Hi friends and happy Mid-Year! I can’t believe that half of 2023 is already over – where is the year going?! I have to say though, this year has been going better than last and that’s all I can ask for; I continue to hope that the rest of the year is looking good. But before we jump into the future, today I’m going to be taking a look at the goals I set for myself back in January to see how I’m doing!

Like I do every year 😅 I make goals in January… then forget to look at them until my mid-year check in post, so I’m really on brand for myself. I haven’t looked at the goals I made in this post, probably since I published it. Although, to be fair some of them I do remember because I make an effort to track them. So let’s just get right into it!

Bookish Goals

Read 100 books. Let’s start with the easy, shall we. I use both Goodreads and The StoryGraph to track my reading. 100 books is like bare minimum for me to read in a year. As of this post I’m 65 books in and am in good shape to completing this goal!

Read More Diversely. This is another goal that I track using Notion. I’m really loving Notion – it’s great! But getting back to this goal, well, I’m still struggling:

I was hoping to be doing a little better, but when I compare the numbers from last year this time I had read 62% white authors, so baby steps in the right direction to making this an even split!

Start doing challenges on StoryGraph. I started the year strong with this one… and then I stopped. I did one challenge in January and then fell off, oops. Although, now that they introduced the page reading streak feature, I feel like that falls into the challenge category. Some days I forget to update it, but so far I’m on a 41 day streak. My longest has been 82 – striving for that 365 though. There is also time to do a few more challenges!

Use Twitter More. Well, this one is an utter fail. I mean, I can still work on doing this, but as of now… I’ve only really tweeted out my blog links. I don’t know Twitter just doesn’t seem like the place I want to be… especially with how crazy it keeps getting. Maybe I need to make a private account and shout into the void that way? Who knows. The thought of tweeting sounds great, but me actually doing it, is another thing.

Use Instagram More. Now, this I can say is a success. I post regularly on Fridays now where I talk about my current Classic read and that has been a lot of fun. I post a lot of stories than anything else, but I’m just having fun with this – I don’t want to set a schedule or anything.

Continue to Make YouTube Videos. Another success! I’ve been pretty consistent on the Tube! I try to aim for once a week – sometimes that doesn’t happen (depends on how fast I read) but it’s been going really well. I think I have a nice little following, too! I’m proud with how my Stephen King videos have been coming out too!

Personal Goals

Keep Track of ALL My On-Going Projects. And I have a lot of them… somehow I’ve been able to keep up with all of them and I have NO idea how. I have a feeling as we continue on into the year I’m going to have to cut back on some of them but let’s give a little check in.

• My Stephen King Project. This is going strong. This one has been easy for me to keep up with because it’s something I only do once a week and I try to make the chapters/parts manageable for me to read. So far this year I’ve read 1 comic, 1 novel, and 1 short story/novella collection. I’m currently part-way through another novel now, so things have been great here.
• My Classics Challenge. This is new this year… and somehow I’ve managed to read about a chapter every day (there have been a few days where I had to skip, but they are really rare!). Clearly, this has stuck as I’ve had quite a few Classics posts go up this year, and it’s really brought me out of my comfort zone with reading and I like that. Up to now, I’ve read 9 classic books! I’m really impressed with myself!
• The Canada Reads Challenge. As I do every year, read all 15 long-listed books. So far, I believe I’m halfway, I’m at 7 books so far. I have 8 more to go (I have one on my shelf waiting for me). This year’s list of books have been really good (so far). I’ve rated them all either 4 or 5 stars, love it!
• My Star Trek Journey. I feel like I’m really flying through this one. I’m coming to the end of Deep Space Nine. ☹️ If I’m being honest, I think this is my favourite Star Trek series yet. I’ve heard a lot of people really liked it, and I can see why. I have about 4 more series left to watch plus 3 more movies, so there is still far to go in my trek, but the end is definitely a lot closer!
• My Disney Challenge. This is another new challenge this year, and I’d like to say I’m rocking it too. So far I’ve finished both the 40s and 50s (50s pt. 2) and am now on my way through the 60s. It has not always been an easy challenge (both in watching some of these, but also finding the weird obscure ones) but it’s been an experience that I’m not tired of…yet! 😂

I have loads of projects on the go, but I’m happy to see how well I’m doing in all of them!

Bake at Least Once a Month. Welp, this started strong… then stopped. We got a new oven the beginning of this year and so learning to use it has been a learning curve… my baking just hasn’t been the same. I made cookies a few times and they always came out hard. Now I’m just afraid to make anything… so I haven’t baked since January. I also haven’t been feeling it this year. It’s also been a busier year for me too.

Travel More. This one is part of the reason this year has been busier, I’ve been traveling more! I took my first plane ride since covid, woo! I went to Washington D.C. in May you can read all about it here or see all about it here. I also did a day trip to Buffalo and I explored some of Ontario when I went book-hopping. I’m so happy to be out and about again!

Continue to Knit. I don’t talk about it much anymore, but I still knit almost every day. I finished up a blanket in January and I’ve now been knitting a little scarf. I love knitting, it’s so relaxing (mostly… when things are going well!).

Continue Learning French and Italian on Duolingo. I’m still going strong! Every day before lunch (is when I try to do it… some days just don’t work that way). I also try to do at least 1 lesson in both French and Italian. I’m a 1317 day streak. I’m getting so close to 1500! That’s my next goal… but like I said in January, it’d be cool to reach 2000 too!

Continue to Drink More Water. This one I do pretty well. I need to do better on weekends, those are the days when I’m not sitting at a desk with it in front of me so I forget!

Start Stretching More. My stretching regiment hasn’t really changed much – if anything I do more strength stretching now than I was doing before. I can feel it in my arms and my core a bit more so I’m happy about that.

Continue to Grow and Be a Work In Progress. Well, since this year is going better than last – I think that’s a sign of my growth. I’ve noticed a few things that would have made me act differently last year than this year and I’m proud of myself for that. So, I’m going to continue to grow and be that work in progress!

And just like that we’ve made it to the end! If you made it this far, thank you! I hope you’re year is looking good so far, and if it isn’t, I hope it turns around for you in the second half of the year! How is your year looking, let me know in the comments below!