Happy New Years everyone!
I hope everyone has enjoyed their holidays and is ready for a bigger, more exciting year than the last.
First off is in regards to the image above. Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight have created a fun was to encourage more discussion posts and this is the first one I have for everyone. To learn more about what they are doing just click the image link.
So this post is about New Years Resolutions and ways to make this year better.
I will share with you on two parts and would love to hear some of your own. Or, just feel free to let me know what you think of mine.
My personal resolutions are to:
1) Lose weight. I had a nasty injury a few years ago that had me laid up and not very physical and put on a bit too much weight and combine that with some thyroid issues, losing the weight is not easy without lots of work. Well I have had enough! Time to put in that work and get back in good physical shape. I did lots of research on good eating habits and learned what exercises can best help me and have a whole plan laid out. To help insure I keep up on it I have a reward system planned out, including a new wardrobe as the final reward. The goal is to be within 15 lbs of where I was prior to the injury by the end of this year.
2) Keep a cleaner home. I have realized that as I have grown older I want a cleaner place to live and relax at the end of a busy day. While some aspects of my life are very organized to a meticulous, bordering OCD tendancies, level; things like keeping up on laundray, dishes, yard work, etc tends to be pushed off. So this year I want to step things up. Nothing specific just to keep to better organized and to a level where I would be comfortable with surprise company on a more regular basis.
3) Make a new friend in real life. I am terrible about getting out and reaching out to others. I have been living in my current home for 2 years and while I have some family and some casual aquintance-type friends for select interests I dont' have a good friend nearby that I can call to just hang out with or anything My husband and I have some fellow board gamers we meet with a monthly and we are part of a fly group but don't have people to do BBQ's. movie nights, etc with. So hopefully that will be different by the end of this year. While I have friends out of town, having someone local around would be great so wish me luck on reaching out more to others and being less shy.
4) Start actually playing more of the video games I own. I tend to collect more that I play. It is sad. People come over and see lots of games then ask me what I think of them and I just often go "Uh, I haven't played that yet," and then "I haven't finished that one either" "Nor that one" So this year I need to get playing them. Goal-play and 'beat' (or become very familiar with) at least 1 game a month AND that before I get a new game (PC, console, etc) I must have completed at least 2 others first.
5) Start a veggie garden. Prioduce is getting expensive and we have a huge yard. This spring I plan to start setting up a raised garden bed in which I can start planting some of my own tasty food. Fresh tomatoes, squash, melons, etc. We already have some fruit trees planted so hopefully by next year we will be saving some money, while having healthy foods to eat!
And now for the bookish and blogging goals!
1) Finish listing all by books on Goodreads and Itrackmine. I have been working on this for 2 years. Time to finish. Hopefully by summer but maybe the fall. When you have several thousand books, it takes awhile.
2) Review more. While I read a lot, I still need to work on getting reviews out in a more timely manner. In this regards I may be taking less review titles this year in order to fully catch up and better balance my schedule. I think I got in over my head. When I first started this blog I was told about Netgalley and was told that I would only get approved for maybe 1 out of every 20 books I requested as a new blogger. WRONG! I went nutes making requests thinking most would be no and most were "yes." So within 3 months I had over 100 books to review. Combine that with a low resistance to collecting more I soon found myself overwhelmed and have just begun to dig my way out. So this goal is in three parts. Accept less review books to I don't get overwhelmed. review said books in a more timely manner and also to review more of what I read in general (library books, etc often bet pushed off the the side for reviewing but by the time I get around to writing the review I have forgotten many of the details I had thoughts on)
3) Be more consistant in my blogging. Right now, my posts are scattered. Some weeks you may see daily, other times only once a week. I am working on getting ahead of my posts so hopefully I will soon just have many posts scheduled ahead of time. Not there yet but progress is underway.
4) Commenting. I won't say much here as I have another post coming up to cover this more but basically respond to comments more here and comment more in groups, forums and other blogs. Hope to see you around more often
5) Finish more series'!! I have way to many underway. Sometimes it is waiting on a new release but other series' are finished. Between novels and manga's I have way to many in progress. So if a series is completely published especially I want to start completing them quickly.
6) Re-broaden my reading horizon. Lately I noticed over 2/3 of my books I have read are YA and while I love YA this blog was never meant to be strictly a YA blog and I kinda feel like that is what is has become. So I hope to bring a wider variety of genres and books for various ages. This blog is meant for older teens to adults. A place where anyone can come and find SOMETHING of interest. and I want to re-establish that better.
7) Learn how to better appeal to those who come to my blog. STARTING NOW. What would you like to see here or not see here? What should I continue doing, stop or alter? Be honest. I want a community feel here. Without readers and visitors this blog is just a review diary and I want it to be so much more.
What are some of your goals for this year? What do you think of mine? Am I missing any goals that should possibly be up here?
I also find it really hard to reach out to others in real life. I feel much more confident online then in real life. Good luck with your goals, and Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI am better online but can use work there too. Thanks!
DeleteGood luck with your goals this year!! I lost 40 pounds in 2013 and know how difficult it is too lose weight and keep it off. I had an injury myself a few years ago, which prevented me from being active as well as reaching my 40s... I don't know what it is, but when you reach your 40s it seems more difficult to lose weight and keep it off. But some how I managed to keep it off all last year by watching what I eat and walking only a few times a week. Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteYea, I have noticed the older I get, the harder it is. Congrats on your last year!
DeleteI think you have some great goals. I like the one about getting out and meeting people in real life, because that CAN be difficult. The libraries often have some fun events...maybe try going to those and meeting people. Or there is the website Meet Up or whatever it's called, and you find specific themed groups to hang out with based on common interests!
ReplyDeleteI'm currently holding a giveaway for people that do a specific discussion post, if you want to stop by and check it out! :)
Lauren
meeting people in groups is the current step I am on. Next is moving past that particular barrier and do something with one of them away from the group setting.
DeleteThis discussion posts are great, aren't they?
You sound like you have the right attitude to complete your goals. I often find having a tidy house/ rooms makes a nice place to relax after a stressful day. Thank you for stopping by my blog, and commenting. I have followed your blog. :)
ReplyDeleteA clean place does make relaxing easier. Thanks for the follow :)
Deleteyou do have a lot of goal and i hope you will reach all of them, personnaly the main one for me will be to find some balance between my crafting time and my reading time as they tended to exclude each other so far^^ i want more balance, better organsiation
ReplyDeleteBalancing time for various interests is hard! Great goal. I hope you find that balance.
DeleteYou have some wonderful goals! I think it's interesting that bloggers tend to be a bit more anti-social. It's a common thing with us! I've been in Louisiana for nearly four years and I only know my close neighbors but not enough to go borrow sugar or anything. We are hoping to buy a house this year and I want it in a more suburban area so I can get to know people. It would be nice!! Good luck! Oh and your blog is great! New follower :D
ReplyDeleteI think many who have quite interests (reading, crafting, etc) tend to be less social. I remember days when neighbors would help eachother, have bbqs, help fix fences together, etc. Now that is rare anywhere. I hope when you move into your new home, you have some great neighbors.
DeleteI only listed blogging-related goals in my resolutions. My big goals are to read what I already own and turn my TBR mountain back into a pile, create Goodreads shelves to actually use to help out with tracking specific types of reads, and really get better at commenting and following. A personal goal is to become more active and lose weight as well.
ReplyDeleteYour two goals would be impossible for me this year. One year though, that would be great! good luck!
DeleteGood luck with all your goals! As for meeting new people, look for local events at your library and or bookstore(s). I have found these types of events great for meeting like minded folks. Also if they are author events you'll have a chance, perhaps, to broaden your reading genres a bit.
ReplyDeleteOh, and for getting ahead on your posts...you might check out the Reviewathon hosted by The Book Vixen. I've found those events to be quite helpful for getting organized with my reviews which leaves for time to focus on other types of posts.
Terri M., the Director
Second Run Reviews
Our library sadly rarely does events (except for young kids) and authors are even more rare to my area and I can't justify driving over 100 miles to go to an author event unless it is an author I LOVE.
DeleteI have heard of the review-a-thons but have yet to participate. Maybe I will look into that more this year.
These are all fantastic goals! I agree that sometimes making real friends (in real life) can be hard - it seems like everyone's so busy and it's hard to connect with people. For me, I was able to finally make some friends like this through a small group (through church). I have no idea if you're religious or not, but if you are, that's a great way to make connections with people and get to know them on a deeper level.
ReplyDeleteNicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Church is a great place to meet others sometimes. I need to get out and find a new church family. I have been lazy there too. Guess I should have that on my resolution list too.
DeleteIt's like you read my mind when you talked about your non-bookish or blogging new year's resolutions. I would also love to shed off some of those extra pounds, but it's so damn hard!! Eating is bae, but good luck on your journey! I think the reward system will totally be effective in motivating you ;) Who doesn't love a good, new, glorious wardrobe???
ReplyDeleteIt is hard. I hope we both can this year! I would love to go buy some sexy new dresses to show off for my hubby!
DeleteLose weight!!! I need to start eating so much healthier than I do, and stop drinking so much soda, eating so much chocolate. Sigh, it hurts just to think and type! Every single one of your blogging/reading resolutions, are the same that I set for myself. Reviewing and finishing up series being right up at the top! Broadening my horizons, organizing, posting more consistently... You basically stole every one of my goals, but that's alright. It is sometimes nice, and gives you motivation, to know others struggle with the same things that you do.
ReplyDeleteHehe, sorry for being a thief :P Guess we shall have to keep on each other so we can each reach those goals we have in common!
DeleteOur(hubby and I) New Year's resolution is to live a healthier lifestyle by exercising and eating better. So far, we've been sticking with it but it's not easy. However, it seems our hard work seems to be paying off.
ReplyDeletethose are good goals to have; don't really make any
ReplyDelete