I love making New Year’s resolutions. If I were to claim two nerdy, organizational hobbies, they would absolutely be making lists and setting goals. There is something so intrinsically satisfying about writing down meaningful objectives and then crossing them off, knowing that your life is incrementally better for it. Needless to say, I’m stoked it’s that time of year again.
In our household, we follow my husband’s New Year’s resolution tradition. His rule is that you make one resolution for every year you have been alive. Last year, I made 22 goals and accomplished 11 of them. While I do have a few regrets about how I managed my time, overall, I am fairly satisfied with what I accomplished. If you’d like a good chuckle (I certainly had one looking back), you can see my 2015 resolutions here.
Anyway, now on to 2016. Like last year, I’ve categorized my goals by the facet of my life to which they belong. However, for a bit of fun, I’ve also added new difficulty levels. E for easy, C for challenging, DD for damn difficult, and LOL for, well…you get the idea.
Here’s to hoping I can hit over half of these 23 bad boys.
WRITING
1. Write five days a week (C, but based on past experience, LOL)
2. Finish Desertera #2 (E)
3. Publish Desertera #2 (C)
4. Write Desertera #3 (DD)
5. Publish Desertera #3 (DD)
6. Write a book for fun (LOL)
7. Write all nonfiction booklets (E)
8. Publish all nonfiction booklets (E)
9. Publish nonfiction compilation (C)
BUSINESS
10. Publish two blog posts per week (C)
11. Read 50 books (C)
12. Make $1,000 from my author business (C, maybe DD)
13. Adhere to my marketing plan (C)
14. Send two email newsletters per month (C)
15. Update my author website/platform (revise each quarter) (E)
PERSONAL
16. Keep Daniel and myself student loan free (DD)
17. Keep migraines to one per month (or less!) (DD)
18. Exercise for 30 minutes, 3 days a week (LOL)
19. Record my three daily gratitudes (C)
20. Visit a new state (E)
21. Go to the 9/11 Memorial in NYC (E)
22. Visit home (summer) (C)
23. Visit home (Christmas) (E)
And that’s all, folks. Feel free to cheer me on in the comments (I need all the encouragement I can get!), or during my monthly updates, which I intend to keep posting. I’d also love to hear YOUR New Year’s resolutions and other goals. If you’re not sure where to begin, here are a few tips on crafting realistic, attainable New Year’s resolutions.
Most importantly…happy New Year!
Kate M. Colby 
Good luck, you certainly have set yourself a few challenges.
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Thanks! I like to set a variety of goals. Without some challenging ones, life would be too boring.
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Good luck! If I had as many goals as my age I’d have far too many to manage!
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Thanks! I’m sure I’ll fall off the bandwagon with this tradition eventually (it was really difficult to come up with even 23 resolutions), but it’s fun for now. 🙂
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Great list, Kate! I only wonder though, by this logic, wouldn’t it get harder to accomplish your resolutions when you are 50? I have always made lists, but this year I deliberately decided to go easy on it. It’s only a vague “try to feel more”. All I ever do is analyse and organise, and try to tick things off lists, so this year I’ve decided to focus on the experience more, instead of trying to accomplish something all the time.
I also have been meaning to read The Cogsmith’s Daughter, and will definitely do so in January. Things have been so hectic the past few months for me, I’ve been a lousy blogger and friend overall. But, do know that I support you and your writing and have learnt a lot from your excellent blog, and will continue to do so in 2016!
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Thank you for all of your kind words, Amrita! Your blog is a huge inspiration to me as well. (And don’t feel too bad, I’ve been rather busy and offline the last couple months, too.)
Personally, I kind of like the idea of always increasing your New Year’s resolutions. Eventually, the goals would have to be very small and very specific, but the message to me is: “Never stop dreaming and trying to improve yourself, no matter your age.” But, I daresay I will be hard-pressed to continue this tradition after 30 (if not 25!).
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Happy New Year!
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Happy New Year to you, too, Charles!
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Happy New Year, Kate! And whoop whoop, this is me cheering you on 🙂 It’s a great list – I should probably get around to making one myself – I still have a few hours left…
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Thanks, Helen! You still have plenty of time (…and if you run out, just go by Hawaiian time or something…). Happy New Year to you, too!
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😀 I will! It’s not midnight yet…
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Happy New Year! I’d like to read more books but I am a slow reader and with other business matters taking up my time, it’s a challenge. Good luck in 2016
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Happy New Year to you, too! Fitting in time to read (and achieve any goals) with a busy work schedule is a huge challenge. The only reason I’m able to read so much now is that I spend two hours a day on the train for my commute – the silver lining in an otherwise tedious routine. Good luck with your goals as well!
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Good luck Kat, that sure are a lot of goals.
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Thanks! Happy New Year!
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Goodluck with your 2016 goals, I am sure you will. Make them happen 🙂 Happy New Year 🎉
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Happy New Year and good luck with your goals as well! I’m hoping I can hit at least half again this year. 🙂
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Thank you 🙂 Happy New Year to you too 😃
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It’s so refreshing seeing a well-defined, exciting list of goals. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy the way you do things :]
Best wishes for a year rich with progress, contentment, and growth! Can’t wait to see where we both are this time next year.
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Thank you, Ben! Best of luck with 2016. I’m sure it will be another great year for you!
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