Hi everyone! Happy Monday! I hope you are all enjoying your holiday time, and that you had a great Christmas (if you celebrate), and December (if you don’t)! Today I’m going to be looking back at those goals I set for myself back in January of this year!

If you’re curious you can check out my original 2023 goals post, and my mid-year check in post.

Alright, let’s just jump right into it, shall we?

Bookish (Reading & Blogging) Goals

Read Less.

At the beginning of the year, I set out to try and read less, slow my pace down, enjoy reading and not force myself to read all the time (as I do it at work). I wanted to take the time to do more and not always be reading.

So I set my Goodreads Reading Challenge to 90 books. As of right now I have read 98 books this year. This is the first year that I’ve read under 100 since starting to participating in the challenge back in 2014. So I think I’ve slowed my reading down, or maybe life just did that for me anyways!

Blog More.

Well! I was just looking at some of my stats for this year, I’m up to 202 posts this year (by the end of the year [meaning tomorrow 😂] it will be 204). I definitely think that I blogged a lot more this year than in past years. I did a lot this year and I made sure to blog about it, whether it be bookish or not. I love documenting my life and I’m going to continue to do so in 2020!

Soc-Meds More. 

Now, I was doing so well with using social media throughout the first half of the year, even into the second half of the year, but once November/December rolled around I feel I fell off the wagon a bit, especially with my Instagram. I found that as the year wound-down I just lost the effort and energy to take any photos. I’m going to try again in 2020, but I make no promises!
As for my Twitter, I think I tweeted quite a bit, (I made it to over 9000 tweets [doesn’t even sound like I’ve been using my account for 10 years!]) I made some changes. The major one being that I changed my Twitter handle from @miiloh to @whimsicalmeghan which was a big deal for me, but I’m very happy with the change. I’m ready to make my tweets more bookish in 2020!

Personal Goals

Stress Less.

Well, I can’t really say I stressed any more or less than past years, it was kinda the same. I can always carry this into next year as it’s a habit to keep up!

Chill More.

Ah, chilling! In my mid-year post I asked myself if I chilled more, and again I ask myself that same question, did I chill more? Who actually can quantify that? 🤔

Anyways, I made a list for myself of all the things I love doing, and that I should do more of (besides reading and blogging):

1. Baking 🍪🍰I think I over exceeded my baking in October. I baked 3 out of 4 Saturdays in the month (SO much pumpkin loaf!)… and then I just stopped. I did bake twice in the span of 3 days in December for Christmas. But as for the year as a whole, I baked cookies that weren’t from scratch to get me in the baking spirit. I baked my famous apple cake for my brother’s birthday… I undercooked some cookies, and that turned me off baking for a bit. I made a lemon poppyseed loaf for Easter. Then I went on my trip and the summer happened so I didn’t bake until the end of August, brownies for a potluck. I also made cookies between September and October a few times… all that to say, I really need to get my baking groove back.
2. Knitting. I’m going to sit here and laugh because I STILL haven’t knit a damn thing this year. Maybe 2020 will be the year I bring it back… I miss it.
3. Catch up on all the TV shows I said I was going to watch. This seems like such an unattainable goal because the list is always changing! When I wrote my check in post I listed off a few TV shows… but I feel like the list has gotten longer. For now I’m going to say that it’s a work in progress.
4. Continue learning French and German on Duolingo. So I stopped learning German because it was taking too much out of me. I have to admit Duolingo isn’t the best app out there to learn a language… it’s cute and fun, but it doesn’t give you the best structure. It’s based on repetition and because I’ve never learned German grammar I had a really hard time trying to conjugate German verbs, whereas French I learned that in school so my working knowledge of French is SO much better. I’m still using Duolingo for French (I just recently got obsessed with their stories feature) and when I wrote my check in post, I was at a 34 day streak… now I’m at a 35 day streak… it’s still my goal to reach 365!
5. Travel. After my big UK trip… I didn’t go anywhere. A little deflating, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m very okay with that because I did a lot, whether it was concerts or hanging out with friends.

Be Better.

At the beginning of the year I pretty much screamed you’ll never catch me in a gym… and that still rings true, you won’t. I have too much anxiety about people watching me (I’m like that about running outside, people can see me and make fun of me… I don’t know where this paranoia came from, but it’s hella strong.) But like I mentioned, I bought a bike to be more in shape… have I ridden my bike?!?! It shames me to say that I think I rode my bike a total of under 10 times this whole year. I feel at this point saying I’m going to try harder next year is not keeping me accountable… I need to up my ante, pull up my socks… maybe money needs to be involved ha!

I talked about eating better, but as I said mid-year, I’m eating the same as I did in the beginning. Nothing has changed on that front. I also talked about my water consumption; I’m still trying to drink at least 4 cups a day (I’m probably only swinging 3 most days) but at least I’m drinking water.

I lastly said I wanted to do better for the environment in any way that I could, and I honestly don’t think I’ve done much in that department either.

Wow, looking back at my goals… blogging and reading I did really well… my personal ones, wooo did I flop. I guess I should start making my 2020 goals, smaller and more achievable!