2025: A New Year with New Challenges
Another year has come and gone, and while we look back fondly at 2024 and all of the good it gave us, we can’t forget to look forward to 2025. As they say, ‘the future is what we make of it’, so looking ahead can be a helpful practice as long as you remind yourself that goals aren’t always met, and that’s okay. That being said, I’ve made several goals for my 2025 that I’m hoping to achieve, but it won’t destroy me if I don’t. Are they all somewhat precariously planned in such a way that not completing one might get in the way of some, if not all, of the others? Absolutely.
Keeping these goals in mind, I’ve scheduled out my year in the hopes that at least some of these things get done. If I stick to my schedule, I should be editing 5 different times throughout the year, and writing 5 times as well. I’m really going to be trying to stick to my schedule, for the end goal of publishing 2 books by the end of the year. These are pretty lofty goals for me, so I’m going to be running my own productivity challenges throughout the year to ensure that they get done. From page counting goals, to second draft ones, and everyone will be welcome to join in. More on those as they approach.
However, author goals aren’t the only goals I have in mind for next year. I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t put all of your goals in your professional space, because it leaves you open to neglect your personal ones. So, I have more personal goals to achieve while I’m at it. For starters, I want to work out more. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there’s so many people who say that. The mantra of ‘I want to lose weight in the new year’ is one you hear all the time, only for some of those people to try for a week and forget it exists the next. However, while I know I could stand to lose weight, that’s not what I mean. Focusing too much on a number isn’t going to help me, I know because I’ve tried that before, and it’s only been discouraging. So, I’m not doing that, but instead focusing on becoming consistent.
If I get more consistent with working out, and get my body used to doing it on a weekly, and then possibly daily, basis then it won’t be as hard to start moving to having a weight loss goal. Getting my very out of shape body into a place where it’s comfortable doing things like walking for an hour or so on the treadmill, or doing squats and core training is the first goal. Once I get those things down, than I’ll look into having more of a weight loss goal in 2026. To help with getting more consistent with it, I might look into forcing my hand with a gym membership. Usually, if there’s money involved, I’m more likely to remember it, because the more money leaving my account, the less money for books. And books are life, even for a slow reader like myself.
Speaking of books, my last goal is to read all of the physical books I own. Yes, I have a few ebooks, but the maybe 5 I have are nothing compared to the 45 untouched, physical books I have sitting on a bookshelf beside my desk. Some of these books I’ve had for almost ten years now, and I don’t want to be able to say I owned a book that I was so excited to read when I bought it for almost ten years without giving it a chance. So, if I can read just 1 book a month, and knock it down by 12 books, that would be fantastic. I don’t want to do any writing for December of 2025, o the goal is to read at least 2 books then. I know some of you are probably asking why it’s such a small number, but sorry I’m not one of those ‘reads 100 books in a year’ girlies. I am S-L-O-W.
With so many books already, and no confidence that I can even read half of them in a year, I’m also going to try taking the hard stance of a readers worst necessary nightmare. A book buying ban. As someone who loves supporting her author friends and her favorite authors, this is going to be a lot harder than it sounds. However, the benefits will be worth it, I swear. Think about it; the money I’ll save from not spending it, the joy I’ll feel from reading the books I already own and watching the list get smaller and smaller, and the accomplishment I’ll feel at the end of every month where I succeed. That’s what I’m going to keep telling myself. Of course, I’ve already made a spreadsheet for this, so that I can keep track of everything I read and how much I liked it (or not).
So, as you can tell, my 2025 is packed full of stuff for my to do. Writing new stories, editing old stories, getting in better shape, and reminding myself to slow down, and soak in the words of others. When I look back on 2024, I see some accomplishments, I see some mishaps, and I see some room for improvement for myself. All of these goals are to not only help me in my goals of being a better author, and releasing stories for people to enjoy, but also to help me be better for me. I think a lot of us lose sight of that part of growth often; the not changing for others but for ourselves part. So, I welcome 2025 with open arms, a cup of water, a good book, and a hopeful heart.
Goodbye 2024. Hello 2025!
