Happy 2021! I hope all of you had a lovely New Year’s Eve and rang in 2021 in a safe, happy manner.
I’m continuing my “Best of 2020” series with a review of the goals I set at the end of 2019. Many of these goals were hard to achieve with the raging pandemic, but I did the best I could and that’s all I ever ask for myself. Let’s review!
1) Move to a new apartment. Complete! My biggest goal for 2020, and I am so glad to be in a new space.
2) Pay off my credit card – and keep it paid off. Complete! I paid off the balance early in 2020, and have been keeping it paid off all year. Go, me!
3) Complete 12 monthly health challenges. Not complete. Once the pandemic hit, healthy living went out the window.
4) Do one new thing every month. Not complete. See above.
5) Go on 24 first dates. Not complete.
6) Make at least three “green” changes to my living environment. Complete!
- I eliminated one-use makeup wipes and now use micellar water and a reusable cloth to take off my makeup.
- I got rid of the disposable cotton pads I would use to apply toner and now use reusable cotton pads.
- I changed my mop from a Swiffer that uses disposable cleaning pads to this brand that has a reusable cleaning pad that I can throw in the washer.
7) Work out 150 times. Not complete. I only logged 87 workouts in 2020. Eeeeeks.
8) Finish my novel and get through one round of revisions. Not complete. I thought perhaps this would be the year I finally finished that dang novel, but my priorities shifted dramatically this year.
9) Complete the 2020 Unread Shelf Challenge. Complete! I had so much fun with this goal, and I’m definitely going to attempt the 2021 challenge.
- January: any book on your unread shelf (Nasty Women, DNF)
- February: a book that’s been gifted to you (The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, ★★★★☆)
- March: the book that’s been on your unread shelf the longest (Every Wild Heart by Meg Donohue, ★★★☆☆)
- April: most recently acquired (Long Bright River by Liz Moore, ★★★★☆)
- May: a backlist title (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, ★★★★★)
- June: from a series (March: Book 1 by John Lewis, ★★★★★)
- July: voted for you by bookstagram (Circe by Madeleine Miller, DNF)
- August: a buddy read (The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, ★★★★★)
- September: forgot where or why you got it (All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda, DNF)
- October: a book that scares or intimidates you (The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell, ★★★☆☆)
- November: a book from your favorite genre (Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, ★★★★★)
- December: the shortest book on your shelf (I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron, ★★★★☆)
10) Get my third tattoo. Not complete. I just didn’t feel comfortable visiting a tattoo shop this year.
***
Four goals completed out of 10. That’s not the best average, but in a year as messy and crazy as 2020 was, I’m choosing to be pleased with it. Moving to a new apartment, keeping my credit card paid off, making some green living changes to my environment, and completing the Unread Shelf Project are all great goals to have achieved this year.
And while I am not sure what 2021 is going to look like (I can’t see normal life resuming in any sort of fashion until late fall at the earliest), I am still planning on setting some goals because what can I say? I’m a sucker for yearly goals. 🙂
How did you do with your 2020 goals (if you set any)? What’s one thing you’re proud you achieved this year?
Even though you just completed four, those were some BIG goals! Go, you!
Also, this Unread Shelf Challenge sounds like so much fun. Where do you find it?
I think you did pretty damn good! And like Torrie said, the goals you did complete were BIG ones. Paying off your credit card debt and moving?!?! HUGE!
You inspired me to buy reusable pads for applying my toner so that change had a positive impact on the environment for me, too!
I was hoping to workout 3 times/day and did that up until my activity had to be reduced when trying to get pregnant. I also wanted to get pregnant and we did, but I did not write that goal down anywhere as I didn’t want to jinx myself.
I think you did great on your goals in the midst of a pandemic. I don’t know of many or any people who killed their goals this year. So much was out of our control! I’m not setting any goals for 2021 either since we are adjusting to life as a family of 4 and the pandemic will be with us for much of 2021! But I hope to return to working out soon and want to keep reading a ton!!
I think you did pretty great, considering the circumstances. When you wrote out this list of goals, you had no idea that you’d be trying to complete them through a pandemic!
Woooo paying off the credit card and keeping it paid off! Love that!
87 workouts in 2020 is pretty good, if you ask me — especially since I am sure there are many folks who logged significantly less after the whole global pandemic thing started! Really, if you ask me, any effort to get up and move the body in 2020 = a win.
Outside my financial goals for 2020 (which I did pretty well on!), one of my 2020 goals was to read the entire Bible…and I actually ended up completing that! I used The Bible Recap plan, which involves reading a few chapters every day and includes a podcast to kind of…recap…them haha. Spent about 20 minutes ish on it every day and finished on December 31! I’d say that also counts as a thing I’m pretty proud of!
I’d say you kicked ass. You could have thrown all of these out the window when the pandemic hit, you know? It was so hard to stay focused and achieve things this year and you did really well. And for the things you didn’t achieve, you learned from them!
I did well with my goals. Except I really do want to play with the cats more! LOLOLOL. Let’s hold each other accountable.
I am proudest that I pivoted at work and applied for something new and got the promotion. Oh, and I am proud of building a garage. Ha ha. Steven is still working on interior stuff so it never really feels done! I am mostly done though! I just go out there to help lift heavy stuff. Oh! And I am proud I quit my part time job! Woot! There’s 3 things, oops.
Good grief, even if you’d just done #1 and #2, I’d say you were amazingly successful. Those two are HUGE! I’m so impressed that you were able to pay off – and then maintain! – the credit card. And the apartment, of course – it seems like you are so much happier in your larger space, despite the challenges of moving into a 3rd floor walkup. 🙂 You rocked it.