December Goals Update

We've made it to 2025. Yay! So let's review how I finished out 2024 and how the resolutions shook out.

1. Health Goals: I resolved to drink more water, eat more fruits and veggies, and walk at least 10,000 steps a day.

2. Personal Project Goals: I resolved to get digital photos sorted and collect memorable bits from Facebook for my essays; resolved to work on writing or editing at least one day a week; resolved to relearn ukulele songs I've forgotten and learn new ones, and keep creating my regular webcomic and video content.

3. Reading Goals: I resolved to read at least twice a week.

4. Relationship and Communication Goals: I resolved to document daily life stuff more, keep up with e-mails and online communication, and make time for friends and family.

5. Other Goals: I wanted to prepare and sell my mom's house, watch some TV shows I'd dropped, and not play time-wasting tames.

Progress Update:

HEALTH GOALS:

Summary: Obviously the last week of December involved a lot of TREATS and heavy eating! And during that whole week of celebrating with family and friends and getting through the leftovers, I definitely fell off on having my recommended amount of protein that week. Everything else was pretty good and I got a reading on the scale that was the lowest of the entire year! And I immediately blew it away with tons of cookies, haha. (I do not regret this. I think it's really important to not see food as "decadent" or "indulgent." We need to be able to have treats without weird guilt around it, even though I am trying to make sure I give my body what it needs.) I did manage to get at least three servings of fruits and veggies almost every day, and most days I met or exceeded my water goal. This is my calendar of progress:

PERSONAL PROJECT GOALS:

Summary: The photos project wrapped in 2024 with me successfully getting through all the photos I inherited from Mom's house. I did get them scanned and sorted and to some extent I've got piles started for how to store some loose photos. I found an empty photo album in with my mom's stuff, so I'll use it, and I bought a new photo box to give some miscellaneous ones a home. I still have a bunch of personal photo albums to leaf through to get this last little pocket of pre-digital photos into my inventory (from about 1993 to 1996), and I have some loose photos in the closet that need to be given the same treatment I gave to the loose photos my mom had. I think I got a lot of these when my dad's parents died and I never did anything with them, so now I am motivated. Soon after I finish that, my goal is to incorporate them all into the sorting system I have digitally--but though I had aspirations of being DONE with this by the end of 2024, I did not make as much progress as I wanted to. Sometimes that happens.

Writing goals–wise, I feel like I did okay with both submissions and writing new content--though almost all of it was on short stories and I did not come back to my novel this month. That will change soon! I finished a new short story (which was hella long) and toward the beginning of the month I got more submissions out. I am looking for a literary agent for my fiction again (I still have an agent for my existing work), so I'll continue doing that, and I want to get the short story cleaned up and through beta reading before I start sending it out. I might also start sending out another short story that I finished a while back but it hasn't ever been shown to anyone.

I did not pick up the ukulele goals. I will see what I can do with that next year.

Progress:

READING GOALS: 

Summary: I was only able to carve out time for reading toward the beginning of the month. The hubbub of the holidays took over halfway through the month and I was buckling down on other projects and activities, so that fell off a bit. I think this will fluctuate sometimes and I am okay with this being a medium priority, not a top priority.

Progress:

RELATIONSHIP AND COMMUNICATION GOALS: 

Summary: I have successfully kept my e-mail box clear. Very proud of that. What I have NOT done--pretty catastrophically--is keep up with the documentation I really wanted to do. We'll see if I can do it better in the new year. I have a very small backlog to get through and then I really want to start writing about everyday life again--and though I think a lot of people develop New Year's goals to stop wasting time on social media, I actually want to spend a little MORE time there (just to share updates and be more present in the various places where I have a presence), if only to post fun photos and musings. Nothing too intense.

Progress:

OTHER GOALS:

Summary: I no longer have any dangling obligations for my mother's estate beyond selling a few things I wasn't able to place with new owners. I'll keep trying to do that, and next month I have to figure out taxes and give the right information to my sisters about how we are to claim anything relevant on our forms.

I still need to sand and paint the plaster pillar that is sitting outside.

I made and kept all my health appointments this year. Go me.

I still have a TV show I want to watch but honestly even though it's on the "to-do" list, it is never going to be a priority to watch TV!

I have liked doing this so I am going to continue this method (with some slight changes to the calendars) and continue posting these monthly.