Why I’m Not Blogging About My Goals This Year

January 11, 2021February 6, 2021 Maggie7 Comments

Almost since the time I first started blogging, I’ve made a habit of kicking off each new year with a post about goals. I would look at how I did in meeting or making progress towards my goals for the previous year, and then I would look ahead and set some goals for the new year.

I’m not doing that this year.

You see, the past year (and the last few months in particular) have given me a lot of time to think about goals. And I think I’ve come to the conclusion that not just setting them, but also sharing them and assessing myself publicly is a recipe for disaster for me.

Goals for 2020

January 6, 2020January 6, 2020 Maggie4 Comments

I like setting goals for myself if for no other reason than the fact that I like the illusion of accomplishment. We can debate whether or not reading a certain number of books is actually making a difference in the grand scheme of things, but hey, at least I actually did something. If nothing else, I think goal-setting helps us prioritize, and they teach us patience and perseverance.

There’s nothing really special about the first day of the year – it’s just another day, so what? But for whatever reason, when humans made calendars, they designated this specific day as the beginning of a “new year.” And we like new things. They’re scary sometimes, sure, but they also feel full of opportunity. So yes, setting goals for a year is somewhat arbitrary, but I think it’s good to capitalize on that optimism and use it to make changes that will go beyond the next twelve months.

All that being said, today I’m going to review my goals from 2019 and rate myself on how well I did, and then look ahead to what I want to do in 2020.

Goals for 2019

January 7, 2019January 6, 2019 Maggie4 Comments

Some of us might argue that setting goals for the new year is overrated, and I’m inclined to agree. As BlimeyCow so well explained in one of their recent videos, picking some far-off day in the future to make a change in your life isn’t always helpful in the end.

Even so, I still like the idea of setting goals and looking back at the end of the year and seeing how far I’ve come. But even if they’re goals for the year, I still take it one day at a time. Forget to write one day? Well, there’s always tomorrow. A setback on Monday doesn’t mean I can’t jump back on Tuesday and try again.

With that in mind, I want to look back on how I did with the goals I set for myself in 2018, then look ahead at what I want to do better in 2019.

Goals for 2018 (+2017 Goals Review)

January 8, 2018January 7, 2018 Maggie5 Comments

There’s something about a new year that motivates us. We feel like we can do anything. That’s why many of us choose to create New Year’s resolutions or goals, with varying degrees of success. Now, say what you will about this phenomenon, but personally, I like it – we’re taking advantage of our excitement and using it to better ourselves and our lives.

At the beginning of 2017, I set some goals for myself, and I was determined to reach them. Using a number of methods, including my bullet journal, I was able to keep track of my progress towards these goals and make significant progress in the areas I wanted to. In 2018, I want to continue progressing, and so today, I’ve decided to take a brief look back at my 2017 goals and then look ahead to the future for what I want to do in 2018.

Trying New Things

November 6, 2017November 5, 2017 Maggie2 Comments

“New” is kind of a scary word, isn’t it? A lot of us don’t like new things – new food, new shows, new people (yes, even if you’re an extrovert), and so on. The unknown frightens us – we’re afraid of getting hurt, making a mistake, embarrassing ourselves. It’s normal to be a little scared of new things, but when we let the terror of the unknown control our lives, we end up stuck.

I promise not to ramble about life’s mysteries or theorize as to why we as humans are so afraid of new things in the first place. Instead, I wanted to share a few thoughts on trying new things and why it’s important. After all, you don’t want to be stuck in the same place your entire life, do you?

19 Things I Want To Do

May 8, 2017May 11, 2017 Maggie2 Comments

Guess what? I’m 19 now! I celebrated my birthday this past Friday (May 5) which was pretty exciting!

Anyway, last year I celebrated my birthday by sharing 18 Facts About Me, and this year, I’m going to do something similar. The problem is, 19 is such an odd number – it’s a prime number, so it’s a bit strange to use it in blog posts. I mean, who ever heard of a list with exactly 19 items? It just sounds weird to me, but I decided to go with it anyway and make a list of 19 Things I Want To Do. The twist? I want to do these things before I turn 29 – ten years!

Now, I’m not setting these as huge goals or things I’m gonna make myself anxious over, but there are a lot of cool things I’d like to do in my life, and I decided to finally put them together in a list. Will I accomplish all of them? Probably not. But it’s fun to dream and have things to look forward to!

Without further ado: 19 Things I Want To Do In The Next 10 years!

Week In Review – March 3

March 3, 2017March 2, 2017 MaggieLeave a comment

Welcome to Friday, and welcome to March!

I hope your week’s gone well. Mine was pretty good. Busy, but good.

By the way, in case you missed it, I blogged about Geek Girl Hate on Monday. It’s one of my favorite blog posts that I’ve written in a while, so I hope you enjoy it too! I’m also running a survey about Introverts and Extroverts, and I’d love your input! You can check that out here if you’d like.

Now for the week in review!

Week In Review – Feb 3

February 3, 2017February 3, 2017 Maggie3 Comments

I’m running out of ideas for how to begin these blog posts, and it’s getting down to the wire to get this blog post written, so I’m just gonna jump into the post.

In case you missed it, I posted the second half of my TBR purge on Monday, so be sure to check that out if you haven’t already. In addition, I posed a new video on my YouTube channel on Wednesday! A few days before Christmas, Paul and I went out to a disc golf course so he could try some of his new discs and so I could test out my new GoPro camera. I finally got around to putting all of the clips together, so I hope you enjoy!

Since it’s the beginning of a new month, in addition to writing my regular weekly wrap-up, I thought I’d do a quick recap of how I did with my daily goals last month.

Week In Review – Jan 13

January 13, 2017January 13, 2017 Maggie2 Comments

Happy Friday! Congrats on making it through another week! I hope all of you wonderful readers had a good week. Over here, there have been a few rough patches, but overall I’ve been doing pretty well.

By the way, in case you missed it, I wrote about INTJ Stereotypes in Fiction this past Monday. It’s all about personality types, so if you didn’t get the chance to read it earlier, now’s your chance!

And now on to the rest of my week…

Goals for the New Year

January 8, 2016November 16, 2016 Maggie5 Comments

First of all, to my e-mail followers: I apologize if you mistakenly received a new post alert yesterday morning. I accidentally published an unfinished version of this post, but I took it down right after I realized my mistake. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Anyway, last week on my blog, I talked about my highlights from 2015. This week, I want to talk about some of my goals for 2016.

I’m not normally a “New Year’s Resolution” kind of person. Like most people, I’ve never been able to keep up with them after a week or two, and I always kinda thought the idea was silly anyway. I mean, why wait until the new year to change your life? You’re just rationalizing your procrastination.

However, something I’ve been seeing lately, especially from a few of my favorite bloggers, is setting goals for the year. For whatever reason, I didn’t give it the same cynical response as I do when people say “New Year’s Resolution,” so I thought I would give it a try.

I realize that I might not be able to complete all of these goals 100%, but I think that even if I just try, I’ll be able to accomplish something along the way.

To see my goals for the year, read on to the rest of my post!

Maggie's Musings

Tag: goals