Happy New Year!

Now let's set some goals...

I told you. I was not kidding. I am back on the goal kick this year. I need them. They complete me. Or at least they trigger my compete. And I love to compete. Even if it's against myself so I always lose/win or win/lose. 

As far as the actual goals go, nothing new really. I still don't think 2021 is going to be ready for a lot of new. The vaccines are just rolling out and they are rolling slowly. I don't think we are looking at any sort of close to normal until Fall and I have a sinking suspicion that that might be optimistic. I'm actually worried that it's going to seem even worse in ways than 2020 did. Because 2020 was the shit but 2021 will still be the shit with just that dangle of hope right out of reach. 

So nothing on my list is really new, it's just trying to find some sort of solid routine out of where we are now. Something to focus on instead of doom scrolling and swinging between ignoring public comments to actually trying to put a voice of reason out there so others don't lose hope. Something to keep me positive and striving forward instead of unfriending people who are being asshats in the moment. 

So Happy 2021! Here we go! (you might notice a theme)

Writing. I'm looking at 147 blogs with 42 of those being fiction. That's about 3 total pieces a week and not quite one new fiction piece a week. Totally doable, normally. (Ignoring my 15 fiction pieces from last year) And there will still be a few more of the grief chronicles and who knows how many pandemic prose but I'm really hoping that a good chunk of them are just writing. Just what am I thinking about, what am I seeing. And please oh please, President Elect Biden, let there be very few political blogs. I'd love to go days and days and days without thinking about how our government is working against us. Though I do know we've got a rough month ahead for that...

Sub-goal under writing. I want to submit 2 pieces to contests and one to something different. I'm not sure what that different is just yet, but something other than a contest. 

Reading. I did not get anywhere close to finishing the last book I started in 2020 so I've got a 30% complete head start on my first book of the year with a goal of finishing 84. I think my TBR pile is about 4826 (and that's just what's already downloaded on my Kindle) so no problem. Hopefully. Again, I'm being positive about 2021. I'm hoping for more ease in focusing and in concentrating. 

Sub-goal under reading. Finishing the Discworld series. I'm really close. Four more books and two collections of his short stories and his nonfiction pieces that are related. 

Weight. I know I haven't set a number here for a long time, but I already knew at the end of 2019 that I needed to lose actual weight, then 2020 said here, have some more so now my joints are telling me HEY! So my goal is 21 pounds. I mentioned on a status yesterday that I had set a target weight for the end of December that would make that number really tidy and I hit that, lost 4 pounds in December so that's pretty good, now granted, it was only one pound and the three (!!) that showed up for Thanksgiving, but still! Anyway...21 pounds this year. That's like a half a pound a week. Nothing crazy. Though to be really fair I could go all the way to 41 before I would be in the range where people start saying, umm....hey....about that weight loss. 

Did you catch the theme?
Writing 147 total 42 fiction  (think 7 and 2)

Submissions 2 and 1

Reading 84 books (think 4)

Weight 21 pounds

Discworld, (a little more complicated but it made me SO FREAKING HAPPY WHEN I SAW THAT IT WAS PERFECT!) when I finish I will have read the 41 total books. (20+21)

So everything is 2021 themed. The reason for doing it, the numbers, all of it. It makes me happy. 

Now we come to January. January is going to be like a reverse cleanse. What would that be? A submersion? I am submersing myself into the goal world in January.

Along with working toward my numbers I'm going to:

Write everyday

Do POD

Do Public Daily Gratitude posts

Do the Daily Calm prompts

It's full bore January. 

For those of you who have been around for awhile you will notice Dry January is not a thing. I'm not crazy. Or at least not that way. 

I will decide when I do those things other times during the year. I might pick up and put down Daily Gratitude and POD, I'm not committing to a full year of those. Just January. But we will see.

So those are the goals. I'm really excited to actually have them back. A year off was good, even if it was a horrible year. 

Happy New Year!

Goal #1, Get Through It!