New Year, New Me in 2022

Happy New Year’s y’all! As I look back on 2021 (and 2020), I can honestly say that despite all the hardships they were good years. It’s been two years since did a resolution post. The last time was at the start of 2020, pre-COVID and the year that turned our lives upside down. 2020 saw my husband’s job downsized and let go, we opened a medical clinic with his cashed-out retirement and severance pay, then COVID and the shut downs. 2020 was interesting, 2021 we got our feet back under us, or at least I think we did. As we start 2022, I feel like we are back where we were at the start of 2020, hopeful and thankful for what was to come. Looking ahead into the new year, I wanted to share my New Year’s Resolutions with you as I have in the past, and to keep me honest, I’m joining up with Because Reading’s Bookish Resolutions challenge. You can see the rules, check in dates, and sign up here.

Bookish Resolutions

Read 120 books in 2022.

During the last few years, I’ve learned something about myself. I like BIG books 😂 For several years now, I’ve been disappointed in my Goodreads challenge. When I first started tracking my reading through the app, I was averaging 150-200 books a year. Now I’m good to hit 130 and one year I barely made it to 100. So I got to looking at my years in review…y’all! They show you the pages read too (now it doesn’t count audiobooks in that page count). I read nearly 10,000 more pages in 2021 than the first year I was on Goodreads. With that in mind, I’m keeping my total book goal low but page count high 😉

Make at least half my reads in 2022 from my TBR shelves (physical, Kindle, & Goodreads).

This is one of my resolutions every year, mainly because I have a serious one-click addiction and weakness for pretty covers. I have SO many books on my TBR shelves that this shouldn’t be a problem…as long as the pretty new books don’t distract me.

Listen to one audiobook a month.

I started homeschooling Liam in 2020, prior to Covid, and it upset my listening routine. I listened to audios mostly while he was at school. Now that he is home, I barely have time to listen to an audiobook. This past fall however, my husband surprised me with new headphones, and I’m finding a new routine. My goal this year is to listen to to 1-2 audiobooks a month, which I feel is doable.

Raise my NetGalley percentage to above 80%.

I unfortunately have a ton of past due ARCs. Life happens and then a book falls behind and I never get back to it. This year I’m calling the year of the backlist because I want to knock off a bunch and get my NG percentage back in good graces. It is a stress that shouldn’t be a stress if you know what I mean 😉

Blogging Resolutions

Write reviews as I finish the book.

This is a big one for me. I currently have something like 60 reviews to write 🤦🏼‍♀️ I get busy with my personal life, either teaching Liam or doing things for my husband’s clinic, that I never get to the blog. I’m starting 2022 with a clean slate though. Of those 60-ish reviews, only a handful were books that were ARCs. I’m going to write those reviews and put the others aside for now. I’ve got a wonderful journal that I’m hoping to utilize as a review journal to keep notes on books so that if I don’t get to the review immediately (I read mostly at night, in bed) than I can at least jot down my thoughts and make it easier to remember what I want to include.

Post at least 5x a week.

This one has been hard to maintain over the last few years. Last year, I went radio silent for months at a time. I’m hoping to not do that this year. I would like to get back into the habit of blogging daily, but at least M-F. I can do that!

Blog AHEAD.

This is one of the hardest resolutions I set for myself each year. At times I can be a full month ahead, but then life happens and a month will go by and I have nothing posted. What I’d ideally like to do this year is set up my review posts when I start reading the book so all I need to do is enter the review and it is ready to post. I’d also like to get ahead on the memes that I participate in which is easy to do and something I’m already working on.

SOCIALIZE

During the last few years, I’ve taken a much needed social media break. I’m on and visiting, but rarely comment or post myself. Why? The climate on social media is so harsh. It is so easy for something to be misconstrued and then you become doxxed or ostracized. I have a very dry sense of humor by nature, and that doesn’t always come across on screen 😅 But I’m now to the point that I don’t care. I know who I am, my family and friends know and that is what matters. SO I would like to get out on social media again, visit some of my favorite bloggers and author and share their things. One of my biggest goals with this resolution is work on my instagram and maybe TikTok….I said in 2020 that I’d never join TikTok and I have and I love it so yeah….I’m not too afraid to admit that I was wrong there 😂

Personal Resolutions

I have only one this year that I would really like to complete and that is….

BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR

I have been writing in some form or fashion since I learned how to write and spell. I love stories. I grew up on stories. I live for a good romance or space battle. I wrote my first book when I was thirteen. It sucked, it’s a product of the time and my own maturity level as well. BUT it was the catalyst. I’ve written so many things since then. If you look back at my resolution post for 2020, you’ll see that I was ready to do this then, but life happened and more specifically 2020 happened 😅 The book I was working on then was a medical thriller similar to the movie Contagion crossed with The Walking Dead. It is one of my favorite things that I have ever written…and it is also what we lived in a sense for the last two years, so there is no way that one will ever see the light of day unfortunately.

That being said over the last few months an idea slowly took shape. It took shape so much that I actually did a plot board, like a full on plot board (I’m typically a by the seat of my pants kinda writer), and plotted out the ENTIRE series. Now that I’m actively writing this story, I feel confident that I will publish it, I may even attempt to option it, or just publish it for myself…we will see. I have never written a story like this one. It is sci-fantasy with time travel and aliens and romance and epic battles. I can’t wait to share more. Though my husband has made me promise that he gets first dibs on it 😂

Rules:

Create between 5 or more resolutions related to books/book blogging/writing (there are examples below but you can make up your own)(you can have as many resolutions as you would like, there is no limit) 

Create a signup post and add it to the Linky on this post (sign up before Feb 28th)

Since this is a year long challenge we ask that you pick goals with some longevity. Pick a goal that will take you no less than 6 months to complete.

Once your goals are set you cannot change them.

Three time a year we will have an update to see how you are doing. March 1st, June 1st and September 1st. The last update will be the wrap up post.

For each goal you complete you get one entry into the giveaway that will be in our wrap up post on December 31, 2022

The Winner will be picked randomly so the more goals you complete the better chance you have to win the $5 Amazon Gift Cards at the end of the year.

Your Turn! What are your resolutions for 2022? Any tips to meet mine? Share below

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