I typically hate making New Year’s resolutions because it’s my belief that you should do so throughout the whole year! But I do still love them because it’s good motivation!
Reading resolutions
- Read more. Last year I only read twenty books. That is positively abysmal for me!! I used to read 100+ books a year, and at my peak I read almost 150. I set my Goodreads challenge goal at 25 so that I won’t be disappointed if I fall behind, but this year I’d really love to read 50 books! My ideal goal is to read one book a week!
- Stop accepting/requesting review copies I won’t read. I’m usually pretty good about being extremely selective with these, but I downloaded quite a few last year that are still sitting on my TBR and I have little desire to read them. It feels like an unnecessary obligation!
- Clean up existing review copies. I’d love to get to 100% on NetGalley and Edelweiss again!
- Venture outside my reading bubble. I fell into a very deep YA fantasy and sci-fi rut in 2017. I didn’t read a single contemporary! While those two genres are my comfort zone, and my favorites, I’d really like to branch out this year and read some contemporary and Adult books! Actually, I really want to read some Adult fantasy!
Blogging/bookstagram resolutions
- Blog more! In the past couple of years I’ve really let the blog go in favor of bookstagram. Really, having the candle shop ate up all my other hobbies. But in the past week I’ve been blogging again and it made me realize how much I miss it! I will probably never be back to full time like I used to be, but I’d love to be more active on here.
- Catch up on reviews. I am SO behind on book reviews! I have about 12 that I never wrote last year, heh.
- Bring back some old blog events. I kinda missed my opportunity to bring back the Sequel Challenge (something to shoot for in 2019?), but I’d love to bring back one of the readathons I used to do, and maybe even a meme!
- Be more consistent and active on bookstagram. I’ve been terrible lately! December really threw me off. I miss the bookstagram community :(
- Be a better rep. I’ve also let my rep positions slack as of late. I feel like I haven’t been doing such a great job and I hate it. I want to post twice a week for all of them!
- Accept less obligations. I have a bad habit of not being able to say no to promo requests, and while I have great intentions, I tend to forget or slack on things and it gets put off. I hate feeling like I’m letting people down!!! I need to learn how to say no!
- Get better at returning comments and interaction. I’ve been SO bad lately – I do read them, but I tend to get busy and forget to return them. And I don’t want people to feel like I don’t appreciate their comments, because I really do! The fact that anyone cares about what I have to say makes what I do worthwhile. I want to be more appreciative to that this year!
Lifestyle resolutions
- Do away with made to order on the shop. I have really loved having a stock built up and ready to go. It makes life SO much easier, and cuts down on how long my customers have to wait. I’m bad about doing restocks as made to order because people want the product. I want to start pre-pouring my restock items and new candle releases!
- Be healthier. I seriously let myself go last year. I’m at the highest weight I’ve ever been, and I am extremely unhappy with myself and where I’m at. I feel like crap all of the time because I eat like crap. I really want to get back into making protein shakes as meal replacements every other day or so, and eat more fruits and veggies as snacks instead of junk. I’ve also resolved to start going back to the gym, I’m SO out of shape! I miss feeling strong. I think if I could get into shape and eat healthier, I would feel better.
- Lose 20+ pounds. This goes with the last one. I would love to be back down to what I used to be (looking at old photos of myself KILLS me), but I’d be happy just to lose 20 pounds. Ideally I’d love to lose 40 by the end of the year, but I don’t want to set my expectations too high.
- Save more money. I have some seriously terrible spending habits. I really need to crack down on myself and quit spending so much. Having a bit of a cushion in savings would be amazing.
- Pay off 1 credit card. Let’s face it, my credit card debt is embarrassing. I really want to start working toward getting rid of it.
- Stay organized. I bought an Erin Condren planner last fall (best. planner. EVER!) and I’ve been doing pretty good keeping up with it the last couple of months. I love it so much! I get my stickers from BeaYOUtiful Planning, hers are the absolute best I’ve found and have everything I need. It’s fun AND keeps me organized!
These are great goals…and I have just the readathon for you to bring back If we start planning now, we’ll have plenty of time! *huggles*
Omg yes!!! Please!
Good luck with all of your goals! I hope you have a great 2018!
Thank you so much, Kristyn! I hope you do too!
I am also struggling with my weight and other health issues related to it that have cropped up. I am working on trying to slowly change my diet, and adding more walking into my normal day. I also think getting a CPAP in February (fingers crossed) will be very beneficial, as the pulmonologist even said that sleep can have an effect on your metabolism and be a vicious cycle. I’m also working on paying off my credit card debt and being able to pay charges off monthly! After finally paying off my engagement ring (after my engagement ended) and the 10K in debt he racked up, I consolidated MY credit card debt at that time into a loan through my credit union. I am also going to be working on transferring a 1K balance over to a low interest CC and paying all down until I reach that point where I can pay off the charges monthly. Look into your financial institution and see if they can work with you to consolidate it. From what I did with my CU, my monthly payment is $161. I can’t wait til that is paid in full, and cutting down the rest. Good luck with your goals this year!
It’s SO hard!! My dad has to wear a CPAP because he has sleep apnea. I’m worried that I have it as well – the idea of wearing a mask to bed is horrific, but you’re right, sleep is definitely key! I haven’t been sleeping well for months and I think that’s taking a toll as well.
It would be so amazing to get to the point where I could pay off charges monthly. It’s become a bad habit to see it as “free” money when I don’t have the money otherwise =/
Girl, I feel like we have so much in common! I was engaged as well and that ended. Thankfully he didn’t rack up that much, but I did take out a loan for 2K in my name to pay off his debt. Which I never saw again, of course. I may look into consolidating once my current loan is paid off. I’ve only got a couple months left! So what was yours before you consolidated? I think I’m spending damn near $500 a month between 4 credit cards and a loan…
I think the mask will be an adjustment, since I like to sleep on my left side. I haven’t been getting good sleep for 2 years and been fighting the system to get a new pulmonologist who will actually help me resolve my sleep issue. I use my CC for everything because the laws protect you better than with your debit card. So I was paying for two households while paying off our engagement rings and the 10K he had racked up on our AmEx. Once those were paid, I called my CU asking about consolidating my CC debt. It was somewhere close to 5K. Since it wasn’t a “large” amount (I think if you go close to 10K you have to have collateral), I was able to just set it up easily. At the same time, the amazing Dennis told me they could do way better on my Jeep’s loan, which I was going to tackle next. He went ahead and did it all up so my loan is $161 and my Jeep payment is down to $415 (with GAP insurance). I also have my student loan, too. All three of those are more than halfway paid off now. Currently, I have about 2K sitting on my Jeep CC which has a 5.99 lifetime interest rate and I’ve got 1K still available on it. I have about 500 on my Amazon CC and close to 1K on my TJX, and about 350 on my Cabela’s. I’m going to move the TJX over to my Jeep CC and pay all of the high-interest ones down. I’ve only paid 50 for the last two months on my Jeep CC so I could put more toward the others. I am still paying for my laptop (should be paid this summer) and for our cruise in July. I was debt free after I paid everything last February, and then I had car stuff come up and I did buy a lot of stuff last year for my bullet journal. I spent a nice chunk of change at Christmas, but it wasn’t horrible. With my income tax coming in, it should also help pay down in addition to my income. I am spending 300 alone in gas and tolls because my family is not where I work. I tried leaving my district and none of the schools near The Man wanted to touch dealing with my contract for this school year, even though there was time. I had 10 interviews over the summer and 3 principals specifically said they wanted to hire me…until they asked about being contracted. So there’s 300 each month and 600 for my rent closer to where I work. I am going to be so glad when I don’t have to deal with all that mess when we can live under the same roof every day. It will be a significant change in how I can manage my money and actually start socking some away. My recommendation is see if you can consolidate them into a loan with your bank for the highest interest CCs. Or research CCs doing no interest balance transfers, which is how I ended up with my Jeep CC.