2017 Goals

Happy New Year!  2017 is finally here and I am stoked for a ton of reasons.  New years always feel like a fresh start.  I love setting specific and measurable goals (can’t you tell that I work in Quality Assurance?) and plugging away to reach them.  I know that this is a reading and writing blog, but I’ve had to set other goals to shift my lifestyle to make room for those goals.  So I’m going to share them all here – and I hope to do periodic check ins with you throughout the year to update my progress!

Reading Goals

I’m setting relatively modest and nonspecific reading goals.  Last week I shared that I want reading to be an escape for me, so I am going to be pretty whimsical about most of my choices.  Because of that, I’ve only set two specific goals: I’d like to read 50 books this year.  6 of those should be nonfiction.  Seems reasonable, right?

Writing Goals

Recently I shared a link that encouraged people to write three handwritten journal pages every day.  And miraculously, I have been doing that every day since December 20!  What?!  I did miss a couple of days around Christmas, but you know how the holidays get.  Since then, I’ve already made it such a habit that I often write more than my three prescribed pages.  It’s been amazing.  I’ve decided to set a goal to continue!  I’d like to try to journal three pages a day, every day.  I’d also like to blog two days a week.  Last year I aimed for three and failed terribly, so maybe two will be more realistic?

Please notice that I haven’t included any goal to work on my manuscript.  The barrier that I have is time, and that will become evident as you continue to read this post.  I’m not sure what to do about it, so I will continue to brainstorm and problem solve.  But for now, it’s not one of my top priorities.  There, I said it!

Personal Habit Goals

The picture above is my habit tracker for January.  There’s a lot that I try to cram into every day, not to mention going to work and taking care of my babies!  Perhaps I’ll go into my cleaning routine in greater detail some other day (only because I love reading about other people’s routines, you can feel free to skip mine of course!), but this is generally it.

Other non-cleaning habits that I’m forming are waking at 5am each day (I’ve been practicing with that one, it’s been hard), which I need to do in order to fit everything in.  I also want to practice the piano and my clarinet at least five days a week.  One of my longterm goals is to audition for the New Hampshire Philharmonic, and I have a long way to go with that one!  I was a high school musician, but haven’t really played my clarinet in about fifteen years now (!).  So I want to get myself conditioned and have some pieces audition ready by 2019.  Eek!

I’m also going to be making a real effort to not spend any extra money.  My husband and I are working on a budget that we will actually stick to, so I am going to track the days when I don’t buy anything other than what is necessary for our family or otherwise budgeted for.  I think this will be the hardest one for me!

I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone else’s 2017 goals!  I love that so many people take this opportunity to think about what they want to accomplish in the new year and make a plan to achieve it!