It’s been a year man, I don’t think you should be to hard on yourself if you didn’t knock out all your 2020 goals, after all who thought 2020 would look anything like this in January? We were so hopeful, but life had other plans for us.

I did manage to get through some of my goals though, and I am proud of that, so lets look back on the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year:

• Get back into photography: I’ve worked on this but I haven’t perfected it! I still need to spend a lot more time with my camera than I do, but I have been picking it up more than last year, mainly thanks to my husband, but hey, we’re not all perfect.
• Refocus on budgeting: I picked a bad year to focus on budgeting. Prices have gone up and the economy has crashed, but all in all, I have been a lot more mindful about how I’m spending, so I kinda succeeded, though 2020 threw a lot of curve balls at us.
• Journal more: Check! I’ve been journaling all the time! In fact I was journaled today. It makes a big difference in how I’m processing my emotions, so I’m really glad I’ve returned to this habit.
• Become a better cook/baker: Check! While the pandemic was bad for budgeting, it was great for cooking and baking. I’ve done a lot of it and I’ve tried a lot of new recipes as well. I feel like I’m finally comfortable in the kitchen in ways I really wasn’t before.
• Read more than fifty books: Well, I read 117. So check! I know the biggest gift to this was audiobooks from the library, but they are still books so they count. I really poured myself into stories over all the forced down time in 2020, so it was pretty easy to double my goal. I feel great about it!
• Lose weight: Hahaha, about that. Yeah, that didn’t even come close to happening, but hey, I’m the same pant size I started the year with, so at least I didn’t gain any?

Now lets talk about 2021. It feels weird making goals for the next year after a year like this one. I feel like I have no right to try to figure out what the year should hold not knowing what it will hold. But I guess to a certain degree, that’s every year. So here we go!

• Read more than seventy books: I’ve upped it since I did so well this year. I don’t want to say that I’ll read 100+ because I’m hoping that I’ll have more social time this year. But we’ll see!
• Spend more time outside: There is a new social media movement that I’ve seen a lot of mothers going into with their kids. A study has proven that children’s development can be improved by spending 1,000 hours outside. I’m not a child, but I do think that modern society is hyper focused on the indoors and that I need to spend more time outside. Maybe not 1,000 hours, but certainly more than I do now.
• Eat more balanced: I’m going to try to move away from a scale goal and move onto a nutrition goal, after all the more balanced you eat the better your weight looks anyways, but I do want to focus on getting enough nutrition from fruits, veggies, carbs, proteins- the works.
• Be a more consistent blogger: Hi, yes, I know I haven’t been the best in 2020. I’ve already talked about this, but I want to do better next year! I do love this little space on the internet and though over the last few years I’ve scaled back on my operations. I still want to keep this place up to date and well loved.
• Spend more time writing on my novels: 2020 did a number on my writing, which is funny because you’d think with all the down time I would be writing more? I just was very uninspired. This year I hope will be different.
• Be better at reaching out to friends: I’ve closed myself off a little this year, somehow not being able to see people as much has made me not reach out to people as much, and I need to fix that!