Stephany Writes

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | January 2018

So, here we go! It’s January and it’s time to put all of those goals I have into action. My biggest goals for 2018 are to end the year thinner and more financially secure than when I started it, which means I need to put in the work to make that happen. It won’t just magically occur without deliberate action on my part!

Usually for my monthly goals, I name around five goals I’d like to work toward during the month, but I’m changing things up a bit in 2018. Instead, I have two categories for my monthly goals: Biting Off My Yearly Goals and Nagging Tasks. The first category is exactly what it sounds like: I’m taking those big yearly goals and putting specific action steps in place to be able to accomplish them by the end of the year. And the second category is tiny tasks that don’t have anything to do with my yearly goals; they’re just these nagging things I need to get done and I’m much more apt to do them if I have to report back in February. 🙂

Biting Off My Yearly Goals

> Start tracking my food on MyFitnessPal (goal: lose 30 lbs)

> Drink only water and coffee while at work (goal: cut out soda completely)

> Email two therapists (goal: start therapy)

> Write 10,000 words in my novel (goal: finish my novel)

> Make a file on my computer compiling all of my mom’s engagement and wedding photos (goal: make a wedding album for my mom and stepdad)

Nagging Tasks

> Schedule a carpet cleaning (Dutch has destroyed my carpet and it needs a deep cleaning from a professional company)

> Put together my bookshelf (I bought one last weekend!)

> Sell my coffee table (I really want to redo my living room and it starts with getting rid of my coffee table)

> Donate my old laptop (y’all, it’s just been sitting in my apartment collecting dust for a YEAR)

> Frame the photo I bought in Puerto Rico and hang it up (it’s so gorgeous and has just been sitting in its plastic wrap for 8 months)

What’s something you want to accomplish in January?

Categories: Goals

My Goals for 2018

Happy 2018, friends! It’s hard to believe we’re at the beginning of a brand-new year. It felt like 2017 passed in a flash and I’m sure 2018 will feel the same way.

I love the feeling of a new year and the feeling that we have this blank slate where anything is possible. And I love, love, love making a list of what I want to accomplish over the next twelve months. I know yearly goals aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they are mine and so I’ve come up with a list of 15 things I’d like to accomplish.

But first, let’s go back and take a look at the goals I set at the beginning of 2017 and see how I did:

  1. Quit fast food and soda. Not complete. I was chugging along with this goal fairly well in the first quarter and then fell apart in the latter half of the year.
  2. Read four “classic” novels. Complete! For this goal, I read The Handmaid’s Tale, A Separate Peace, Jane Eyre, and Their Eyes Were Watching God. My favorite of those was easily The Handmaid’s Tale, which was one of my top 10 reads this year. (And yes, these are not your “typical” classic novels, but my goal, my rules.)
  3. Save $1,000 in an emergency fund. Not complete. Womp.
  4. Start seeing a therapist. Not complete. I let excuse after excuse pile up for why I didn’t start therapy this year, but after some of the things I experienced in 2017 (stuff that remained largely off the blog), I know I need this more than ever.
  5. Write my novel. Not complete. Ugh. I got stuck around 70,000 words into my novel and I just hit a complete wall. Around this time, I also got incredibly busy at work and used my weekly writing dates to work on actual work stuff. Excuses, I know. I’m really great at making excuses if you haven’t guessed.
  6. Get a tattoo. Complete. I went with a friend and finally got the book tattoo I’ve been wanting for years. I’m so pleased with it… and I’m already eyeing my next tattoo.

So, I wasn’t too successful with my yearly goals in 2017 with only two out of the six accomplished. But that’s okay! I love setting yearly goals, but I also understand that they are slightly arbitrary and I don’t need to beat myself up for not accomplishing everything I set out to do. A year is a long time and I don’t set these goals thinking that I need to accomplish all of them. I just enjoy the process of setting goals and working toward them.

So, with that said, here’s what I’d like to accomplish in 2018:

1. Lose 30 lbs

2. Complete the Whole30

3. Cut out soda completely

4. Buy a new couch

5. Complete a yearly shopping ban where I don’t buy any new clothes

6. Stop using plastic bags at the grocery store, Target, etc.

7. Read 100 books, including four classics.

8. Give up all dating apps and websites for the entire year.

9. Try something new once a month (i.e., kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, yoga, etc.)

10. Start therapy

11. Finish my novel

12. Figure out my Enneagram type

13. Travel to one new state

14. Exercise at least three times a week, every week in 2018

15. Create a wedding album for my mom and stepdad

Cheers to 2018!

Have you set any goals for 2018?

Categories: Goals

The Quarterly Check-In | April-June 2017

The second quarter of 2017 was good to me, I must say. I traveled to Puerto Rico with my mom where we sipped piña coladas on the beach, toured an ancient fort, hiked to a waterfall, and rode horses through a rainforest. I finally got the book tattoo that I’ve been craving for years. I joined a gym and I’ve become a crazy gym rat (and I love it). I participated in Sportsfest with a bunch of coworkers. And I started taking anti-anxiety meds, which have been life-changing, to say the least.

Of course, with the good comes the bad, like getting majorly sick in April, dealing with some not-so-fun adulting things, having lots of bouts of loneliness, and Dutch’s nighttime restlessness and overall senility.

But the good vastly outweighs the bad in this case, and I can assuredly say that this last quarter was a fantastic one for me. I am so pleased with 2017 so far. It’s been good to me.

At the beginning of every quarter, I like to review my yearly goals and make sure I’m on pace to achieve them (and if not, to revise them or make a plan for getting on track), as well as set a handful of goals to work toward over the next three months. It’s a check-in of sorts.

So, here is my yearly goals update:

1) Quit fast food and soda – not complete. I have been somewhat successful at cutting out fast food from my diet, but it’s still something I’m having on a semi-regular basis. Soda is always a work in progress, but I’m down to having one a day.

2) Read four “classic” novels – in progress. I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale and A Separate Peace. I have a friend’s copy of Jane Eyre and I think I’m going to give that a try very soon. Fingers crossed I can get through it!

3) Save $1,000 in an emergency fund – not complete. Ugh, I don’t want to talk about it. Quarter two was a spendy, spendy quarter with a trip to Puerto Rico, booking a flight, and not bringing in extra money from freelancing.

4) Start seeing a therapist – not complete. I need to make this a priority in quarter three.

5) Write my novel – in progress. I’m about 40,000 words into my novel, so I’m nearly at the halfway mark. I’m really having struggles with the novel right now and resistance toward finishing it, but I’m trying to tell myself just to write and I can try to make sense of it all later.

6) Get a tattoo – complete! Yay, I got it done. Finally!

***

Here’s what I hope to accomplish in quarter three:

1) Give up fast food completely.

2) Have two soda-free days every week.

3) Put $50 in my savings account every month.

4) Make an appointment with a therapist.

5) Write 3,000 words every week.

6) Get some form of activity every day and hit 6,000 steps on my Fitbit daily.

7) Pay off my credit card and freeze all unnecessary spending (i.e., buying clothes or going to Starbucks for breakfast or eating out if it doesn’t involve socializing) until I do.

8) Put together my mom’s wedding album.

9) Go on some dates.

10) Run a 5k.

Image credit: Pineapple Supply Co.

Categories: Goals

Yearly Goals – Check-in #1

I totally meant to check in on my yearly goals earlier this month, but time slipped away from me and here we are, nearly at the end of April. (HOW?!) Nonetheless, I wanted to take some time to look back on the goals I set at the beginning of the year and see how I’m doing with them. For some of them, I’m doing great! And for others, not so much. Isn’t that how goal-setting tends to go, though? I wish I had tried harder in some areas during this first quarter, but I still have three quarters to get stuff done.

Here’s how I’m doing on my yearly goals:

1) Quit fast food and soda

Well, this goal was going well during the first half of the quarter, but then I sort of fell apart during the second half. I’m only having fast food maybe once or twice a month, which is good, but I still feel better when I cut it out completely, so I need to get better at meal planning and choosing better options when I’m out. Soda continues to be an uphill battle, but one I’m determined to win!

2) Read four “classic” novels

I have read two already: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and A Separate Peace by John Knowles. I’ve loved both books so much, and while they may not be classics in the truest sense of the word, they feel like classics to me, so that’s all that matters, right?

3) Save $1,000 in an emergency fund

I’ve saved $300 towards this goal, but unfortunately, I’ll be using that for an expensive car repair coming down the pipeline. The first quarter of this year was spent catching up on my credit card, which had a $1,700 balance in January (and now is nearly paid off!), so hopefully, the rest of the year can be spent working towards this emergency fund.

4) Start seeing a therapist

Finding a therapist that is taking new patients, accepts my insurance, and works with my schedule has been incredibly difficult! I got frustrated last month after a slew of back-and-forth phone calls with a therapist that went nowhere, but I’m going to get back to the search after my trip. I know how useful therapy will be for me, and I just need to be patient and know that I’ll find the right person in time.

5) Write my novel

This goal is going exceedingly well! I’ve written about 30,000 words of my novel, so I have around 60,000-70,000 words to go. At this rate, I will definitely finish my novel by the end of the year. I’m having so much fun writing the novel, and I just want to do this for the rest of my life.

6) Get a tattoo

Hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve discussed this with two different friends and both are on board to get a tattoo with me. I am hoping this will be a fun task I can mark complete sometime this summer!

So, I’m doing well with some of my more fun yearly goals (reading and writing), but I’m lagging behind on the less fun ones (healthy eating, saving money, and therapy). What I’d like to work on over the next three (well, now two) months is to quit fast food completely (I can do it!), save at least 5% of every paycheck, and email therapists until I find one I like.

I’m trying to remember that these yearly goals are simply for personal development. They are things I’d like to accomplish over 2017, but they are by no means a measuring stick for how well or not well the year went. I just really love goal-setting and making these goals helps me to continue to work towards something every day, no matter how big or little of a step I take.

Have you made progress on your yearly goals?

Categories: Goals

Quarterly Goals | Quarter Two 2017

I go back and forth (and back and forth) on goal setting. Sometimes, I want to set monthly goals. Sometimes, I want to set quarterly goals. Sometimes, I think this whole goal-setting process is silly and don’t want to do it at all. I know of only one other blogger who uses her blog to set goals, so it’s not something I see very many people doing.

And yet.

I still love to use my blog to set goals. I still love thinking about what I want to accomplish. And I’m still way more likely to work toward my goals if I have to report back to my blog about my accomplishments later. (It’s the Obliger in me.)

I never used to get excited about the start of a new quarter, but there’s something refreshing about it. If we break our year up into three-month chunks, rather than looking at is as a whole or in monthly increments, it makes establishing goals and achieving them a little easier. There’s enough time, but not too much time.

So, here I am. Setting quarterly goals once again. I know I’m a mess when it comes to how I set goals, so I thank you for bearing with me. I’ve broken these goals into six sections – finances, health, writing, nagging tasks, adventure, and personal habits – because these are the sections that I’m always striving for. Finances, health, and writing are the big areas of my life where I’m constantly looking to improve and take chances. Nagging tasks, adventure, and personal habits are areas for me to take care of things, step outside my comfort zone, and experiment with my life and see what happens.

FINANCES | Move my savings to a CapitalOne 360 Savings account.

HEALTH | Use MyFitnessPal to track my food and walk 5,000 steps a day.

NAGGING TASK | Finish my mom’s wedding album (just in time for her second anniversary, oops).

ADVENTURE | Enjoy the hell out of Puerto Rico.

WRITING | Pitch an article.

PERSONAL HABIT | Stop snoozing my alarm.

Your thoughts on goal setting? Yay or nay?