Reflections and Resolutions

Happy New Year week 2 of 2018!

After all of the excitement of the holidays towards the end of the year, it’s hard to be excited about January. Seriously, what happens in January? It’s super-cold, society pressures you to take down your Christmas decorations, and it’s back to work after a week-long holiday. And you know all of that stuff you put off until next month because you wanted to relax around the holidays? Yeah, it’s next month now – time to panic.

The above description is my life, minus the Christmas decoration part – my undecorating deadline is Valentine’s Day. I dread New Year’s Eve because it means an end to sleeping in and back to the grind. But I always forget about the perks of a new year, like a brand-new planner (sans scribbled to-do lists and coffee stains) or time to re-evaluate goals and start fresh. It’s also a time reflect on the last year and take a step back from the day-to-day to-do list to see just how far you’ve come over the last 365 days.

2017 was actually a pretty good year for me. I launched a new look to my website, started AgBookClub with a friend, completed three more semesters of grad school, and hit a couple of savings goals. Not one of those things were quick to cross of my 2017 resolutions to-do list, but they’re signs of significant progress towards larger goals that take longer than a year to achieve.

In that spirit, I present you with my 2018 resolutions:

  • Finish the state quarter book I started with my grandpa (only 5 more quarters left!)
  • Follow through with using this fancy new planner (because I spent a lot of money on it). I did pretty good with the one I had last year, so hoping to follow through again this year.
  • Graduate with my Master’s degree (only 3 semesters to go!)
  • Blog more. Yeah, “blog more” didn’t really work out for me last year. I think I need something quantifiable, so I’m going to publish at least 24 posts this year (that’s 2 per month). As you can see from the first line of this post, I’m already a bit behind my original schedule. Please hold me accountable to the new one. 🙂
  • Launch top-secret blog project #1.
  • Launch top-secret blog project #2.
  • Add 10 more books to my library from the AgBookClub reading list.
  • Take down Christmas decorations by February 13.
  • Match 2017 savings account deposits in 2018. (I want to have something there for a down payment on a house when I’m ready for it!)

What I like best about annual resolutions is that changes don’t all have to happen by January 15th – I’ve got some flexibility to make progress, forget about them for a while when life gets busy, and then back at it before 2019 comes around. And who says I can’t add to the list when I think of something new in April? Life changes and so will my goals. Either way, I’m excited to revisit this list on December 31, 2018 (in my 24th blog post of the year 😉 ) to evaluate how I did or rewrite these goals to make them more achievable in 2019.

I’ll catch you all again in post 2 of 24. In the meantime, I’ll be catching up on the reading for this week’s #AgBookClub chat by the light of my Christmas tree.

reflections and resolutions

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