Life Goals for 2019

ICYMI we chatted yesterday about our bookish resolutions and intentions for 2019 and today we are back with something a little more personal – the goals related to all of the parts of our lives outside of blogging! Check out what we want to accomplish this year and tell us in the comments how you hope your year goes!

Kelly’s 2019 Intentions

Well I don’t tend to do personal goals at the new year, because let’s be honest it’s because I don’t want to disappoint myself when I don’t complete them. So calling it an intention works better for me. I don’t have many, but I really do want to accomplish some intentions that will hopefully make me feel better about my life.

• Clear out my two closets.
• Clear out my clothes.
• Create a memory quilt.
• Clear out old media.
• Change guest room into a game room.
• Repair my library and enhance the quality of that room.
• Prepare for my future.
• Go on a real vacation/honeymoon.
• Bookish goals.

I barely wear anything in my closet so it is definitely time to donate. I have no mental attachment to these things, just an impractical ideation that I may need them.

I hold onto a lot of old band t-shirts because they mean ‘something’ to me. So I am going to look into the t-shirt quilting/blanket project. Maybe get my sewing machine maintenanced so I can make it myself to enhance the meanfulness.

We have a ton of DVDs, CDs, and viynl. I did unhaul all my VHS tapes and a bunch of DVDs in 2018. But there is more work to be done. Now I really need to try and decide if I can let my physical music go.

We have plans to reclaim the guest room to be more of a PC & console gaming room. We can hang up some music and nerdy stuff. My wife wants a room of her own, since you know I have an entire library that is solely mine. Speaking of the library I mentioned this before but my very old house is very old, and the plaster ceiling has started to fall down. I have been packing and organizing my books as I go. But I need to speed this up because I hate having my books in boxes.

I feel stunted in my personal life. I need to start with more than clearing out the house. I need to reevaluate what I want for my future and need to decide where to start and how to accomplish this vague intention. I also think that my wife and I need to plan a real vacation/honeymoon for 2019. After 15 years together we finally got married in 2018, but travelling when you have 4 senior dogs who have medical conditions makes it hard to travel together. But this year we will be going away together no matter what.

I of course have bookish goals. Reading more varied books. Reading more for enjoyment. Blogging about more than just books. Last but not least, spending less on things in my life. I need to reduce my book spending and focus on the certain things I must have to keep the joy in my life.

Christy’s 2019 Intentions

If you asked me about New Year’s resolutions in 2017, I would have laughed at you and said, “I will never make resolutions because I live in the moment.” Oh, how wrong I was. That’s because in 2017, I wasn’t really living. My entire existence revolved around working way too much, over committing to things that didn’t bring me joy, and stressing out constantly. Three months into the year, I took a drastic turn and completely changed my life. In 2018, I set my first set of personal goals and am happy to say I met the ones that mattered and took a mid year look at the ones that no longer seemed relevant. I did things like take my hate of running and casual racing seriously and turned it into marathon training. Started on a pathway toward saving for our future. Took my nutrition to the next level by avoiding fast food for the entire year (there probably wasn’t a day in January/February of 2017 that I didn’t eat fast food). This year I am so ready to go the extra mile with these intentions, broken out by category. I’ve even set pathways to accomplish some of them, just four days into the year!

Event Oriented:

• Complete Spartan Trifecta
• Finish the dang marathon
• Continue triathlon training + compete if I find the right tri

I completed two Spartan races last year and I’m in it for the big three (plus a trail or stadium or BOTH this year). I also noped out of marathon training when it got tough and I was tired of being injured, only to run 19 of the miles alongside my running partner. I could have done the whole thing and I just chickened out. In April, it’s on. Also, I started triathlon training and I am so excited to take that pathway!

Milestone Oriented:

• Run 500 miles 
• Reach that sub 60 10k
• Obtain Les Mills BodyFlow + Pop Pilates certification
• Cook 1x per week
• Finish 2 video games 
• Read 200 books
• Learn one new skill

Last year I ran 920+ miles and while I would like to say I’ll reach that number again, I likely won’t with tri training. I do want to finally hit a sub 60 minute 10k. I’ve been fight for that for months and I was so close before I went out for injury and surgery.

I am scheduled for Flow and Pop Pilates training in early spring and I plan to bring my A-game to the table and crush both certifications. I am in love with both formats and can’t wait to teach them.

We are in the middle of a kitchen remodel and dang it, now that it’s perfect, I better use it more often! I tend to make easy meals that don’t require a lot prep (since I don’t eat out…I meal prep every single meal) or clean up. Let’s change that, at least once a week. Since I’ve been reading over 200 books the last few years, gaming took a backseat and I really want to get back into it and beat some of my backlist games (uh, this might be worse than books).

That last one is a little vague because I haven’t selected a skill/hobby I want to hone. I have some hobbies I’ve dabbled in (learning to play guitar, increasing my spoken Spanish confidence) but also some interests (learning to play drums, understanding photography better, looking at a data science program to possibly change careers in the future) that I am thinking over. I want to commit to something and go with it.

Personal + Professional

• Teach regular fitness class 
• Initiate long term savings plan 
• Increase backlist reading & use the library more
• Join/create a cookbook club
• Create a more versatile and succinct closet
• Finish last ECE class toward Director certificate 

I am SO EXCITED about everything here and since I currently can’t accomplish any of my physical goals, I have focused on a lot of the things here. I am in the works of having my own class, submitted a draft financial plan to our advisor, finished 5 backlist books (ALL from the library!), created the backbone of the cookbook club, cleared 7 bags of clothes from my closet that did not bring me joy, and am researching colleges to finish my last ECE class (I know, I have a BS and graduate certificate in early childhood education but California is special and I have to take a basic ECE class at a community college to be able to go back to my field eventually).

It’s only four days into the year and I am so excited to see where this year takes me. I already feel like my goals are more attainable this year and I am more motivated to complete them!