2025 New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!  With today being the first day of 2025, it seemed appropriate to write a resolutions post today.  My 2024 year in review post went up late last night.

I haven't written a real, structured New Year's resolutions post in a long time.  For a while I decided I didn't like doing them and stressing myself out about what I wanted to accomplish during the year, then making myself feel bad when I didn't do it.  But for the last few years, I've started setting loose goals for the year.  For example, last year I had a rough goal to finish Ruby Ransome and Pandora's Box — which of course didn't happen, since I started working on Amnesia instead (though I don't think that was a fail, since I finished both Amnesia and the sequel).

This year I think I'm ready to make some real resolutions and track progress throughout the year.  So today I'll set some resolutions, things I want to accomplish throughout the year.  The weekly challenge part will be similar to my weekly goals post in 2024, except that every week I'll be posting progress on my goals for the year.  My goals are all things that will need to be worked on regularly, so ideally each week will see some progress.

1) Work toward publishing in 2025

I want to get something revised, completed, and published in 2025.  Amnesia and the yet-to-be-named sequel are both drafted, but need extensive revisions, so that will be a major project if I want to get them published later this year.  I've planned out a writing, revising, and publishing schedule, and while I may not be able to follow it exactly, the point is that I need to be moving my writing career forward.

• Write almost every day in 2025
  
  This is more of a sub-goal, but it needs to be a part of my goals for 2025 if I want to be ready to publish: I want to keep writing almost every day.  It doesn't have to be every single day, as things happen that make that difficult, but at least nearly every day. 
  
  Thanks to my TrackBear goals, I know that I wrote 80 percent of days in December.  I'm hoping for at least that in 2025.
  
  
• Post to social media once a week
  
  I actually have an author Instagram account that is virtually unused.  I want to start posting to that and building a presence in 2025, which will help when I start publishing.  Eventually I'll need to post more frequently, but for now we'll start with a goal of once a week.

2) Declutter and finish my household organization projects

My house has been non-presentable for several years.  It got bad when Panama was sick in 2022 and I have been treading water ever since, never fully reducing the amount of clutter.  We've gotten a few projects done here and there, but there is still a lot to do.  I want to stay more focused on finishing these outstanding projects in 2025, and do some decluttering and deep cleaning as well.  Ultimately I want to feel like I can use my spaces more comfortably — I'm tired of always having crap in the way of what I want to do.

• Do one project every week
  
  Like with my writing goals, I think I need a regularly actionable sub-goal if I'm going to make this happen.  Working on it daily is a little tougher, so I'm going to make a goal of completing a project every week.  For larger projects, I'll split them into more easily achievable sub-projects.

3) Build out my doll business in 2025

During the events of the year, I've ended up neglecting my doll business, but I want to get back to working on it.  I have a doll show in April and possibly another show in August, and I have a lot of planning, organization, and rehab that will need to happen before then.  To meet that deadline, I will need to be working on doll-related things at least every week until mid-April.

• Do at least one project every week
  
  Once again, I need an actionable way to ensure I'm making progress throughout the year.  Some weeks I anticipate completing more than one project, especially as I'm getting ready for the doll show in April.  But even after that, I want to be sure I'm making progress every week.  That might be rehabbing a doll, or it might be completing a new video.
  
  
• Post video content and blog posts at least once a month
  
  My doll Instagram account is more healthy than my writer one, but I have been slacking about getting videos and other content posted.  In 2025 I'd like to contribute to my blog and my YouTube channel at least once a month to start, more often if I can manage it.

I think these are my main three areas of focus for the coming year, so I'll report on them each Monday when I write my weekly challenge post.  With any luck, the weekly challenge will help me stay on track and accomplish everything I am hoping to in 2025.

Happy New Year! 2024 in Review

Ever since writing last week's weekly goals post, I've been thinking about what I want to do in 2025.  I think as a bit of a twist on the weekly goals posts, this year I want to make actual New Year's resolutions for the first time in years.  And instead of writing weekly goals posts with new short-term goals each week, I'll do a 52-week challenge, tracking my progress on my goals each week.

It's not that the weekly goals posts weren't helpful in 2024.  They actually were, for several reasons.  First and most importantly, I stuck with the habit the entire year, which was kinda like a trial of sorts, and gave me confidence that I could do something a little more challenging in 2025.  Also, it gave me a chance to see what I did well — and what I didn't.

I'm easily distractible and chase interests like rabbits, so the result is that I take on too much and don't focus enough on the things I want most.  (Izzy's care being an obvious exception; nothing is more important to me than my animals, and I will gladly drop everything else to take care of them.)  I'm proud of all the things I do — the time I volunteer, my writing, the people I help on Facebook — but I also need to learn to both prioritize and focus.

I'll post again soon with my goals for 2025, but for now I'm off to celebrate New Years the grown-up way: cuddled up on the couch with a glass of spiked eggnog, a book, and possibly an episode of a favorite TV show (in this case, Dexter).