New Year New Me in 2020

Happy New Year y’all! As I look back on 2019, I can honestly say that it was a good year. That doesn’t mean it was without its own storms, but overall it was a good year. I found a reading groove again. I’m finally enjoying reading and blogging after two years of it feeling like a chore. I met new friends and took on new responsibilities while still engaging with old friends. I’m happy which is something I couldn’t say at the end of 2018.

As I look forward to what this new year will bring, I’m excited. We have a lot of changes going on in our life. We made a hard decision to pull our son from his school and begin homeschooling. I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited about the freedom it will bring to explore the things he enjoys all while learning. We start in two weeks so y’all send the good vibes 😉

For the last five years I’ve shared my New Year’s Resolutions with you all, and I’d like to continue that tradition. Here are my resolutions for 2020, split up into three categories: Bookish, Blogging, and Personal.

Bookish Resolutions

Read 100 books in 2020.

This is one of my resolutions every year. So far 2018 was the only year I didn’t meet my Goodreads goal of 100 books. I’m happy to report that in 2019 I read 108 books 🙌 This year I’m keeping my goal at 100, but I’m hoping to read closer to 125. I’ll keep you posted 😉

Make at least half of my reads in 2020 books from my TBR shelf.

This is another resolution that is a part of my goals every year. For the first time ever, I can say that in 2019 I did this. Well almost. I read 44 books from my TBR shelf. These were *mostly* books I owned before the year started with a few from the library. My goal for 2020 is to continue reading those books that have sat dusty on a shelf, forgotten and lonely.

Listen to one audiobook a week.

Over the last couple of years I’ve rediscovered my love of audiobooks. It’s fantastic for me because I can multitask while listening meaning I can get work/chores done while reading. It’s a win-win in my book! This year I’m hoping to increase my reading by listening to a book a week.

Read past due ARCs.

Every year I say this, and every year I fail. I made a decent dent in my past due ARCs during 2019. I’m hoping that this is the year I catch up. My goal is to wipe the slate clean in 2020, ending the year with only ARCs for the next year. I can do it….I think I can *chants* 🚂

Blogging Resolutions

Write reviews as I finish the book.

Y’all this is a huge one for me. So far in 2019, I was able to keep up with this. Occasionally I’d get behind, but no more than a week’s worth of reads. I’m determined to keep this goal. My blogging partner and I set up our own Google drive full of templates which has helped with distractions while writing up posts. Plus it makes it easier on me to go in, write my post (which I can do on my phone if I want) and then format later when I have time. It’s been one of the best changes I made for the blog.

Continue to post 5x a week.

Last year I made this one of my resolutions, and I’m happy to say it stuck. Most weeks we averaged 5-6 posts with a few weeks with 4 posts or even 7 posts. I’m proud of the work we’re doing, and I hope to continue to deliver quality content to y’all ☺️

Blog AHEAD.

This has been one of the hardest resolutions I’ve put out there every year. However in 2019 I finally got ahead and we are staying ahead. I love it!! My plan this year is to continue this so we always have something for you to read when you visit our blog.

Socialize.

During 2019, I kinda took a break from the social media scene. I was still there, I still posted, but I didn’t interact much (except with those I knew). As for the reason, it was a personal choice. Too much negativity, not to mention the social media mob if you didn’t agree 🙄 This year I want to get involved again, within the groups I’m already in and the new ones I’ve been invited to. I hope that this is a positive change and 2017 will not repeat itself 😅

Personal Goals

Get in shape (physically and financially).

So this is hard for me to put out there, but I don’t keep secrets 😉 I’m currently at the heaviest weight I’ve ever been, my husband too. I don’t feel comfortable in my own skin. So together we are starting a workout plan. We’ve got a subscription to DDP yoga, which my husband has done the program before. This year we are doing it together. In fact we started on Monday this week. I don’t want to be a miracle story of losing 100lbs or anything like that. I just want to feel good in my own skin.

Financially well….I told y’all a hypothetical story a couple of years ago about a company overpaying an employee. Well it wasn’t so hypothetical. My husband’s company overpaid him to the tune of $75k over thirteen months. Many people have asked me how it could go on that long and not be caught. I don’t have an answer. We didn’t catch it because they overpaid him from his very first paycheck. How it was caught was when we mentioned that his pay didn’t drop after the first year (per his contract he was getting paid more the first year as a base salary, then it dropped the second year).

This oversight cost us. We had just about paid off all our debt except our home and my husband’s student loans. Now we have credit card payments again, an unsecured loan where we had to pay them back, plus a bunch of other debt. It’s sad and weighs heavily on my husband who stresses over it constantly and is angry (rightfully so) at the position we were put in to pay it back. Regardless, it’s all hindsight now, so we are moving forward. We are taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, and have already started his baby steps (we’re on number 2 if you’re familiar). I’d love to say that at the end of 2020 we are closer to the goal of being debt free. Stay tuned!

WRITE!

I’ve been writing in some form or fashion my entire life. When I was a kid, I loved sitting at the computer or my mom’s typewriter and typing out stories: short stories, poems, songs, you name it, I wrote it. As I got older, I wrote more. When I was 15, I wrote a trilogy. At 18, I wrote another trilogy. Now are those stories necessarily something you’d want to read? Probably not as they are a product of the time, and my maturity level reflects in the writing. But….

I’ve continued writing. I never really stopped. It’s always been a coping mechanism for me. When something doesn’t go right, when I need a distraction from real life, I write. Now I have a completed trilogy, an almost complete series, and several other works in progress that I’m proud of. My goal this year is take one of these books, polish it to a shine, and *maybe* publish it. Now the question is which of these books do I work on? A contemporary romance, a dystopian, an apocalypse, a medical thriller….must think on this 😉

Your Turn! What are your resolutions for 2020? Any tips to complete mine? Share below

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