Tag: goals

2017: An Honest Evaluation

I put goals in two categories. Either they are passing successes (only achieved if I complete the goal exactly as I had it written) or they are a total failure. Since I seldom deem anything perfect, my goal evaluations are mostly negative and discouraging.

I don’t want this to happen this year. I want to look at 2017 honestly. I want to enjoy the success and learn from the downfalls. So that’s what I’m going to do today. Here’s how I did on my goals from 2017:

 

  1. The Reading Challenge. I ended up reading 33 books from the main list, plus 5 from the advanced list (I couldn’t help myself). I learned about some new genres, especially steampunk, found some new favorite authors, and had some laughs about terrible books that I read just for the challenge. I also read some books that didn’t fit on the list, just because I wanted to try them. Overall, the challenge helped me with what I wanted, which was consistent reading even when I was busy and an expanded reading repertoire.
  2. The Writing Challenge. I did not do this well. I think my biggest problem was finding a time to consistently write every day. If I try something like this again, I should figure out a better system before I begin.
  3. Anne’s Earworms. This was a fun way to find new things to write about. Although I only wrote 29 Earworms. I enjoyed trying to find new artists and songs, and finding interesting ways to talk about old ones. I want to keep doing these posts, so I can improve in consistency and in creativity.
  4. The Bible in a Year. I did it! I had to do some catch up days, but I completed the Bible in a year. With this I wanted to prove to myself that I could, to grow closer to God, and to learn more about the Bible. This upcoming year I think I’ll do a different Bible reading plan, but this one was awesome.
  5. Audible. This challenge was an unqualified success. I loved listening to audiobooks, and I found a few series that I listened through. Even now I’m still listening, currently swimming in a fantastic reading of Sherlock Holmes.

 

Overall, I did well on my goals. I have room to improve, and successes to celebrate, and I’m ready to move on to a few new goals. The biggest problem I had in 2017 was having too many goals to balance, so I’ve decided to cut back from so many year-long goals and try a few quarterly goals. Here are my three goals for January, February, and March of 2018:

 

  1. Find and complete a new Bible study. Since my school semester is starting up again in a couple weeks, I want to find something to keep me in the Bible even when I get busy.
  2. Read for 20 minutes. 6 days a week. This will help me continue to grow my mind and stay relaxed.
  3. Raise $8,000. I am currently saving money for a study abroad program to Salzburg in the summer, and I’m also saving to stay in college debt-free. Because of this, I’m trying to raise some money by teaching, hosting murder mystery parties, and the like.

 

What are your 2018 goals? I would love to hear about them in the comments!

 

Back in the Groove – June Goals

It’s been a good month.

First I (read: finally) got caught up on my reading goals.

I read the book Hidden Figures, the fascinating story of the black female computers in NACA (which later became NASA). It showed how underestimated people can rise above other people’s expectations and change history. It was a great book which I would highly recommend. The Audible version was great, but I recommend reading it on paper, because there are a lot of names to remember, which is harder with an audiobook.

I also read the first book in the Percy Jackson series, The Lightning Thief. Even though it’s technically a book written for middle school children and is somewhat predictable, I enjoyed it. I’m now in the middle of the second book, The Sea of Monsters. In the words of C. S. Lewis, “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.”

Another book worth mentioning is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The book was not a deep read, but it was hilarious, and a good choice for light reading.

Sarah, David and me covered in mud after caving. Loads of fun. Photo Credit: Malia Russell

Another great thing about this month was our family camping trip. We spent a couple of days at a Girl Scout camp in Indiana, hiking, playing games, and staying offline. It was a lot of fun, even though it rained most of the trip. The downside of the trip was that I got a little behind on my Bible reading. Fortunately, I believe that my relationship with God is not dependent on my Bible reading perfection, and I’m getting back in the groove this week.

Also, I just want to briefly mention that I got my license! I’m super excited to be able to drive myself wherever I need to go.

So even though there were a couple of rough spots, this was a good month. I’m starting to get into the groove with my summer schedule, and I’m excited to see how July goes.

A Bit of Frustration – April Goals

The past couple of weeks have been kind of rough. I’ve had a lot of stress because of finals and whatnot, and it’s been hard for me to stay positive. (There were a LOT of tears last week). Last week, I didn’t write my Saturday post or my Earworm for the week. Instead of sitting around being frustrated about it, I’m going to call it a week off, and get back to my routine this week. I’ve finished all but one of my finals, so I’m looking forward to having a little more time to focus on writing and some of my other priorities outside of school.

Also on the positive side of my life, I read a couple of interesting books this month. I finished Uninvited, by Lysa TerKeurst, which my sister Christina recommended. The book was good, and there were a few excellent points in it. I also read Animal Farm, by George Orwell. Like 1984, this book was dark and fascinating. It made me think about the world in a different way. I would highly recommend it. I started the book Dr. Thorne, by Anthony Trollope. My mom and I watched through the BBC series based on the book, and I’m excited to see if I love the book as much as I loved the series. So far I like it.

I’m a little behind on several of my goals, but I’m trying to focus on doing well now, rather than sitting around regretting the busyness of the past couple of weeks. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this Kate Rusby song:

Things I Want to Try

Sometimes I get stuck in a mentality that says “I never do anything new, and I never will.” This mentality tends to start a couple weeks into the semester, after the excitement of new classes wears off. But I want to stay excited about life. Aside from all of the amazing new things I’m trying at school (like songwriting), I have lots of things that I want to do someday. So, I made a list:

 

  1. A half-marathon.
  2. A daily blog challenge.
  3. Acting.
  4. Gardening.
  5. Art (Confession, this one was a summer project that I failed, so I’m insecure about it).
  6. Running a sound board.
  7. Taking my own pictures for my blog (after I started this post, I actually took all of the pictures for a post that I wrote! Maybe this is a first step to awesome pictures!).
  8. A silent retreat.
  9. A new musical instrument.
  10. Recording my own music.
  11. An a capella group.
  12. A solo road trip (someday when I start driving myself places).
  13. Flying a plane.
  14. A trip to Europe.
  15. Making skit videos.
  16. Joining a writer’s group.
  17. Making Lasagna (Yes, I’m allergic to tomatoes and I don’t even like lasagna, but I can’t stop imagining how cool it would be to make lasagna).

 

Hopefully there will be lots of edits to this post, saying that I’ve done some of the things on the list.

January Goals

The semester has started! I’m so excited, and I hoping that I’ll be able to keep up with my challenges and my school assignments. Here’s how I’ve been doing so far:

Reading Challenge:

I’ve read three books so far (I’m reading my fourth one now). I’m trying to read one book each week, so that I have room to be flexible.

My first book was The Silver Chair, by C. S. Lewis. This was from the category “A book you loved as a child.” C. S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors, and this book did not disappoint me. Lewis writes in a way that is engaging and comfortable.

My second book was The Inferno, by Dante Alighieri. This is the book that’s been on my “TBR” list for too long. It inspired many Facebook posts of horror. The boiling in blood chapter was disturbing. Over all, I enjoyed reading the book, but probably won’t read it again. Here’s my favorite quote from the book:

“For such defects are we lost, thought spared the fire
and suffering Hell in one affliction only:
that without hope we live on in desire.”

My third book was The Undoing of Saint Silvanus, by Beth Moore. This book falls in the category of “written by someone you admire.” This book was outstanding. It had a little mystery, a little drama, and a little romance. It was fun to read.

Right now I’m in the middle of a book about Amelia Earhart, in the category: “an interesting woman.” Amelia Earhart was very interesting, but the book is not so far, so I’m not going to share it here.

I’m going to start the book Present Over Perfect next. My mom bought the book for me, and I’m excited about reading it. Here is her review of the book.

Writing Challenge:

I’ve completed this challenge every day except for one so far. Some days I work on blog posts or school assignments, and some days I journal. It’s been really cool to record some thoughts that I have, because it helps me think about them more clearly, and keep them for later.

Anne’s Earworms:

These have been fun to write so far. I wrote about some older artists, and some new artists, and made a spring semester playlist for fun. My only concern is that I’ll run out of music that I can write about before I run out of weeks. Because of this, I am being pushed to find new music that I love, which was one of the reasons I started writing them.

Bible Challenge:

I have successfully read through 92 chapters of the Bible, without having to have any make-up days. The thing that has helped me the most is getting up earlier. I was getting up around 8 every day, but this month I decided to try to get up at 6:45 every day (except Saturdays) to do some Bible reading and studying, and work on my other goals. At first this was really hard (it was actually really hard for the first three weeks), but I was able to complete my Bible reading earlier in the day.

Audible:

Audible has been wonderful so far. I read The Silver Chair as my first audiobook, and I loved it. I was able to cook and clean and such while enjoying one of my favorite books. Since I loved The Silver Chair so much, and our family had a couple of extra Audible credits, so I read The Undoing of Saint Silvanus on Audible also.

So there’s my summary of January. I did pretty well on all of my goals, so I’m hoping that I can continue my momentum during February.

 

Also, here’s my sister Christina’s Reading Challenge she’s doing this year:

http://youthfulhomemaker.com/52-books-2017-challenge-list/

2017: Goals and Blog Changes

Since 2017 is upon us, I decided to try something new. I love challenges, but I’ve never completed a yearlong challenge before (I’ve only tried one, and I failed.) So here are five challenges I’m trying in 2017:

    1. A reading challenge. When I saw the 2016 Popsugar Reading Challenge at the library, I thought it was a great idea for finding new books and authors. Popsugar has a list of 40 book criteria (e.g., a book recommended by a librarian, or a book written by someone with a disability). Here’s the 2017 version that I’m doing: http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-Challenge-2017-42561300. My parents and my sister Sarah are also doing this one, and Christina is doing her own reading challenge. 
    2. Writing every day. This is largely to help me be more consistent with my blogging and journaling. I was originally going to write 100 words every day, but my mom recommended writing a paragraph instead of shooting for a word count because I wouldn’t be tempted to use filler words.
    3. Anne’s Earworms. My sister Sarah invented this brilliant title. I love music, and I’m trying to find new music to enjoy, so I decided to write about the music that I find and enjoy, because other people might be interested in it. I’m going to continue my normal posts on Saturdays and post the Earworms on Wednesdays. This is the challenge that I’m most nervous about, because I’ve never written about my musical tastes, and I’m insecure about the fact that I don’t know tons of music. But I think it will be awesome to talk to my blog buddies about the music I love.
    4. The Bible in a Year. I’m following one of the methods Don Whitney recommends in his book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Great book, if you’re interested). I’m starting in three different places in the Bible (Genesis, Job and Matthew) and reading three chapters every day, and five on Sundays. I tried to do this once before and failed, but I’m hoping that I can stay dedicated to it better this time with more accountability.
    5. Audible. I’ve never been a huge audiobooks fan, but I think they could be a cool tool for me, especially now that I’m in college. Our family has an Audible subscription, so I’m going to try it for a year. This probably won’t be as hard as some of the other challenges, but I thought it would be helpful for my future reading life (especially since I’m learning to drive, and I can’t read while driving). I’m especially excited about this one since I started listening to podcasts and enjoying them.

Because I want to keep you up to date, I will write about how my challenges are going on the last Saturday of each month. I’m pumped to try new things in 2017, and I’m especially excited about blogging. How are you going to challenge yourself in 2017? Let me know in the comments.
If you want to see my mom’s reading challenge, go here