2018 Goals

Happy New Year! I had a great New Year's Eve, attending a party with friends, and have been taking it easy today. But I've been thinking about my goals for the year, and wanted to share for accountability purposes.

First off, I want to add one quick update to my 2017 Year in Review - I finished book 53 before heading out to the party last night, making my page count 17194. I'm sure I had many years as a kid where I read more than that, but this is my highest count since I started tracking.

And now for my goals!

1. Read at least 48 books - this is the same goal I set last year. I commute by train now, and I always have a book with me in case of unexpected downtime, so this seems to be an easy goal for me.
2. Relatedly, I have a huge stack of to-read books, so I'm making a resolution that I can't buy any books this year. Instead, I need to read all of the books on my to-read shelves (yes, there are multiple). I am allowed to borrow books, from the library or friends, and I can receive books as gifts, but no purchases. I have a feeling this one is going to be very hard.
3. Write at least 12 short stories - Ray Bradbury recommends writing one per week, but with a full-time job, multiple hobbies, and a social life, that's going to be difficult. I think one per month is a good goal, and I can always exceed it if I'm feeling particularly inspired.
4. Make sure I always post my weekly statistics posts: Statistics Sunday and Statistical Sins. For that reason, I'm not going to make the goal of writing 1 post per day. I'm happy with 3-4 posts per week, and once again, I can exceed that if I'm feeling particularly inspired.
5. Build up more of an online presence for Deeply Trivial, including Twitter and Facebook. I just need to finish something up first - stay tuned!
6. Visit a new state - I've visited 35 of them, so I want to bring that total to 36 by the end of 2018! Most of the states I have left are on the East Coast or Northern Midwest, so I have some easy ones I can hit on a road trip. But who knows? Maybe I'll spoil myself with a trip to Hawaii this year instead.
7. I always make a goal to eat healthier and get in better shape, but I plan on really putting some effort into it this year. (My weight has been creeping up and I'm not happy about it.) I already go to a dance class once a week, so I think I can add a goal of getting a workout in 1-2 more times per week.
8. Finish my book! I've been working on the book I wrote for 2016 NaNoWriMo - I still have one subplot to wrap up, and a few more scenes to write.

You'll notice I'm calling them goals rather than resolutions (well, except #2). I've blogged previously about the problem with resolutions. I called them resolutions last year, but after putting more thought into the idea recently, I think goals is more true to my approach to making New Year's resolutions. But if you insist...