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mistressofmuses) wrote2024-12-31 06:14 pm
Reflections on 2024's goals:
2024 was...
Well, it was.
There were some really good points: Alex and I went on some nice walks and hikes, or to places like zoos and gardens. We also got to go see the Northern Lights, which was a first for me, and it was a really cool experience. I feel like I spent more time with Taylor this year, which was great. Despite a long span where I wasn't able to write, I eventually got back to it. Same for reading: there was a long stretch where my progress was slow, but it ramped up later in the year. Bella started competing in FastCAT, and while she's only been to a few competitions, she's already started doing really well at it! We found Summer "Berry Mad" Refresher, and she's remained a very fun companion. We also had some fun invertebrate pets, in the katydids and the black widow, even if they were only temporary.
There were also some downs: I had an illness that wouldn't quit for a couple months at the beginning of the year. Cy has really started to show his age, starting with a very scary emergency vet visit early in the year, and a few recurrences since. There was a lot of work stress, and money stress, and the related stresses (health, vehicle, pets) that could be so easily alleviated if money weren't an issue. The political landscape feels insurmountably grim. And we had a lot of loss: my toad Broccoli Cheddar Bomb on New Year's Day, my mom and Taylor's elderly but new-to-them cat, and then my grandmother just a few days ago.
While I avoid doing true "resolutions" each year, I did set some goals for myself at the beginning of the year.
A list of what I'd hoped to do:
- At work: Do better in terms of the metrics they use to determine success
- At home: Resume doing weekly cleaning and organizing projects
- Display more art
- Get a new firebellied toad
- Physically: Find a stretching routine
- For writing: Write at least 75000 words for the year
- Find a writing project that really grabbed my interest
- Finish my AUgust fics from 2023
- Meta stuff: Give Scrivener a try
- Organize my tags on Dreamwidth
- Download copies of media that I wanted to keep, like favorite fanfiction or short stories
- For personal writing/journalling: Keep up posting here regularly, but not strictly
- Creatively: Recognize and take opportunities to be creative
- Figure out a better sense of personal style
- For reading: Read 20 books and keep track of them
- For video games: Play more video games, plus stop feeling guilty when I do
- Socially: Participate in Dreamwidth communities more, while still balancing my time spent
At work, I did succeed, at least to a degree! While my sales aren't considered great, that is somewhat out of our control. I have wound up with a much better call rate, pretty consistently in the top half (and a few times within the top three) company-wide.
At home, it was pretty mixed on how I did with the weekly projects. I didn't do as many as I'd hoped, and also wound up just often having to redo the same tasks over and over, as they got messy or disorganized again.
I did put together more of the pin boards I'd hoped to, though I still haven't found a good place to hang them. We did get a few other decorative things hung up. And I'll count all my plants, too!
I didn't get a new firebellied toad, as I discovered they're a lot harder to find now than they ever used to be. Instead I got Summer "Berry Mad" Refresher, a Woodhouse toad.
Physically... I did do a pretty good job of keeping up a stretching routine for a while, but I got really discouraged when I really ended up seeing no benefit or improvement even after a few months, so I gave up on it. I feel like we didn't go on as many walks or hikes as I wish we had, but what we did was good.
For writing, I did succeed in my 75000 word goal! I surpassed it, though I don't have my definite year-end total just yet, I'll put it here when I do I reached 124814 words for the year. Lower than last year by a fairly significant margin, but still far higher than my goal. I had actually forgotten that I had deliberately set a lower goal than I thought I could meet, in order to try and help find a better balance with other hobbies and responsibilities.
I didn't find a particularly consuming project to work on, though I at least have a few that I'm interested in and excited to work on in the new year.
I did finish the AUgust 2023 fics, which was a big relief.
I terms of sort of "meta" stuff, I did finally download Scrivener, and I've really loved it!
I didn't get around to organizing my Dreamwidth tags, though I really should. I keep stalling out a bit because I'm trying to decide what to do with some of the oldest ones, which are from my imported Livejournal from all the way back to high school. Do I nix some of those tags as redundant/too infrequently used? Or do I keep them as a true archive of how I tagged things twenty years ago?
I did download a good number of my favorites from AO3, as well as some ebooks that I'd bought and not gotten around to downloading. There's more that I want to make sure I have actual copies of, though.
Personal writing here I did well on! I posted pretty consistently, without feeling like I had to post every single day.
For creative things other than writing... I did some. I did the model painting challenge in February (and the model has actually done well at a few shows, which is super gratifying!) I feel like I didn't do as much photography (amateur cellphone pics though it be) as I did the year before. I didn't do much in the way of drawing, but did a reading layout in my habit tracker that I'm proud of and will share soon.
I still haven't managed to get a whole "personal style" thing going. A lot of it is financial, again. I just haven't been able to justify spending money on clothing. Some is also that I'm not terribly happy with my weight, which I try not to bring up much, but definitely impacts me there.
For reading, I'd hoped to read 20 books. And I did! I thought I was going to fall very short, but I skated over the line in the last couple months! Technically, I said I wanted to read 20 books off of my TBR list, and in that case I didn't... a lot of what I read were things that were new acquisitions (either new releases I bought physical copies of, or ebooks I downloaded.) However, I'm just happy I did get more read than I thought I would. Using ebooks as my new time-killer on my phone (rather than a social media scroll or quick game) for when I'm waiting in the car or trying to fall asleep has really helped.
Video games... I still really didn't play much. Taylor and I played a good amount of Final Fantasy XIV when we got together, but I didn't play much on my own. I just don't have a lot of time for it. (And it pains me not to have a system that can play the newer releases I really wish I could.)
Socially, I'd hoped to spend more time in communities here on Dreamwidth, but I didn't really succeed. I felt like I sometimes barely had time to keep up on friends' journals, which matter more to me. I feel like I've done well on time spent, which makes me unsure how much more I could devote to community participation without it taking up more of my time than I want.
I did well on some things and not on others. A lot more fell to the middle. I think for next year, I'll probably try to do a lot of the same things.
Happy new year to all. While I don't feel like 2025 is destined to be a great year, I will continue trying to hope for better for us all.
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Congrats on meeting your word goal!
Organizing is endless, but it's good that you got copies of books and fics you like, that's always good to have just in case.
Looking forward to seeing the reading tracker.
Yeah, even I've not been very active in comms and I try to be a booster of comms. Looking forward to Snowflake and also 3 for the Memories, though.
I really do not like that it's 2025, but here's hoping we have a good one anyway
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Thank you on the words!
Organizing truly is the infinite task. But yeah... digital copies of things can so easily vanish if the host site goes down or things like that. At least knowing there's an offline copy is nice.
Thanks! The reading tracker is finally up.
Communities are so excellent, it's just... such a lot of time. I haven't ever been able to figure out how to do as much as I wish I could with the time I have!
Cheers to that. I hope 2025 manages to be better than I'm expecting it to be.