2016 Goals

I know I’m late to the party on this, but I didn’t want to let too much more time go by before sharing some of my goals for this not-so-new year. And maybe I’m trying too hard here, but it could be better to focus on goals now that the year has started and we’re in the slog rather than get all starry-eyed at New Year’s and dream about the big things I’ll accomplish. This list is all pretty practical stuff. Like:

• Buy a house.
• Work on finding community surrounding said house.
• Sign up for a credit card with better travel rewards. I’m going to wait on this until after the house is settled so that we don’t get any slight dings on our credit for opening up a new line.
• Attend a couple new conferences — I’ve already registered for Write/Speak/Code in Chicago, and hope to register for Abstractions in Pittsburgh in the next few weeks.
• Pitch a talk to a couple conferences.
• Make 52 CodePens. One a week. I’m already waaaay behind.
• Finish my app for the Amazon Echo.
• Code the redesign of my blog & organize a portfolio
• Organize a couple series to write on this here blog o’ mine.
• Make a quilt.
• Start an Etsy shop.
• Pick up some kind of writing practice again, whether it’s morning pages or something else more directed. Or both!
• Read at least a book a month.
• Get my inbox in order: go on an unsubscribe binge, make it to inbox zero, and try out Inbox.
• International travel — We’ve got plans to go to Iceland again this summer with friends.
• See a couple new places in the US. Joshua Tree & Palm Springs are on my mind, as well as Austin.

Some of these are carryovers from last year. I still feel pretty crappy about how last year passed me by, so it’ll feel great to actually knock some of these out early in the year.

I’m also planning to refer back to my Unravelling the Year Ahead workbook quarterly so that I can check in with myself and stay on track. There are a couple pages that help you sketch out your plans on a loose timeline, so you can tentatively map out how you want your year to go. Of course, things come up and life takes unexpected turns. So I’ll hold it loosely, but still hopefully accomplish more than I did in 2015.