Tag: goals

2021 Goals and Moving Forward

~ afledglingadult ~ Leave a comment

I have done my yearly goals on this blog for the past several years. While for the most part I have stuck to them I think announcing goals into the void can help hold myself accountable. After this past calendar year it feels impossible to prepare for the world that is coming, like it will continue to zig and zag in every direction (murder hornets anyone?). I feel like it is impossible to plan anything, but these goals are mostly small and habit oriented.

Home Goals:

  • We moved into a new apartment this year but it has been hard to feel like home. I don’t know if this is because of the stress, due to being unable to explore the neighborhood, or because we are messy. I really want to start making more of an effort:
    • Add all pictures to the walls and more home decor
    • Start our herb garden
    • Sweep every other day

Professional Goals:

  • I am very lucky that this year I kept my job in a year of mass layoffs. I also gained a lot of responsibilities to my position and started attended networking events within the position. I still want to look for ways to find a solid career path towards figuring out what I want to do forever by:
    • Create a list of recommendations
    • Actively network in work and with our partners
    • Start taking graduate school classes

Health Goals:

  • I got weird in terms of health this year. Between stress, family issues, and lockdowns it has been hard to be, let alone feel healthy. However, I am regularly drinking water and taking vitamins and moving my body everyday. This year I hope to go one step further:
    • Eat at least one cup of vegetables everyday
    • Sleep at least 7 hours a night
    • Find an exercise that works for 1 hours a week

Book Goals:

  • Reading is basically my number one hobby. I read a lot, I read about 140 something books this past year and bought a bunch as well. I did better on diversifying my reading, as well as intentionally reading more LGBTQ+ books. I want to continue to grow and be more in this space as it is what I truly enjoy.
    • Read 120 books over the year
    • Read at least one non-fiction book every month
    • Participate and complete (1) the Around the Year book challenge on Goodreads
    • Put my money where my mouth is and have at least 1 of every 2 books I buy be authored by a person of color.

General Goals:

  • I truly love baking and want to start baking at least once a month, if not more.
  • Connect with friends more frequently
  • Go back to therapy (this could be in health but truly has more to do with follow through than anything else)

Let me know if you have any goals for the upcoming year. Happy 2021!

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2020 Mid-Year Check-In

~ afledglingadult ~ Leave a comment

So somehow despite this year being a grab bag of disaster and upheaval we are 6 months in. It is wild how much has happened this year just Globally. Then, Nationally. Then, locally. Then, just me. It to me feels like each month has been its on mini-year. 2020 has aged me like nothing else. I don’t know about you. But I have spent so long thinking about my community and my people during this time that I haven’t really had the time or space to think about how I am doing. So I thought I would check-in with some of the goals I set and how I have been doing lately.

Professional Goals

  • I attended a virtual working group conference. It was supposed to happen in person. I am super bummed, I feel like I didn’t connect with the group as well as I would have if we had actually been together for four days.
  • I have taken quite a few GRE practice tests, but not the actual GRE. I am a chicken, but also it’s become very hard to take the test during this GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
  • I made friends at work… but many have left during this time or I don’t really get to see or interact them with due to remote working.

Financial Goals

  • I put more than expected into savings, but am expecting to spend a bit of it over the rest of the year due a move and likely having to buy a new car.
  • Activities have been cancelled and have been spending more money on take out and delivery services. Did buy some video games to play with my partner.

Health Goals

  • So I don’t know how many people this is true for but I feel like a lot of my general health went out the window starting with the pandemic. Not just because of the illness, but I started having extreme trouble sleeping. Mostly eating non-perishables, due to not wanting to go to the markets frequently.

Personal Goals

  • I have been catching up with a lot of people which is good.
  • I was hanging out with people before the pandemic, which was good and then almost immediately bad.
  • I have been watching a few more movies, since getting HBO Max. However, I am still thoroughly more into TV shows and have watch some amazing ones recently (special shout out to Sweet Magnolias and Infinity Train)

Writing Goals

  • I have been keeping up with journaling which will be super interesting to look back on in a couple years.
  • Work has been insane so I haven’t been feeling creative or like I want to expend energy creating.
  • Obviously fell a little behind with the blogging. It just didn’t feel like my time to speak. I did address this, but if you missed it just go here: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

Reading Goals

  • So this year I’ve read about 90 books. Which is a lot more than I had anticipated because time has changed. But during this time and space in life I have found a lot of comfort in returning to ANY PLACE ELSE.
  • Honestly, numbers wise I’ve read more disappointing books than normal, but percentage wise I’ve had a great reading year.
    • Some favorites: A River of Royal Blood; The War That Saved My Life; This is How You Lose a Time War
  • I have been finding that even though I have been trying to read more diversly for a while. I really wasn’t getting into the non-fiction or anti-racism education stuff. I am starting to do that.
    • I have started with Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. The next plan is to move to Pushed and White Fragility

I hope you all are doing okay and make sometime to check-in with yourself. Best of luck with the rest of 2020.

Goals for 2020

~ afledglingadult ~ Leave a comment

So 2020 is another long year. This past year was honestly pretty great. It started pretty rocky, learning how to live with my partner for the first time and just going on job interviews for months. It end up turning into a year of stability, getting into a pattern with work, the apartment, my partner. However, moving forward HeaI worry that it may turn into a year of stagnation. When things are easy it’s so easy to just not do anything. So moving forward these goals are about moving into a year of growth.

Financial Goals:

  • Put 4-5 grand into savings, I will probably have to buy a new car in the next two years.
  • Let my partner help me sign up for a credit card
  • Spend less money of things and more money on activities

Professional Goals:

  • Attend a networking event
  • Reconnect with some old political contacts
  • Take the GRE (and seriously consider grad school)

Health Goals:

  • Stretch everyday
  • Get 8 hours of sleep a night there is a no reason not to at the moment.
  • Eat a vegetable every day! (This one will be the hardest)

Personal Goals:

  • Go out of the house on dates once a month
  • Watch more movies, try to watch one a week
  • Make active time to hang out with friends like a human being.

Writing Goals:

  • Journal everyday in some form.
  • Try two different forms of drafting for my fiction writing
  • I’m sticking with my 3 posts a month for this next year.  I didn’t technically hit it but it was largely due to computer issues. (Stretch goal: once a week)

Reading Goals:

  • I am planning on committing to the Around the Year in 52 books challenge group on goodreads. There are a lot of cool prompts that should hopefully get me out of my comfort zone.
  • Finish more series
  • Feel less guilty about re-reads

What are your goals for the new year and the new decade?

 

Goals from this past year and how to make more…

~ afledglingadult ~ Leave a comment

Hello all.

So my computer has been dead and away these many weeks. I am getting it back on Monday. It was actually ready last week but guess what I was out of town!

So I today wanted to talk about making goals. Not just because it’s the end of the year or decade but also because recently I had to make goals at work. They had to fit organizational goals and be approved two levels but also had to be personal! It was really hard.

With work,  I had to deal with fact I don’t know that this is the job I want in a year. But I do know whenever I am ready to move on I need to make sure I got everything I can out of this while I can. Then I had to figure out what I wanted out of it! It was a lot of reflection for a 5 page form. But it really made me think about how I set my other goals in life.

I think the hardest part about creating a goal is you have to confront what you want and need as well as if you are actually doing what you need to do to get it. I have been saying for to years I want to go to grad school; every time I get around to making a plan or goals for the next couple months or steps of life I have to deal with the fact that I have done nothing to actually get into grad school. One of my big goals was to get my first credit card this year but… I never did it. It is so easy to apply and my boyfriend offered to help and friends and yet I never did it never followed through. WHY? That is what I need to figure out as I move into this new year.

Truthfully this came about because I was planning my goals of 2020 post (coming soon) and I was just going to move all the goals I didn’t finish into this new goal sheet. Then it came to me… why would I do that? Why wouldn’t I side step a goal or go back around to why I couldn’t/wouldn’t/wasn’t able to make the goal work.

So anyways for the most part except for my career goals I really succeeded or at least made significant steps  towards. The career goals I really need to re-examine what I want versus what I claim to want.

Happy goal setting!

 

 

Mid-year Goal Check-in

~ afledglingadult ~ Leave a comment

So it is about midyear which means the year is about half way over. This to me is just bizarre but maybe it’s because I wasn’t working and mostly just home for 3 months before I was employed. I thought I would check in with the goals I made through out the year and see what I have accomplished, what is still feasible, and what to adjust.

Life Goals:

  • I went to my friends wedding which you can learn about here.
  • Have not gotten a credit card yet but it is harder than I expected to choose a bank
  • Cooking is going well but it is hard to practice as much as I want cause my partner is such a good cook and makes a lot of our dinners.
    • For the second half of the year I’m going to focus on cooking more often and learning a new recipe once a month, not twice.

Career Goals:

  • GOT A JOB! Just had my three month review and feel confident in the job for a while.
  • I have had 2 public speaking engagements and hope to have more this year
  • I attended no networking events… I am very afraid to meet new people and make these new connections event though I should

Health Goals:

  • I have stuck very well to not buying pre-made desserts though sometimes my partner buys me a treat which is nice. Still trying to stick to this goal, but need to purchase more baking gear.
  • One meatless meal a week has proven to be much less of a problem than I had anticipated.
  • I really sucked at my water goal but two weeks ago I bought a waterbottle (honestly this was shocking)
    • The new goal is to finish one everyday (32 oz.)

Writing Goals:

  • So I have been doing a lot of work writing but my person writing has definitely fallen by the wayside.
    • Goal for the rest of the year is to edit two short stories and finish a rough draft of my novel that I have been planning for years
  • Blogging has not been going as well as I wanted (most of the time I don’t hit three). I didn’t do a review for May’s book club as it was ender’s game and I didn’t have anything new to say. My goal is to re-up in the new year.

Reading Goals:

  • I have read 67 books so far this year.
    • One DNF
    • My favorites so far this year:
      • Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard
      • The Forgotten Sisters by Shannon Hale
      • The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
  • I was really well on my way to reducing unread book I owned by then of course I bought more.
  • I have only read two 2019 releases but I am intending to read more in the back half of the year. They are more accessible in the library.
  • I finished 4 (ish!) series but to be fair two were duologies. I am going to attempt now to finish 9 series.

Wish me luck in the back half of the year meeting all my goals!

Reflection on 2018

~ afledglingadult ~ Leave a comment

This year I have met hundreds of people, traveled across the United States, and read more than I have ever in a year. It was a full and crazy 365 days.

I started 2018 as a recent college graduate with no job whose boyfriend was visiting for the holidays. I end the year as a professional adult with no job who just moved in with her boyfriend. I did work over the course of the year. I actually had three jobs, one working a labor job in a used book warehouse, and two in my field, political organizing.

My family went to Alaska! We plateaued into an ongoing state of existence that we will hopefully we steady in. My sister started high school. I moved out. My brother moved from his jail cell to a mental institution where hopefully he can get the help he needs. We lost our elderly dog just a couple weeks ago, she was just in too much pain. It was a big year of evening out the rocky results of 2017.

I grew so much as a professional. I got up everyday and went to the same place. I learned how to manage other people. I learned how to manage myself! (Much more impressive. Trust.)

I joined groups and made friends, discovered mentors. Reconnected with old pals from high school and before. I was more social and free and open than I had been in years. Being in therapy for the whole year definitely helped with that. I got closure I didn’t know I needed from friends I didn’t know I still had.

Even though I failed almost half the resolutions I set myself this year I feel like I got more than I expected from 2018. After so many down years it was nice to have a positive one. I hope you all got through this year in one piece.

Wish 2019 luck, we are coming.

Looking forward

~ afledglingadult ~ Leave a comment

2017 was a weird year. There was a lot of good things: I finished my bachelors degree, I interned for a mayoral campaign, I lived and worked in Boston, I vacationed with my friends and boyfriend, I started reading and writing again.  There was also a lot of really bad things: the loss in my family, my mental health was bad and had significant relapse, I had to let go of friends that turned out not to be positive people in my life even though I thought they would last a lifetime.

2018 will be better. 2018 must be better even though it will be significantly harder than I would like transitioning into life after college, a long distance relationship, and still coping with lose and mental health. So I have some goals to keep progressing in my life.

Writing Goals:

  • Post on my blog once a week, deadline before midnight on Sunday (better than keeping track of 7 days)
  • Finish draft one of the novel I started at the end of 2017.
  • Enter 4 writing competitions for short stories or poetry

Reading Goals:

  • Read 100 books again this year:
    • including 5 books that come out in 2018
    • Read 5 new to me authors
  • Keep up with non-fiction reading that applies to my field (Political Science) now that I have left school — two courses of reading

Personal Goals:

  • Finally get a credit card because debit cards have kept me from ever over-drafting but also I need to build a credit score
  • Get a job, this is already underway I am working on a campaign for free but am not doing anything for money which currently am trying to fix. It would be fine with me to get experience for no money as long as I can build up savings at the same time.
  • Get better at technical baking,  I would like to learn how to make the different types of meringues and sponges (The Great British Bake Off changed my year)
  • See my now long distance boyfriend in person at least once, stretch goal is three times but this is probably not going to happen.