10 For 2023: Once More With Feeling

A new rotation around the sun begins and once more, I will lay down some resolutions for the year ahead. I know that people think that resolutions are 'lame' and don't like the 'new year, new me' routine that always seems to sweep through the various social media platforms at this time of year. These past couple of months, I've been writing down to-do lists at work to try and keep track of everything I need to get done and there's nothing quite like getting through a work-week and seeing a fully crossed off list looking back up at me from the legal pad I keep in my drawer.

I like setting goals. I like making resolutions. It's a way to think about the year ahead and what I'd like to try and get accomplished. The interminable length of January aside, life usually quickly intervenes and I forget about half of these until about October or so and then realize just how mixed my success has been. Yesterday's post tallies last year's resolutions-- I posted an improvement from 2021, where I saw a 27.5% success rate to 2022 where I got to a 40% success rate. For 2023, I'd like to do better than that! (Get some actual momentum going with these resolutions!)

So, without further ado: 10 for 2023

1. Big Writing Goal for the Year: Get Book 4 into the draft format by the end of the year. I'm currently working my way through Chapter 5 and I'm sitting at 25,744 words. It's been challenging so far: I'm sticking to a single POV for the first time in a book, I'm writing well outside my usual genre preferences so far, and writing consistently and well is hard, y'all. But enough is enough-- time to light this candle and git 'er done.

2. Little Writing Goal(s) for the Year: I've got one story in my 'slush pile' that I'm submitting around. I want to add two more to the pile by the year's end and be consistent in submitting as many places as I can get. I'd like to do some world-building and prep work on future planned projects and while I'm not a frequent Wattpad user, I'd like to get writing consistently on platforms like Reddit (or Wattpad) again.

3. Lose thirty pounds: so this past year I discovered that I've got what's called diastasis recti, which is a fancy way of saying abdominal separation and a less fancy way is saying that when I do a sit-up, I look like that guy in Total Recall (the good one, not the remake) with the alien coming of him. Compounding that, I appear to have a small umbilical hernia going on and I don't want it to get bigger or cause actual problems. Losing weight is no longer a whistful dream, it's rapidly becoming a necessity. Ideally, I should probably lose fifty pounds, if not more, but I'll take thirty. That seems doable to me. At bare minimum, I want to end the year weighing less than I do now. 

4. Build healthy habits: food, exercise, water consumption, writing, time management, stress management-- I expect everyone can do better handling most of these things in any given year, but I want to push the boat out on developing actual healthy habits on all fronts this year. (I don't know how I'm going to judge this one, so we'll see.)

5. Grass seed! Our backyard is in dire need of proper seeding this year and I want to actually fence off a chunk to keep it (hopefully) free of dogs so it can actually grow.

6. Expand our vinyl collection! I'm pretty sure we're on the verge of needing a new needle, so we'll probably have to do that this year, but the itch to listen sort of comes at me in waves, so I'd like to visit some actual record stores and see about picking up some new albums this year. 

7. Get another tattoo. One of these years, I'm actually going to do it- so why not this year?

8. Goodreads Goal! I'm going to up my goal from 25 books to 35 books. Not an unreasonable goal, I don't think-- speaking of which, here's my official TBR 2023, so you'll have some idea of what I'll be reading this year. 

9. Reach a 600-day Duolingo streak: I was tempted to go straight to 730 days to double my current streak but decided to be a little conservative here. If I overachieve- great!

10. To make a list of New Year's Resolutions. (Yes, It's my annual 'control' resolution ensuring at least one of these goals will be successful.)

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