left with is our own level of impact, our immediate surroundings. What can we do, what can we mean for our community? I want to inspire those evacuees that there is a chance to make a living here. You won’t be a millionaire immediately, no one promises a red carpet upon landing and roses every day. However, there is a chance to improve your immediate surroundings by being the change yourself. Start small. Change yourself. Your immediate surroundings. This multiplied by 10, 100, 1000, etc. etc, is the most promising and tangible positive change that our country can hope for. We all have our part to play in this enormous endeavour. It must start somewhere. With ourselves.
  
  I invite you all: come back, Elate si. Together we can reach unimaginable heights.        
  
  
• Sports: In the past year I managed to cycle like never before, I did thousands of kilometres. I also played volleyball. However, my double elbow fracture impaired my efforts significantly after September 2017. I have some catching up to do. I could go back into dancing, or volleyball. Depending on my time, of course. But I want to keep active. And I will! 
  
  
• Piano: last year I aimed at learning two new pieces. This year I want to learn three. Playing piano is an incomparable pleasure and relaxation. I urge all of those who have some knowledge on an instrument to not leave it dust. Use it :) it is a fabulous mean of expressing your soul, mood, and an immeasurable form of meditation.
  
  
• Saving money: I have a sum in my mind that I would like to have saved this year by the end of the year. I hope I can achieve it, because I have plenty of ongoing expenses. I appear to constantly be lagging behind. I must be on top of my finances, not behind. It will be a good test for me.
  
  
• Read: Last year I read the most books since my school years. I would like to keep it up and read at least 10 books by the end of the year. If I exceed, only so well.
  
  
• Travel: Travelling is such a fabulous means of mobility of the body, mind and soul. But it is also a very slippery slope. One trip.. Just one more here.. And just a small one there.. At the end of the year you turn, having spent a lot of time, energy (not to mention funds) on trips. They are also very distracting. That’s why we ought to choose them wisely. I’d like to do the following trips: 
• Turkey with a very good friend: Cycling a week through the Turkish coast. 
• Sozopol, the old city on the Bulgarian coast: this is where I always go for the best relaxation. I have friends there, too, which make it an ever more attractive destination. 
• Skiing: I would like to go skiing this year, a sport I love practising, but haven’t practised in three years. 
• Greece: So close to where I live, so full of beauties, and yet I have only been there once in my life. Great excuse to practice my freshly-learned basic Greek. Go there once perhaps. 

Thanks for taking the time! And what are your goals? :)