The new year always makes me a little hopeful. I mean, how could it not? 365 fresh days to get off my bullshit and be better. That’s never how it ACTUALLY works, but it’s worth a try. So, what are this year’s goals? Maybe putting them out into the ether will help me actually stay on new bullshit. Either way, I set a bunch, and I’m hoping a monthly overview and roundup at the beginning/end of each month will be helpful for staying on them! This year’s goals are broken out into a few different sections: career/life, sewing and blogging, reading, and exercise. Let’s get into it!

Career/Life:

Guys, this is the scariest section here. Three months ago, I (kind of) quit my job, M took a new job, and we moved halfway around the world. I applied to grad school, where I did not get in – and we’re holding on to the fact that I was working in English, the exam was in German, and said exam took place at 4:30AM – and the deal was that I reapply this year. The application opens April 15 and then I will have 2.5 months to retool my essays and reapply. Assuming I make it through Phase 1 again, at least the exam will be at 10:30AM instead. OH. And I need to get a job. It doesn’t need to be a big career move (it almost definitely won’t be, considering we aren’t in Frankfurt or Berlin or Bonn), but I have to have something. Working 2-10PM has been killing me slowly, as much as I thought that would be fine. I’ve applied a few places, but we’ll see what happens – I definitely need something soon though, and speaking more German more regularly will also be helpful for the grad school process! On the more fun, less existentially terrifying side of things, M and I are hoping to (finally) get a puppy this year. We’ve been talking about it for a long time and my therapist was encouraging it and trying to get our landlord on board before we moved. We pushed hard when we moved in here for language in the lease specifically allowing a pup, and we’re hoping to find one soon after we get back from our vacation in February (‘rona willing). Next month’s vacation is the only one we’re planning where we can’t travel with a pup – God bless Europe, their love of dogs, and their willingness to let the dogs go everywhere.
Goal Breakdown: Get a job, apply to grad school (and get in!), get a puppy

Sewing & Blogging:

HA. This one eludes me every damn year. Really. I’ve been paying wordpress $99 a year for this site for years, and we can all see how much work I do with this blog. I think the goal here is weekly, at least to start. The plan is to draft on Mondays and post on Tuesdays – apparently that’s what you’re supposed to do, schedule your writing/posting. I don’t know, it feels weird and not at all organic, but I’ve also always been terrible at keeping a journal/diary. Ultimately, this comes down to something M said to me before we moved. He suggested I really make a go at this, see what happens. And we’ve moved, and I can make excuses about being depressed and grieving, but the reality is that it’s HARD to sit down and write about sewing when I’ve been struggling to sew. So, maybe this isn’t a sewing blog sometimes. Maybe you’ll get travel recaps, or recipe recommendations, or I’ll spend a page bitching about whatever. Maybe if I sit down and write once a week, this will get easier. And this feeds into my sewing goal (again, encouraged by M) – I have a massive pile of UFOs (list for our next post), and I would like to finish some projects so I can maybe work on some of the rogue projects floating in my brain. I also am hoping to submit the “When There Are Nine” quilt for the 2023 QuiltCon Show, which means I need to finish it.
Goal Breakdown: Blog once a week, sew down the UFO pile, submit “When There Are Nine” to QuiltCon 2023.

Reading:

I came SO CLOSE to finishing this one last year but didn’t, so I’m keeping the same book goal of 24 books. I’m expecting our weekly post to include a “what I’m reading” section to keep track. I managed 19 books in 2021 and am using StoryGraph and Goodreads to track my progress as well. I know, I know – Goodreads is owned by Amazon, and they are trash, but I’ve been tracking with them for so long that it feels wrong to not update what I’m currently reading in their app. StoryGraph is doing a January pages challenge where you just need to read one page a day (and track it) and I’m hoping this helps me stay on top of my reading.
Goal Breakdown: Read 24 Books in 2022

Exercise:

Well, we bought a Peloton bike. We made it our last dating anniversary gift to ourselves. M has been trying for the last two years to convince me that we need it and I’d been extremely resistant – I was going to Pure Barre and running with friends, a bike seemed a silly purchase. And then we moved, I lost Pure Barre and have no running friends here yet, and he started using the app. So when Black Friday rolled around, we took the plunge. Our bike was delivered at the beginning of December and I rode something like 177 miles through the month. It’s been really good for me, and I’m hoping to keep that going. I’d also like to add more strength training back in – I desperately miss barre classes, and Peloton barre is not what I’m after. To make sure I don’t hurt myself, this goal has levels. At a bare minimum, I’m wanting to do SOMETHING every day. 5 minutes of yoga or a full body stretch is great. At slightly above rational, I want bronze in every Peloton monthly challenge – 10 miles running, 50 miles biking, 10 days of activity, and 5 strength workouts. The insane level is working out every day and using low impact rides or barre classes as recovery, which is unrealistic and very probably not safe, so we’ll keep focus on the Bronze/daily activity thing (getting a pup and adding 20-30 min walks 2-3 times a day will help also).
Goal Breakdown: Do something every day (5 min yoga or 10 min full body stretch is great!). Bronze in every monthly challenge: 10 days of activities, 10 miles running, 50 miles biking, 5 strength classes.

And I think that’s the end of the annual goal writeup. In a wild twist, I’ll be back tomorrow with January’s bite-size goals and first post of this once a week attempt – that’s right, I’m not counting this one! I’ll be playing with what a weekly post will look like, since most of the time this whole themed stream of consciousness that most bloggers do is not something that keeps me on track. Maybe I’ll get there, but I think I’ll need something structured for a while. Long story short, if you’re going to read, hang in there while I work on figuring this out!

Happy New Year!