Tag: books

Hi there. I try not to focus on New Year’s Resolutions. In fact, I gave up stating mine publicly for a few years. I can tell you, they were mostly about weight loss anyway, and a lot of good that did me (sarcasm). However, this coming year, I am going to talk about resolutions I made for myself because I’d like to stick with them and I think I am ready to do that.

I decided that for each category of goals, I’d like to have a generic goal and then a focused goal. You’ll see what I mean.

Reading

My reading generic goal in 2022 is to read 30 books. I know that is such a low number, but I haven’t read much the past 2 years. I think this is a good starting out goal and that I can manage to complete it. I want to read. I am getting back into reading and I am enjoying it once again. I think 30 is a good jumping off point as I can always adjust to read more (or less) if I want.

I am going to document the books I read on the Storygraph app as Good Reads didn’t hold my interest. Now it is owned by Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and it is less appealing to me. I heard a Booktuber talk about Storygraph so I am going to give it a try. I am also going to keep a reading journal as well. I am very excited about this.

My reading focus is to read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. My dad took me to see the 2002 movie in the theaters. Afterwards, I wanted to read the book, which my dad owned. I got maybe 10 pages in? At this time, I was not a reader. I only read books that were required reading for school. I didn’t become a bookaholic until my mid to late 20s, although I did choose to read for myself from time to time in my teens and early 20s, but it wasn’t often.

Anyway, The Count of Monte Cristo was difficult for me, but I did try again a few years later. Again, I gave up under 30 pages. I didn’t enjoy reading much and especially not classics (unless we are talking Edgar Allen Poe, whom I was obsessed with).

As a tribute to my father and the memory I have of going with him to the theater to see the movie, discussing it, and him handing the book to me to read, I am going to tackle The Count of Monte Cristo once more. And with my love of reading and my love of the classics, I am going to finish it by the end of the year.

Writing

My writing generic goal in 2022 is writing more. Being more active on here. Giving you a mixture of reviews, short stories (on and off WATL), maybe some author interviews, and blogs. I hope that Jen becomes active again on here and we can collaborate on ideas and posts. I know she is planning to write again and I look forward to it.

My writing focus is to write 8,000 words per month, preferably on the idea(s) I have for a novel(s). I would like to be finished the first draft of one of my novels by the end of the year and have all the research done for another novel and maybe the start of a draft for that one.

That means, I would have to write 2,000 words a week. That equates to just under 300 words a day. This is definitely doable as long as I stay motivated. If I miss a day or two, I just have to make up the word count and how hard will that be if I am on a roll? 300 words is easy to write. I feel like if I start writing with a decent amount of time on my hands, I could easily do 2,000 words in one sitting, but if not I have that safety net of “Well, I got in 300 words today so I hit my goal.” Then I can brainstorm and work out any issues I had from this day to conquer the next.

Traveling

My traveling generic goal is to go to 12 new places. This can be anywhere in the tri-state area (NJ, PA, DE). That means, once a month, I would like to do something out of my comfort zone. For example, by the time this blog is posted, I will have been to the Philadelphia Zoo. Have I been there before? Yes. However, they are doing a holiday event with lights and I am looking forward to it. Plus, I haven’t been there in years. I would count that as a “new” place, but I am also trying to go to actual new-to-me places. I also don’t want to count the same place twice. So if I go to the Philadelphia Zoo again for a different event, it wouldn’t count.

My traveling focus is to do 2 big trips/vacations this year. This means more than a day trip and hopefully to other states. I know we are planning to go to CA, so I’d like to get another trip in as well.

Personal Goals

I was debating whether or not to put this out there, but I think I will. My major personal goal is to start and maintain a YouTube channel. I have been wanting to do that since 2013, when I have a Facebook post documenting that I tried to film a video. In January of 2020, I sat down and filmed a video. Or at least tried to. It didn’t work out. The attempt got deleted.

July of 2020, I filmed 2 videos and almost finished editing one, when I got major life changing news. The type of videos I was going to make wasn’t going to work out because of it. So the edited video and the second unedited video were deleted.

September of 2020, I switched my camera settings to a better quality and filmed another video idea. However, my computer did not support those settings and I wasn’t going to pay for a converter, so I deleted that video as well.

In 2021, I kept battling myself on what type of videos to do. Book, weight loss, or travel content. I had finally decided on travel/book mixture because I could document my newest journey of starting out as a travel agent (it’s a part time job for now).

Ultimately, I think for now I am going to just do book content for now and go from there. Hopefully, over time I can throw some travel content in there and tie it into books (by visiting bookshops wherever I go, going to a location that I read in a book, or something along those lines).

Another goal of mine, and one I make every year, is to lose weight. I had a goal to lose a certain amount of weight by March of 2022, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. So I am hoping to be down that amount by September of 2022.

Conclusion

I am hoping that with this out there on a public website, I can take my resolutions seriously and meet my goals. There are a lot. I think some of them will be put on the back burner, but I am going to try not to let that happen.

Do you have resolutions for 2022? If not, why not? If so, what are some goals you have?