I mentioned in my birthday post that I didn’t make any elaborate plans for changing my life this year, because I’m happy with where I am. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t made goals for the next year of my life, because we should always be making or working towards goals.

Learn and master my new position

I feel like there is a lot to learn in my new position, and so far all I’ve been doing is conducting interviews to hire my replacement for my old position. I really want to settle into this position and see if I can excel at it over the next year.

Grow my follower count

Since closing my old blog and launching this new one, it has been hard to get new followers. I want to put some things into play over the next year that will help me grow my follower base. I’ve never aspired to be one of those huge blogs with thousands of followers, but I wouldn’t mind getting back up to a few hundred like I was before.

Increase my Net Galley percentage

I have the bad habit of requesting more books that I can read at any given time. Combined with the bad habit of getting books that I leave sitting on my shelf (or Kindle) for years before getting around to reading them. This all adds up to being way behind on all of my eARCs through Net Galley and a very low Net Galley percentage. I won’t pretend that I can get up to the recommended 80% mark within the next year, but I would like to at least reach the 50% mark.

Buy a car

I’m currently driving my mom’s SUV because she doesn’t drive anymore. But it’s 21 years old and not running the best, having already broken down a time or two. So I think it’s time to get my own car again.

Pay off at least one account

While I generally don’t do credit cards any more, I do still have some old accounts that I am paying off. I’d like to clear at least one of them over the next year. Possibly more if I can.

Read an average of 10 books per month

I want to get my reading back up to my pre-pandemic levels if possible. I was averaging 12-15 books per month at that time. I’m currently averaging about 6 books per month right now.

Read every day

I seem to only be reading on the weekends lately and I really want/need to get back to reading every day. I miss it and feel like my days are unproductive or incomplete if I’m not reading at least a chapter.

Go on at least one trip somewhere

I’ve canceled my last few trips, even before the pandemic, but I really want to make sure that I can get away every so often. There are so many places that I want to see, and time is passing faster and faster it seems. I just need to commit to take at least one vacation per year where I travel somewhere I’ve never been.

Get a passport

While most of the places that I want to visit are here in the US, I also want to take a cruise, visit parts of Canada and see Italy and Paris someday… Ireland and London too, maybe Australia.

Get new glasses

As I’ve gotten older, my vision seems to be progressively getting worse. I used to only where glasses when driving, then driving and reading, and now I wear them all the time and I think one of my prescriptions has changed. Since I wear progressive bifocals, that means it’s time for a whole new pair of glasses. And I really want to get sunglasses this time as well, probably a second pair rather than transitions.

Do you make goals around your birthday each year?