Stephany Writes

Categories: Goals

My 2023 Goals

Welcome to 2023! I have big plans for this year: moving to a bigger apartment, taking control over my anxiety, and forming stronger connections with the people I love. And I also have a lot of goals for this year. One day, I opened the Notes app on my phone, started a new note titled “2023 Goals,” and began adding goals. (And adding… and adding…) I’ve been refining these goals for a few weeks now and I think I have a solid list of 30 (!!) goals. I’ve broken my goals down into categories this year and while my original plan was to list 5 goals per category, I decided I didn’t have to do that to myself. Some categories only have a few goals while others have a lot (I’m particularly happy that my “Fun Stuff” category is the biggest). My plan is to break down these annual goals into quarterly and then monthly goals so I can hopefully attain most of them!

APARTMENT

1) Move to a two-bedroom apartment – My lease is up at the beginning of November and my goal is to move to a two-bedroom apartment. I want to use the second bedroom to use as an office/home gym. I’m hoping to find a two-bedroom for less than $2,000 a month, but that may be wishful thinking.

2) Hire movers for my move – I am well-versed in the moving process, but I’ve actually never used movers. My brother is always happy (ish) to move me, but I only make him move the big stuff like furniture. The rest of it is up to me, and it’s exhausting. I’m excited to use movers for this move, especially since I live on a third-floor apartment (with no elevator).

3) Change up my entryway – Right now, my entryway (which is just a wall, lol), has a key hook shelf that I thought would be more useful to me than it actually is. It has a slot to keep mail, but I don’t keep mail there. I want to replace my current shelf with something like this and add a round mirror to spruce up this wall a bit. I’d love to use the shelf for holding seasonal decorations, too.

4) Buy a new mattress and bedframe – Originally, the plan was just to replace the mattress and box spring, but I think I’d also like to splurge on a new bedframe. The one I have now is a hand-me-down that’s looking a little worse for wear, so I want to find a bedframe with the upholstered headboard I’ve been dreaming of.

5) Install a bidet. I had my first bidet experience and y’all, it may have been life-changing. There are plenty of bidet options that I can install right on my toilet for less than $50, so this is a goal for 2023.

HEALTH

1) Go for a walk every day – It can be one simple, 10-minute loop around my apartment complex. It can be an hour-long walk in a park. But every day, I need to get outside and move my body.

2) Complete 100 Peloton workouts – Let’s see if I can get closer to this goal in 2023, shall we?

3) Drink at least one bottle (16 oz) of water every day – It’s a simple goal. It’s an easy goal. But can it be done?

4) Get a sleep study done – I think I may have sleep apnea. The way I snore points to potentially having it. I’d like to have a sleep study done at some point this year to find out if I have it.

5) Research my options for LASIK. I would love to get LASIK. It’s hard for me to wear contacts these days because my astigmatism is so bad (I wear contacts specifically made for astigmatism, and they still don’t work well for me), and I’m tired of wearing glasses. I want to find out if I’m a candidate for LASIK and, if so, my financing options.

6) Establish a better morning and nighttime routine. I must get better about my routines in 2023, especially my nighttime routine. I believe that one of the reasons my anxiety was so unmanageable last year is because I was only getting 6 hours of sleep every night, which is just not enough sleep for me. My goal is to start my nighttime routine at 8pm, be in bed reading at 9pm, and have lights out by 10pm. For my morning routine, I want to wake up at 6:30am, go for a walk, have breakfast, take a shower/get ready for the day, make my bed, and do my morning skincare routine before logging onto work at 8:30am.

MONEY

1) Have $3,000 saved in my CapitalOne emergency fund and $500 in my bank emergency fund by the end of the year. I haven’t been focusing on building up my emergency fund for the past couple of years, but since I had to dip into it a few times in 2022 for emergency purposes, it’s a bit depleted at the moment. This year, I want to get my CapitalOne emergency fund to $3,000 and the emergency fund with my bank to $500. I like having that $500 buffer in my bank so I can pull from it quickly if my account is close to overdrafting.

2) Switch to a rewards credit card. Can you believe I still don’t have a rewards credit card? I only use one credit card, which I got through my bank, and they do have a reward credit card option, but I just haven’t put the process in motion to switch over.

3) Do a weekly budget check-in. I haven’t really been monitoring my budget as closely as I like, as sometimes I can go weeks without checking my bank account and writing down what I’ve been spending. This year, I’d like to have a little budget check-in with myself, maybe every Sunday evening, to go over what I’m spending, project what the next week will look like, and make sure I’m hitting my savings goals.

4) Donate $50 to the following three charities every quarter: Friends of Strays (a local, no-kill animal shelter and where I adopted Lila!), the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund, and CASA (domestic violence support services). I fell short of my goal to donate $50 per month to a charity of my choice so I hope that by listing out the exact charities I will be supporting this year, I will be better prepared!

HOBBIES

1) Read 100 books. For the last few years, my reading goal has been beyond what feels doable to me. I don’t really need to set a reading goal because I know I’m going to read a lot of books like I always do. But I like doing so since it’s a pretty easy goal to cross off my list. In 2023, I’m keeping things easy and setting the goal at 100 books. I know I can accomplish that.

2) Complete the A-Z reading challenge. I love low-stress reading challenges. Usually, I complete the Unread Shelf Project but the prompts don’t really speak to me this year so I decided to skip it. Instead, I’m going to do the A-Z reading challenge, which I completed a few years ago and really enjoyed. (You just read a book that begins with each letter of the alphabet.)

3) Publish podcast seasons regularly throughout the year. Bri and I are having a really fun time with the podcast, so I hope we can continue with our rhythm of releasing a podcast season every other month or so. I’d like to at least release 6 new seasons of the podcast this year!

4) Make a website for our podcast. This has been a goal at the back of my mind since we started the podcast, so I’m making it a 2023 goal so I get it done!

5) Complete my blog categorization project. I’ll be spending my writing dates with Mikaela working on this project throughout 2023. I have 10 years of blog posts to recategorize. Fun!

6) Host a silent reading night. We’ll all come in our pajamas and bring the book we’re currently reading. There will be refreshments. I’ll put on an ASMR ambiance room from YouTube on the TV. We’ll set a timer – maybe an hour, maybe 90 minutes – and then we’ll read silently. Afterwards, we can talk about what we’re reading or just chit-chat. I can’t wait to make this happen in 2023.

7) Watch 6 movies and 6 standup specials. Last year, I had a goal to watch one movie a month but I am really bad about watching movies regularly. I feel like this goal is much more attainable.

FUN STUFF

1) Go tubing at Rainbow Springs. After we did our tubing excursion in Jamaica, my mom and I both talked about how we want to go again. We have natural springs about 2 hours away where we can go tubing, so I’d love to make this a day trip sometime over the summer.

2) Take a knife skills class. Every time I watch a cooking show, I am in awe of the knife skills of real chefs. While I don’t think I’ll be chopping an onion like Gordon Ramsey anytime soon, I do think I would find one of these classes very beneficial. Bonus: My friend Amber wants to come with me!

3) Learn how to French braid. This was on my annual goals list in 2022 (added late), and it’s something I want to experiment with in 2023. It can’t be that hard to learn how to French braid, can it?

4) Visit one new state. My mom and I have big plans to visit Tennessee at the end of the year to spend Christmas in a cabin near the Smokey Mountains. We’ll bring the dogs (and my stepdad, lol), and my brother and his family might come for a few days after Christmas. Eeks! I hope we can make this happen.

5) Get a tattoo. I didn’t complete this goal in 2022, so back on the list it goes in 2023. I actually have three different tattoo ideas that I want to get done, so maybe I’ll get more than one tattoo this year? We’ll see.

6) See a Dolphins game in person. While I have seen my beloved Miami Dolphins in person in Tampa, I’ve never visited their stadium in Miami for a game. I want to make it a goal for 2023 to finally do that, no matter how outrageous the prices may be. (And preferably early in the year, before the Dolphins start sucking like they do at the end of every season.)

7) Complete Project 365. I’m doing it! One photo a day, posted on Instagram with a caption, for all of 2023. I feel a little crazy for doing this for the third time, but I’m also excited to share my life in this way again.

8) Go on at least 5 first dates. Last year, my goal was 12 first dates and I went on 0. So, let’s make things a smidge easier on me and try for 5 first dates.

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | November 2022

My October goals did not go as planned. It was a busier month than usual, especially as I played chauffeur for my mom for the entire month and seemed to have more plans than usual. So I kinda threw a lot of my goals to the wayside as I tried to keep my head above water with my busy schedule. That’s life, though! I’m rolling over a lot of my October goals into November, so we’ll see if I can knock them out this month!

October Goals

1) Do a 30-minute workout three times a week. LOL, no.

2) Update all of my blog posts from 2010. Complete! Yay!

3) Drink water every day. LOL, no.

4) Establish a better nighttime routine with lights out at 10:30 p.m. No, but I’ve decided to switch my exercise time from morning to evening. Before, I was trying to get up by 6 a.m. to get in a workout before starting my day, but it was so hard to make that happen when I was going to bed so late. (Hence, the goal of going to bed by 10:30 p.m.) So, I decided to experiment with evening workouts. I’m usually finishing up work around 5:30-6:00 and then I’ll do my workout. I don’t usually like waiting so late in the day to work out, as it gives me so many hours to talk myself out of doing it, but I hope this will a) help give me a mood boost at a time of day that is roughest for my anxiety (nighttime) and b) allow me to get a bit more sleep, even if I go to bed later, as I’m setting my alarm for 7:30 a.m.

5) Pay off my credit card. No, but very close! I think I can maybe make this happen in November. Fingers crossed!

6) Recycle some old electronics/cable cords + do a Goodwill drop. Ugh, no. I need to add a few more things to my Goodwill bag so I’ve been holding off on doing that dropoff. And while I could have dropped off my old electronics/cable cords at Best Buy, I was halfway to the store when I realized I left the iPad Mini I wanted to donate on my dresser, blergh. Next month!

7) Organize my iPhone photos from the first half of 2022. Complete!

8) Make a doctor’s appointment. No. I’ll probably wait until early next year for this doctor’s appointment, once I’m on a PPO plan and have a more reasonable copayment ($30 as opposed to $150. HMO plans are for the birds.)

9) Redecorate my bathroom. Complete! I love the change so much. 🙂

10) Continue making myself dinner three nights a week. I didn’t really keep track of this last month. I think so?

November Goals

1) Do a 30-minute workout three times a week. Rollover goal.

2) Update all of my blog posts from 2011. Another year to categorize!

3) Drink water every day. Rollover goal.

4) Complete NaBloPoMo 2022. Yay! This will be such a fun goal to complete.

5) Pay off my credit card. Rollover goal.

6) Recycle some old electronics/cable cords + do a Goodwill drop. Rollover goal.

7) Organize my iPhone photos through October 2022. Once I complete this goal, I will be all caught up on photo organization. My plan is to do the previous month’s photo organizing in the following month.

8) Start Christmas shopping. I already have some ideas for family/friends so I’d like to knock out some of my Christmas shopping early in November if possible.

9) Get my third tattoo. This has been on my yearly goals list for 3 years and it’s time to finally make it happen. November is the month I do it!

10) Update my One Line a Day journal and keep up with it. I am so very bad at filling in my One Line a Day journal. Thankfully, I have my “Everyday Moments” Notes app where I keep track of one good thing every day so it helps me out in a pinch if I get a few weeks behind and can’t remember what I was doing/thinking/feeling on that day. However, I really want to use this journal for more than just happy moments: I also want to document hard things, things that happen at work, and just things I want to remember from this time in my life (aka, the stuff I don’t always use for Everyday Moments). I need to get caught up (I’m about a month behind, eeks) and then stay caught up.

Categories: Goals

2022 Goals | Q3 Recap

It’s time for another check-in on the goals I set for myself at the beginning of this year. It’s crazy that we’re already in the last quarter of 2022! Where did this year go?! In this recap, I’m going to be brutally honest about the goals I think I can achieve by the end of the year and the ones I know won’t get done. Let’s get into it!

Three Big Goals

1) Reduce my sugar intake. Ugh, no. This is the problem with making such an arbitrary goal. I should have made it more measurable, such as “stop drinking soda completely” or “only have dessert two nights a week.” But I know I haven’t been doing what I need to do for this goal.

2) Save $4,000 for a down payment. No progress made. At this point, I’m planning on continuing to rent rather than buying a home.

3) Reorganize my blogging categories/tags. I have been working hard at this goal all year long! While I will not finish the recategorization process by the end of the year, I will have made lots of progress.

20 Fun Goals

1) Buy a new mattress. I have $1,100 saved for a new mattress so I am so close to making this goal happen! But I doubt it will happen by the end of this year. I need to really focus on building back up my savings in Q4 (which will be hard with a vacation + the holidays in the midst of everything!) But I’m proud of myself for getting really close to this goal in 2022.

2) Complete the 2022 Unread Shelf Project. In progress. So far, I’ve read:

  • January (the book you’ve been putting off reading): The English Wife by Lauren Willig ★★★☆☆
  • February (a title you couldn’t resist): Wordslut by Amanda Montell ★★★☆☆
  • March (a memoir or biography): Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling ★★★★☆
  • April (a book by an indie publisher or small press): When She Woke by Hillary Jordan ★★★★★
  • May (the shortest unread book on your shelf): The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin ★★★★☆
  • June (a book about a journey): Outlawed by Anna North ★★★☆☆
  • July (a book set in a country/culture different than yours): A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (DNF)
  • August (a book chosen by your friends or family): Pretty Little Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton (DNF)
  • September (a book that represents the reader you want to be): The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare ★★★☆☆

3) Read all of the books added to my Goodreads TBR in 2017. (16/21) I am right on track with this goal! I need read about 2 books a month to mark it complete. Easy peasy!

  • Columbine by Dave Cullen ★★★★★
  • I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson DNF
  • All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven ★★★★★
  • Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit DNF
  • Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber ★★★☆☆
  • Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
  • The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity Is Killing Young Women by Jessica Valenti ★★★★☆
  • Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley ★★★★☆
  • Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman DNF
  • The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane ★★★★☆
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou ★★★☆☆
  • Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer DNF
  • A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold
  • Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
  • How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly’s Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life by Heather Havrilesky DNF
  • Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America by Jeff Chu ★★★☆☆
  • Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon ★★★★☆
  • Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley ★★★★☆
  • The Nix by Nathan Hill
  • The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord DNF

4) Do 100 Peloton workouts. (66/100) Welp, I am very behind with this goal. I need to log 11-12 workouts a month to mark it complete. Which is completely doable! I’m not going to pressure myself to get it done (because sometimes I’d rather go for a long walk than do a Peloton workout, especially now that the weather is nicer in the mornings), but I’m going to try my best and see how close I can get.

5) Restart my novel. No progress made. I don’t know if this will ever happen. It makes me sad because I always thought I’d be a novelist, but I don’t know if I have what it takes to make it happen. (And that’s not me putting myself down! I would have to reshuffle my priorities to make it happen, and I don’t really think I want to do that.)

6) Go back to therapy. Complete! I wish I could go to therapy every week, but alas, I can only afford it once a month.

7) Watch 12 standup specials. (6/12) I’m a bit behind on this goal! I just need to watch two standup specials a month, though! I can do that.

  • Taylor Tomlinson, Quarter-Life Crisis ★★★★★ (I cried with laughter from this one. A must-watch!)
  • Nate Bargatze, The Greatest Average American ★★★☆☆ (There were some chuckles, but overall, kinda blah.)
  • Mike Birbiglia, Thank God for Jokes ★★★★☆ (A bit more heartfelt than funny, but still a good special.)
  • Taylor Tomlinson, Look at You ★★★★★ (Is Taylor my favorite stand-up comedian? I think so.)
  • Nicole Byer, BBW ★★★☆☆ (Very, very raunchy!)
  • Iliza Schlesinger, Elder Millenial ★★★★☆ (Soooo funny and her thoughts about dating really spoke to me.)

8) Watch 6 TV series. (4/6) I haven’t made any progress on this goal because I’ve fallen into a hole of rewatching old seasons of Masterchef. Maybe I’ll try to knock out a few quick Netflix series by the end of the year, but maybe not.

  • Only Murders in the Building – I watched season 1 earlier this year and I’m excited to watch season 2 soon!
  • Ted Lasso – I watched seasons 1 and 2 in May/June.
  • Abbott Elementary – I just finished season 1, and it was excellent.
  • Good Girls – I finished season 1 in July and I’m looking forward to continuing with the series soon.

9) Launch two seasons of our podcast. We launched season 1 in August and season 2 launches tomorrow! Wahooooo!

10) Get my third tattoo. No progress made. I know exactly what I want to get and I just need to make the goddamn tattoo appointment!

11) Walk one 5k a month, in a different place each time. (3/12) Yup, this will not get done. Cute idea, 2021 Stephany!

  • January 17, 2022 – Seminole Park – 2.82 miles with my mom and the dogs in 1 hour, 12 minutes
  • February 20, 2022 – Walsingham Park – 3.1 miles solo in 1 hour, 16 minutes
  • May 14, 2022 – Crescent Lake Park – 3.1 miles solo in 1 hour, 14 minutes

12) Redo my bathroom. I should have this done in October! Yay!

13) Get microdermabrasion or laser treatment—whatever is the better option for dealing with my acne scars. No progress made. I need to schedule an appointment with a dermatologist and I’m a little scared about how much everything would cost.

14) Learn how to French braid. No progress made. This will probably be a 2023 goal.

15) Go on one date a month. Lolz, no. Dating is dumb.

16) Put an extra $1,000 toward my car loan. No. I tried putting extra money toward it and that made my auto payment setup freak out. I need to figure out how to put money toward my auto loan without screwing up that setup, but I haven’t felt motivated to figure it out.

17) Make 12 new recipes. (8/12) I missed one month of making a new recipe, so I’ll need to double up sometime in Q4!

18) Make a recipe book. No progress made, and doubtful I will get to this in Q4. I might roll over this goal to 2023, but I’m not sure yet.

19) Cut gluten out of my diet for one month. No progress made. I still want to experiment with cutting gluten out of my diet for a month because I’m interested in how it would make me feel, but I just haven’t planned for it and I can’t see myself doing so in Q4.

20) Buy a coffee table and a floor lamp. Complete! I bought a cute coffee table in January and a floor lamp in March.

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | October 2022

Ahh, September goals. As you might expect, things didn’t go as planned this month. I injured my big toe at the beginning of the month, prompting a few days of convalescence. And then Hurricane Ian upended my routine during the last week of the month (but thankfully, that’s all it upended!) In the end, I think I only completed one goal and nearly completed a couple more. But that’s life! That’s why I don’t put too much pressure on myself when it comes to my monthly goals. I love setting them and trying to accomplish them, but I’m also not going to beat myself up when goals don’t get done. Life is unpredictable, and these goals are just a fun way to push myself.

September Goals

1) Do a 30-minute workout three times a week. Not complete. The toe injury kept me from working out and I found it really hard to get into a routine this month. I think I only did, like, 4 or 5 workouts this month. Oopsy.

2) Update all of my blog posts from 2009 and 2010. Not complete. I got through 2009 and the first quarter of 2010, but I didn’t get much farther than that.

3) Drink water every day. Ugh, no.

4) Establish a better nighttime routine with lights out at 10:30 p.m. I am still really struggling with this goal, but for a week or two in September, I felt like I was getting into a better routine. And then the hurricane happened. So… semi-complete.

5) Pay off my credit card. Lol, no, considering I had to put a three-night Airbnb stay on my credit card this month. Sigh.

6) Find a reasonably priced course on growing a podcast following. Not complete.

7) Organize my iPhone photos from 2021. Complete! Woohoo – got something done this month at least.

8) Make a doctor’s appointment. Not complete. I just kept letting this fall off my to-do list.

9) Brush the cats once a week. Semi-complete. I did this a few times in September, but not weekly.

10) Make myself dinner three nights a week. Mostly complete. I fell off during the last week of the month since we were in Ft Lauderdale, but I was very good about this the other weeks of the month!

October Goals

1) Do a 30-minute workout three times a week. Let’s try this again! Please no injuries or hurricane scares this month.

2) Update all of my blog posts from 2010. An easier goal for this month. I think recategorizing one year of blog posts every month is about what I can accomplish right now.

3) Drink water every day. Rollover goal.

4) Establish a better nighttime routine with lights out at 10:30 p.m. Rollover goal.

5) Pay off my credit card. Would be nice to mark this complete in October. We’ll see!

6) Recycle some old electronics/cable cords + do a Goodwill drop. I have an old iPad, an old Chromebook, and some cable cords that need to be recycled, which I can do at Best Buy. I just need to make the trek! I also need to do a Goodwill drop. I have a garbage bag filled with items to donate and I want to donate an old cat tower, too.

7) Organize my iPhone photos from the first half of 2022. More photo organization! It’s so nice to see my Photos app look a lot less cluttered. Of course, I failed to realize that having all of my photos on Google Photos would mean I would quickly start running out of space on Google Workspace, which includes Gmail and Google Docs. I’m now paying $2 a month to have 100GB of space on Google Workspace.

8) Make a doctor’s appointment. Rollover goal.

9) Redecorate my bathroom. One of my 2022 annual goals is to redecorate my bathroom, which is really just a simple refresh: a new shower curtain, new towels, new bath mats, etc. I have everything I need but the bath mats, and I am forcing myself to order those this week so I can finally mark this goal complete. Yay!

10) Continue making myself dinner three nights a week. I’m going to keep this goal going in October. It’s a fun one for me to accomplish, but I don’t think it’s quite a habit just yet.

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | September 2022

August Goals

1) Make my bed every morning. Complete! Okay, I didn’t do this every morning, but I did it most mornings and I have loved walking into my room throughout the day to see a made-up bed. It makes me feel so accomplished! I do have to fight with Ellie every morning as I’m making the bed (she’s not a fan, I guess?) but then I find her curled up on the bed during the day so she’s being a little trickster.

2) Figure out the 10 categories I want to use when recategorizing my blog posts and update all of my blog posts from 2009. Yes to the first, no to the second. I worked through probably half of the 2009 blog posts but then I got busy with some other stuff, so I put it to the wayside. I need to push this project back to the front of my list!

3) Fill up my water bottle nightly. Lol, remember how excited I was to have figured out how to make sure I fill up my water bottle every day? I failed hard on this goal in August. Oops.

4) Start time blocking. I did this for about two weeks, but then I grew tired of doing it every day. I still enjoy the practice of time blocking, and I would like to figure out how to be better at time blocking in the evenings, but I failed at this goal in August. Or if I’m being optimistic, I was somewhat successful at this goal. Ha.

5) Post regularly on our podcast Instagram. Complete! I’m posting every Tuesday when our episode drops and then every Friday with a fun memory of Bri and me so people can get to know us better. I’m not sure what I will post when we’re on our short breaks between seasons, so I need to figure that out soon!

6) Be in bed, lights out, at 10:45pm every night. Nope! Most days, it was 11:30 or later. Oof.

7) Organize my iPhone photos from 2019-2021. I got through 2019 and 2020, but that’s as far as I got.

8) Clear out my junk bin. Complete! I mean, I did it yesterday so way to wait until the last minute, Steph, but it got done.

9) Brush the cats once a week. I only managed to do this twice in August. Every time I brush Lila, I feel so accomplished because I always come away with a pile of cat hair. But she is very resistant to letting me use the brush on her. (And Eloise is the opposite, so when she sees me brushing Lila, she comes running to get some of that good brushing for herself.)

10) Bring my bank savings account back up to $500. Nope. Maybe in October? Wah.

September Goals

1) Do a 30-minute workout three times a week. I give myself these audacious workout goals because that’s what I see everyone else doing. But I need to remember that I have a completely different relationship to exercise (as in, if I didn’t have to do it for my health, I probably wouldn’t), so it’s okay if my goals are small and what other people would consider a “bad” workout week. So I’m challenging myself to three workouts per week: a spin class, a strength class, and a walk. That’s all I need to do every week.

2) Update all of my blog posts from 2009 and 2010. This will be a big goal for September, but I imagine I can do a lot of this while watching football with the fam!

3) Drink water every day. New water goal. I’m not giving myself a certain number of ounces to drink, but as long as I drink some water every day, that’s good enough for me.

4) Establish a better nighttime routine with lights out at 10:30 p.m. I really must figure out my nighttime routine, where I’m not starting my wind-down at 9:30 p.m. I just need to be diligent with myself to make it happen! I’d love to be in bed by 9:00, to give myself a nice hour-and-a-half for reading and ASMR videos.

5) Pay off my credit card. I should be able to make this happen in September, since it’s a three-paycheck month for me. And then I can focus on building up my savings accounts again!

6) Find a reasonably priced course on growing a podcast following. It’s been super fun to launch our podcast… now it’s time to figure out how to grow it! I honestly don’t really know how you grow a podcast (other than by word of mouth?), so it would be helpful to learn some tips and tricks of the trade to make our podcast stand out a bit more.

7) Organize my iPhone photos from 2021. One year seems to be the best I can do with this photo organizing project right now.

8) Make a doctor’s appointment. It’s time to talk to my doctor about adjusting my anxiety meds. I also have a few other things I want to follow up with her about, so I just need to make an appointment to do all of that.

9) Brush the cats once a week. Rollover goal—need to make this a habit!

10) Make myself dinner three nights a week. I am not the best at making myself dinner. I have fallen into a habit of eating like a frat boy (minus the beer) with too many frozen pizzas and homemade nachos. It’s time to be a goddamn adult and make myself a goddamn dinner with a protein, starch, and vegetable. Three days a week is my goal! It’s way more than I’m doing now.