My 2020 Goals: Reading, Life, & Art!

I know you’re probably hearing this all over the place right now, but wow! How has 2019 flown by so fast? At the same time, holy shit! How has so much happened? I started this year in a totally different place than I’m ending it, and although it’s a definite improvement in nearly every aspect, it’s been quite the damn journey. This year has been rough, ya’ll. Publicly, I try to convey a positive presence of rainbows and kindness – but I’m not going to lie. At times, 2019 was a huge struggle for me.

At the start of the year, I was in and out of a relationship with someone that said really mean things to & about me, and treated me pretty terribly a lot of the time. I was approaching my 6 year anniversary at a job where I was taken advantage of, underpaid, forced to work hours I wasn’t allowed to claim time for, and that caused me so much stress & anxiety that after only 1 year of being at the company, I developed ulcers and started throwing up blood. I took a second job and started volunteering both to battle the anxiety and depression I was feeling from that job at the end of 2018 / beginning of 2019. I was only looking toward the rest of the year with dread, honestly. I had a few things that made me happy, but overall, I really wasn’t.

Fast forward to now. I’ve left the shitty guy, left the shitty job, and am a lot thanks to both decisions. I’m with someone who treats me well that I love, and I work 4 jobs now – in addition to running my blog & Etsy – which keeps me pretty busy and, I’ll admit it, sometimes stresses me out. But it’s not the same kind of stressed I was before! I don’t wake up feeling physically ill because of the anxiety over my upcoming workday, which is a huge life-changer, although I have been discovering that I don’t think the 9 – 5 desk life is for me. I’ve learned more from 6 months at these jobs than I had in over 5 years at my previous one, which is bananas! And the variety keeps me from getting bored from too much of the same thing – something I’ve struggled with in the past. Monotony in my work doesn’t suit me well, and I am happier for having realized that!

Although there were bumps along the way, I’ve learned so much from 2019, and am really looking forward to implementing new goals & changes in the upcoming year. I have a brand new bullet journal for 2020 that I’ll be working on & showing off over the next couple of months, so stay tuned if you’re into that sort of thing! 😉

I love lists (obviously – I have an entire day of the week dedicated to them!), so I put together a list of a few goals in 5 different areas of my life and have shared them below! I don’t really do huge ‘resolutions’, but tend to be a bit more general with the goals so I don’t feel like a failure by February if I’ve slacked off a bit during a rough few weeks. I like making goals that make me a happier, better person – and the last few years have gone pretty well with this method, with me meeting almost all of my goals each time!

Health

🌈 Drink more water! I’m terrible at this, but have been getting better – slowly – over the last couple of months, so I’m hoping to continue!

🌈 Eat less sugar. I’m hopelessly addicted to sugar in drinks and sweets, so this’ll be tough! I won’t be intending to cut it out completely, but less for sure.

🌈 Be more active & use my Fitbit more. I made a goal to get out more and do more stuff in 2019, and I’m happy to say that I have! From social activities to working to events to just getting out and doing deliveries sometimes, I’ve walked more, gone to more places, and done more things than I have this year since moving here! Next year, I want to focus a bit more intentionally on increasing my daily step count, and doing fun things like hiking and going to more local events.

🌈 Find a therapist. Mental health matters, too! I’d like to find someone to see at least once or twice a month by the end of the year, ’cause I think it’d help a lot with my anxiety and depression. At the very least, it’d be someone else to bounce all my bad thoughts and stuff off of!

🌈 Keep practicing yoga. This one is good for mind & body both! I love yoga, but don’t always make the time to do it consistently. I want to stick to a schedule for it in the new year so that I don’t get rusty, or less bend-y!

Hobbies

🌈 Learn a few new songs on my ukulele, and keep practicing the old ones! I also may ask for a new ukulele for a gift, we’ll see. 😉

🌈 Read 50 books. Each year, I’ve gone up in my goal of total # of books to read. After pushing myself to pass 100 this year, I decided to go backwards a bit – and enjoy reading for the sake of reading, rather than for page or book count.

🌈 Work on my video game backlog. I own a ton of games on Steam thanks to Summer & Autumn Sale time, and it’s time to start playing them! A lot I’ve never even loaded up or downloaded before, so this will be like getting a bunch of new games all at once!

🌈 Start a YouTube channel and/or streaming my video game times! These two are things people constantly suggest to me as things I should add to my online repertoire, but I don’t know enough about them to start. In the new year, I want to focus on learning as much as I can, so I can implement some things and start making videos of my own!

Etsy / Patreon

🌈 Release embroidery pattern PDFs to sell in my shop. Digital files are super popular, and I think mine may do well!

🌈 Create & sell “Embroidery DIY Kits”. These will include everything you’ll need from start to finish in completing your own embroidery project!

🌈 Produce new artwork each month. I often have big bursts of new additions, but I’d rather stagger them out so the releases are more consistent – and also to keep me working consistently throughout the year on new designs!

🌈 Focus on SEO & marketing for my shop and brand.

🌈 Make more content for Patreon subscribers!

Blog

🌈 Make the leap to self-hosted! I’m still a little behind on some things, so I’ve put this off for the moment – but will be doing it in the early Spring!

🌈 Post consistently. I obviously don’t have the time in my day-to-day to maintain a daily blog content calendar posting system, but I am planning to keep sticking to my 3 – 4 posts per week. I’d like to focus more on book reviews & lists in the new year specifically!

🌈 Market myself more. I’m sometimes not as vocal as I maybe should be with new posts, and that’s cause I don’t want to be annoying! But I don’t find it annoying when the people I care about are doing it, so why hold myself back?

🌈 2 book reviews per week. I definitely read enough for this amount, so I think I’m going to aim to write & post 2 new book reviews each week – although some may be cross-posted from my blogs over on the Night Worms blog! I read so much this year and am excited to share more of my thoughts on book stuff!

Finances

🌈 Save. I have an issue with saving, and I want to finally get over that and end next year with a decent nest egg.

🌈 Stick to my monthly budgets. This will lead me to victory for the first goal as well!

🌈 Read more than I buy. I noticed this year through tracking my books and spending that I read more review books (which are sent to me at no cost) than books I actually purchased. This means I spent a bunch of money on books I haven’t even read yet! Next year I want to make more of a dent on my unread-but-owned pile to help account for the difference.

So that’s it! Do you have any goals for the new year, or are you not really a goal-setting sort of person? Did you meet your goals for 2019?