New Year, New Me?
I know, I know. I’ve kinda missed the New Year’s Resolution bandwagon. For the first time ever I hit my goals for 2017, and it feels great. But I’ve felt stuck trying to come up with new ones for 2018 because the truth is I want to achieve all the same things just a little bit better.
Last year, I set modest goals. I wanted to start a blog. Check. I might have only posted twice, but I took the first (and second) step. Since last year was my first full calendar year to teach dance, I had regular workouts built in. In the second half of the year, I wrote two short stories, probably a dozen starts on other works and even started a rough draft for a novel. My last goal for 2017 was to read at least one book a month. Instead of 12 books, I read 24. That’s the most I’ve read since college, and it’s the most I’ve read for fun probably since high school. If you’re interested in what books I read in 2017, I’ve included a list below.
So what does that mean for this year? I’m going to start posting on here more regularly and reading at least one more book this year than I did last year. And I found a new one, one that’s a little bit scary and out of my control. In 2018, my top goal is to get my first short story publication. That means increasing not only my writing time, but dedicating myself to submissions. I can write and write and write. Making myself do that is easy. The hard part is getting it out there. Sending something I created to be judged by someone else. But I’m going to work to overcome fear, to grow, and to really lean in to this writer’s journey.
2017 was a scary and difficult year in my personal life, from my husband changing careers to my daughter transitioning from infant to toddler. It seems incredible that as frustrated, worried or anxious as I was in individual moments all those moments added up to one of my best years. It gave me the motivation to strike out, the creativity to put pen to paper, and rekindled this life time passion of mine. I don’t want to see 2018 as a new beginning because I want this journey to continue. What I want in 2018 is to be just a little bit better than 2017.
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What are your dreams? Do you have goals for 2018 that will help you start working toward them today? Let me know by dropping a comment below!
BOOKS OF 2018
January
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
February
Thankless in Death by J.D. Robb
March
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn by Claire Ridgway
Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
April
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
May
All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ask Him Why? by Catherine Ryan Hyde
June
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Not that Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
Missional Motherhood by Gloria Furman
The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda
July
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
NW by Zadie Smith
Nabakov's Favorite Word is Mauve by Ben Blatt
Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
August
The Underground Railroad by Colton Whitehead
September
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
October
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
November
No More Faking Fine by Esther Fleece
December
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
