2026 Goals

Let's do it!!! I feel like I've really prioritized health and communication in the past few years, so this year I'm going to prioritize fun and leaving the house. 

I typed "Goals" in my photos and this popped up. There's no grey in her muzzle here. 1/14/21

1) At least one trip with Dr. BB and Hannah - I'd like to some sort of camping trip (maybe a state or national park?). I mean, camping in a cabin, not a tent. 

2) At least two trips with friends - Bestest Friend and I already have something fun set up for this month, so this seems very doable.

3) At least two trips to Michigan to visit my high school friends - I'd like to fit in a trip over the summer and a trip for Homecoming in the fall.

4) Go to a fitness class I've never gone to before - I have a couple in mind already.

5) Make homemade ice cream - Years ago, Dr. BB bought me an ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid and I've literally never used it.

6) Do one creative thing a week - I have a lot of sewing projects, maybe I could try some blackout poetry a la Tobia, or do something fun from Keep Going by Austin Kleon, which is a fun little book Maya gifted me.

7) Become a regular reader of at least five new blogs in 2026

8) Leave an average of five blog comments on other blogs every day 

9) Complete NaBloPoMo this year (I have a special project in mind!)

10) Send at least five postcards every month - also, I'm going to continue to track my snail mail

11) Present at a conference for work - I sent in a proposal in November for a conference on campus in February. Fingers crossed it's accepted.

12) Track how many people come to yoga this semester - The lady who organized yoga at the student union retired last week. I'm so excited for her and all her retirement plans, but that means it's now on me to carry the mantle. I want to track and see how many people go and decide if I want to grow the program or just keep on keeping on. I'd also like to see if I need to buy any more equipment for it.

13) Update my resume - I'll leave it to you to figure out why I might be doing this. I love my job, I really do, but higher education is absolutely under attack right now.

14) Have an ePortfolio example - This is silly, but I teach a course where the students must complete an ePortfolio and I used to have a non-academic example to show them, but it has somehow disappeared. I need to make it come back. This should be fairly straightforward and hopefully will be done in January. 

15) Use a new journal to track goals, plan out the year, and take time to notice things I'm grateful for - I have been using habit trackers in a folder to track my goals this year and it worked, but it was more after-the-fact than forward thinking. I want to use this fancy new journal I bought to not only track goals, but be intentional about how and when I'm completing my goals. I want to check in with the journal at least once a day, like I do now with my habit trackers, but also use it once a month with Dr. BB to plan our months and once a week by myself to plan for the week.

    

16) Take a good photo every week and print them out once a quarter - I want to add these photos to the journal. 

17) Take photo of five places at least once a month - The five places are the tree out front, the pond in our neighborhood, the water tower, the log cabin on campus, and maybe the artisan well (this fifth place is still sort of a maybe). I'd like to take those photos roughly around the 15th every month, but I'm going to give myself a lot of grace in that. 

   

18) Pay myself and charity first - My savings has been dismal for YEARS. On every paycheck, I'm going to take money out and put it in various savings places and make at least a $25 donation before I spend other money

19) Reread - I am always tempted by new books, but I buy books I love. I want to reread some of those beloved books this year. Let it be the year of the reread! Last year I reread seven books, so let's say reread twelve this year - one a month, on average. 

20) Do a buddy read - I'm always so jealous of other people doing buddy reads. I want to do a buddy read!

21) Gratitude practice - Write down something I'm grateful for every day in my fancy new journal. 

Rollover goals

22) Be consistent in working out (at least 80% of days of 30 days of intentional movement) - Look, I have a plan. Will it work? Who knows? But I have a plan. 

23) Spend 750 hours outside - Last year I made a 1000 hours goal and it was TOO MUCH. I only made 561.5 hours. I lowered it to 750 this year, but to get those extra hours this year that I didn't get last year, I'm going to start trying to eat lunch outside at least once or twice a week during nice weather and (this is key) read outside if it's daylight and the weather is nice. Also, Hannah and I need to start doing training outside when it's nice out. Surely all of this can add up to another couple hundred hours over the course of a year.

24) Get on the same page as my husband about home repairs, investments, and a will - I 've talked with him about this and we both know we have to do it. 

25) Do two more iterations of CBBC on my blog - I think we can do this, can't we, friends?

26) Date night with Dr. BB every month - We talked about this. I think we're both on board!

I've got a couple of Just January goals and I may reserve the right to add some monthly goals here and there.

1) No baked goods or candy.

2) Do this video to improve posture at least twelve times this month.

3) Train Hannah at least twelve times this month. 

Motto of the year

Be compassionate

Last year, people around me were so kind and loving. My IRL friends, my blog friends, and my co-workers were so supportive. I want to make sure that I give that support back to the world. My first instinct isn't always compassion, but I want to make compassion be the result of my actions. 

********************

What do you think? Too much? Not enough? Let's find out!