Goals for the New Year (2021 Edition)

Oh my goodness, I am so glad that 2021 is finally here. 2020 was so long. I have a lot of things planned for 2021 and I can’t wait to share them all with you. I have been busy making plans and (of course) reading. I am nearly two books into my January TBR already with one bonus book coming along nicely as well.

But lets talk about goals.

I have a lot of writing and reading goals this year and I am eagerly attacking them. So let’s do the reading goals first, shall we?

• Reading 8 books a month. Last year I ended up reading 53 books, which I am pretty happy with, especially since I didn’t read consistently at all in 2020 and basically did all of my reading in about 6 months out of the year. I spent a long time thinking about this goal and I feel like 8 books a month is really reasonable for me and easily attainable as long as I don’t spend hours and hours, day after day watching TV/YouTube. I’m actually hoping that I can squeeze in a few extra books each month so I can reach 100 books for the first time this year, but that’ll just be a bonus if that happens.
• Read more poetry books. I have recently become interested in reading poetry and have stumbled upon some that I have enjoyed quite a bit, so I want to continue to read more poetry collections this year.

So that’s it for my reading goals. I don’t want to get too crazy here. I want to keep reading fun and relaxing still so I’m not going to put pressure on myself with more goals.

Now for the writing goals…

If you follow me on instagram, then you probably know that I finally finished Traitors & Tyrants hours before the beginning of 2021.

• Naturally, this means one of my goals is to query Traitors & Tyrants. It has been a long time coming. I need to look over the last couple of chapters but that won’t take long. I have already made a list of the initial agents I want to query, so now I am going to be working on writing the query letter.
• Write two new books. I have a few projects that I am just chomping at the bit to either start or finish, so I would love to make some progress in at least two of those books this year. One is a paranormal contemporary, think Friends meets Sean of the Dead. The other one… is undecided.
• Start writing poetry again. I used to write poetry all of the time, specifically haikus and I loved doing it. It’s a great exercise and tons of fun so I want to start doing that again.

And one last goal…

• Do a mix of yoga/pilates for 20 minutes every day Monday-Friday. Look, I had a baby last year. I wasn’t in the greatest shape before then to begin with. Thanks to dialysis, pregnancy, and terrible hospital food I don’t have a lot of weight to lose and I’m actually lighter than I was pre-pregnancy, but I want to be healthier. I have been dealing with acute kidney failure since August and while my kidneys are healing, I want to help them as much as I can and exercising is one way to do that. I actually really enjoy doing a mix of yoga/pilates; it helps with my anxiety and depression, so I’m looking forward to making this a regular part of my routine.

Well, that’s it! I’m really excited for all that 2021 has in store for all of us, and I really do believe that it’s going to be a much, much better year for all of us. Let me know what your goals for 2021 are in the comments!