Photo by Karolina Grabowska
It’s 2023 and I’m excited. I love the New Year’s Holiday, it’s honestly my 2nd favorite holiday of the year. It would probably be bumped to the number one spot if it weren’t for the fact that I don’t generally get to spend it with my kids now that they’re grown. The idea of a new year and an opportunity to set new goals for the year is exciting to me.
Anyone that reads my blog knows I love setting goals and resolutions. It’s my thing. I know a lot of people think New Years resolutions are a waste of time (GASP!!). Okay, I guess if I’m being fair that’s a legitimate complaint since I read that 43% expect to fail at their goals by February and 25% quit on their resolutions the first week in January.
My Personal Progress Report in 2022
What about me? What’s my success/failure rate?? Honestly? There’s never been a year where I’ve accomplished everything I’ve set out to. I don’t consider that a failure though. Every year I accomplish at least some of my goals so I’m still gaining momentum in life. Creating goals and resolutions every year also helps me to focus on living my life intentionally.
Example: One of my goals was to read 36 books last year. I only read 32. So I didn’t reach my goal but I still managed to read 32 books and that is a lot more than the average person I would guess.
I also wanted to create a consistent work out routine, which I declared to be working out 4 days a week. Did I work out 4 days a week every week? Nope. But I signed up with a personal trainer which means I definitely worked out with a personal trainer one night a week and most weeks I worked out on my own an additional 1-3 times until my foot surgery stopped me in November.
I didn’t fare nearly as well with some of my other goals, including reducing my credit card debt and working on my blog and writing. Super disappointed in these two things but I’ve identified why I wasn’t able to achieve these goals and they’re going back on the 2023 list because they’re both important to me. Hopefully identifying the challenges that stopped me from achieving these goals last year will help me to do better with them this year. Baby steps are still steps forward.
2023 Goals
Healthy Living Goals/Resolutions
- 64 ozs of water daily
- Gym/workout 4 times a week once my doctor releases me from my foot surgery. Fingers crossed that will be this week!!
- In bed before midnight during the work week
Financial Goals/Resolutions
- Decrease credit card debt. I have a percentage in mind but I’ll keep that private for this post. Medical bills over the years and helping out a kid with hefty ongoing medical expenses makes this a challenge every year.
- Increase income by 10%
Personal Goals/Resolutions
- Make one new recipe a month. I’m bored to death of eating the same thing…
- Create monthly challenges for myself. I’ve been inspired by my son doing this and I’ve found that I do better focusing on one thing at a time. Ideally these challenges will support at least one of my resolutions
- Organize/create a nice office space at home. The youngest man-child is about to start the home buying process so I’ll probably end up with the empty nest again. I’d like a nice, dedicated office space
- Read 36 books
- Get my will made. Ashamed to admit I’ve not done this. I have plenty of life insurance set up for the boys as beneficiaries so that’s taken care of but a will is needed to make it easier to handle disposing of my condo and car.
Writing Goals/Resolutions
- 32 blog posts
- Writing daily. This can be working on my blog, writing on my novel, or writing articles to sell
- NANOWRIMO completed. I’m not necessarily going to do this in November because that’s a crazy busy time for me at work but I do want to pick a month during the year to do this. That’s National Novel Writing Month for those of you that aren’t familiar. You are tasked with writing 50,000 words in a one month period, which is enough for a novel. I’ve attempted it several times and only succeeded once so far.
Seems like a lot to accomplish doesn’t it? I always have a lot I want to do and honestly I do better when I’ve got 30 different things going on all at once. Being forced to slow down with my foot surgery this year proved that. I am NOT one that is happy to stay at home and do nothing. It’s mentally not a good thing for me. Some people love it. I DO NOT, lol.
My youngest man-child just set one goal for himself this year. The eldest man-child has three things he’s working on I think. Some people pick a word to focus on for the year. What about you? Leave me a note in the comments and let me know if you set resolutions.
