Happy 2016!
We rang in the new year for the first time in Kansas City. We’ve always gone home to be with friends and family, but we weren’t able to go back because of work. We wanted our celebration to be relatively chill after constantly being on the go around Christmas. I cooked some fri-do pizzas as a special meal since it’s a bit of a pain to make (and I always seem to forget to set the dough out to rise).
We watched a movie and played some video games, but by 11PM we both just went to bed. 
We had both been up since about 5:30AM and were pooped. I set an alarm for midnight because my mom’s birthday is January 1st, so I could call her to wish her a happy birthday. I like to think that the whole world is celebrating her birthday on New Year’s Eve. She deserves it. 
I usually don’t set many goals for myself each year. If there is something that I want to change or start doing, I try to do it as soon as I can. I used to think that new year’s resolutions were stupid because of this (look at any of my past first posts of the year), but it’s always good to do a self-evaluation no matter the day. So I may have had a slight change of heart. Anyhow, I set myself a few annual goals that I’d like to work on this year. I didn’t include some obvious ones, like “Graduate!” or “Move home!” because unless I have some emergency life change, these should come naturally.
Goals for 2016:
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Be more consistent in my blogging. Looking back at my consistency of my posts always hurts a bit because I can be so all over the place! Sometimes I will post every other day for two weeks and then you won’t hear from me for a month. I’ve found that organizing my posts and setting up a “blogging process” has really helped me stay consistent over the last several months (post coming soon on this!), so continuing that this year I think will really help me achieve this goal.
I was curious to see over the years how my blogging consistency has compared, so I tallied up the posts for each month and year. In 2015, I published 45 posts, which is three and a half posts a month. Not staggering, but it’s better than in 2014 and 2013 where I only had 27 and 33, respectively. Last year was the first year to break the downward trend, so I want to keep that going this year! I also realize that more isn’t necessarily better (quality > quantity) , but I feel like I always have something to say and not enough time to say it, so this goal is really more about disciplining myself to sit down and write on a regular basis. -
Read 52 books. This was the only goal I set for myself last year, and I’m pretty sure from now until eternity I will be challenging myself to read more. I completed my goal last year, while planning a wedding, while my then fiancé was in another country, and while working full time and going to school full time, so I know I can do it again this year, sans wedding.
You can track my progress on my Goodreads! -
Be bold. I usually don’t add goals that aren’t very measurable, however I feel that this one is necessary for me to write down. As a quiet introvert, I’ve noticed the past couple months (a talk with my professor started me thinking on it) how much I can sometimes miss out. I pass up opportunities because I fear change and I don’t speak up often because I worry what people will think. My goal this year is to be bold and not think so much about just being me. I’m not sure how I’ll view if I was successful in this area at the end of this year, but I’ll just wing it.
I only made one goal for myself last year and that was to read 52 books in 2015. I included audiobooks, ebooks, and re-reads in my count and I am happy to say I reached 52 exactly!
I also have some exciting new things that I’m going to introduce to the blog this year, to give this place a more well-rounded view of me. I did an informal evaluation of what I consider most important to me and what I spend the most time doing, and what I blog about doesn’t proportionally equal either of those. So I’m excited to introduce some new topics this year that I think you will all enjoy!
I hope you all had a safe and fun new year’s eve, and I wish the best for you in 2016!
Happy New Year!
Good luck with all your goals. I’ve set myself a reading challenge too, but I’m only aiming for 42 books (not including comics and graphic novels because I read loads of those). In 2015 I read less than 10 books, which I was really disappointed with. Can’t believe you managed 52 even when you were so busy!
I need to do the same with blogging. I tend to have periods where I’m really into it, but then won’t blog for half the year or something. I think it’s just a time thing mainly – I need to be more organised.
Good luck with everything!
xxx
Happy New Year! Congratulations on reading 52 books! I tried to read 30 new books last year, but I only made 11. I read many more books, but they were all books I’d read before. This year I’m going to buy a kindle so I can keep buying books without worrying about space in my tiny tiny flat!
Chill New Years are great, you get to spend it with people you love and that’s the best. Good luck with all of your goals for this year – there isn’t anything wrong with not being as outgoing as others, but if you feel that you’re missing out on opportunities then best of luck to you with the boldness! Hopefully lots of exciting things will arise from it!
Happy New Year! Glad to hear that you spent plenty time with your family and enjoyed it :). Happy birthday to your mom too! I think graduating is a given, so it shouldn’t be a goal… It should be something that is expected to happen. Maybe “get a 3.9965 GPA for the spring term” sounds more better. (But replace the GPA # with a different number ;)).
Good luck with your goals this year! I thought I read more blog posts from you from years before? I enjoy reading posts from you because we’re at the same age and it’s great to see what you’re up to. So please don’t go on a hiatus again ;).
52 books sounds like a great challenge! Keep it up!
Getting yourself out there is good. You meet people and network with them, which can result in some pretty good outcomes… Like scoring an awesome job XD.
I could have given myself a specific GPA goal, but I didn’t think that was necessary either. I’ve always done pretty will with my grades, so again unless anything drastic happened, it’s a given too! Honestly, that GPA number you gave is pretty close!
No plans for a hiatus.
I love reading yours too for the same reason!
Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to your mom! My mom’s birthday is on the 2nd and we normally celebrate it today with the rest of the world haha.
I wish I had time to read more books. I have to get on this audio book trend and see how it works out for me. My daily commutes are usually 30 minutes one way and I just listen to a podcast episode in that time. With that, I could probably squeeze a few books in there.
I think your goals look reasonable and I wish you the best of luck in the new year! Especially with being bold. I found that jumping on opportunities, meeting new people and asking the right questions got me pretty far.
Thanks, Ella! I love having my mom’s birthday on the 1st, makes it feel more special.
Audiobooks are awesome! I highly recommend them.
I get them from my library through an app for free and usually finish one about every two or three weeks, which helps a lot with my goal. I listen to them when I’m driving, doing laundry/chores, and sometimes when I have downtime at work.
Happy birthday to your mom! I hope you has a fantastic day, I bet she feels all the love and celebrations just for her on New Years
I love your goals, they really do motivate me! Good luck with the books – my goal is 8. I wish I could top yours
But I know with my schedule it’s impossible!
Yay for meeting your reading goals in 2015
And it’s great that you’ve set that one again for 2016 
Good luck with your other two goals, and I look forward to seeing whatever new changes/topics for your blog :3
Happy New Year you to you! Wishing you all the best in 2016!
What an awesome year you’ve had! I still don’t get how you can manage a full time job, full time schooling, and now a husband! I remember that you had written a post on it awhile back, but I have since forgotten how you can read books in between all the homework, studying, and the like. What are your secrets?
I know you can accomplish these other goals, as well as, the reading goal again. You can do it! I know you can. I also can’t wait to see what new topics your blog will have. I’m a little curious to find that out.
Happy new years! I am sure that this year will bring you much happiness.
Haha! Most days I don’t know how I do it either.
Here is the link again if you want to see how I make time to read so much. 
https://www.l2dragonwind.com/how-i-make-time-to-read
Happy new year to you, too Jamie!!
Happy New Year! It’s so cool that your mom’s birthday is 1st January. It’s like she progresses together with the year itself, if that makes sense. 52 books a year is a lot! I’ve got to admire how much you read.
Being bold is so important. There’s so many opportunities that I have missed because I was too afraid, and so many exciting experiences that comes with boldness. I guess a good thing about a goal not being measurable is that you can turn it into a habit by constantly aiming to do achieve it, and that’s a success in itself.
Wish you the best for the year.
Good luck with your goals. One of my goals for 2015 was to read 50 books and, well, I did not reach that goal, heh. I am happy with the amount of books that I read though.
Even when I don’t reach my reading goals, I always still feel accomplished simply for having read. I’m glad you feel the same, too
Your new years sounds so cute and cozy! Happy New Year! Honestly, I pretty much did the same, some years it’s not as all its cracked up to be, especially after all the hustle and bustle of Christmas! Your goals are so simple and awesome! Sometimes it’s better to just have them more open and simplistic, sometimes I find that it’s easier to take the smaller steps to make it easier to practically walk into reaching your goals that way! Less rigid guidelines and rules to conquering them! I didn’t reach my goal of 20 books this year :(. Hopefully I can take a page out of your book (
) and meet my goal of 25 this year, especially once completing school!
All the best for 2016! Sounds like you will have a wonderful year ahead!
Happy new year! I had a pretty chill New Years Eve too, and it actually felt pretty nice to stay at home!
When it comes to blogging, I tend to save a lot of ideas as drafts. They come in handy when I’m too busy to write a new entry, so I publish one of those
I think 45 posts in a year is a good amount though!
52 books is a lot! That’s awesome that you accomplished that last year, especially with all of those things going on last year. I wish you the best on speaking out more and being bold
Good luck with all of your goals! I hope 2016 will be a great year for you!
My resolution this year would also include a lot more consistency with my blogging. My blog is quite stale for most time but I am trying to renovate it.
For my book pledge in goodreads, mine is 20. Quite small compared to yours but I also look forward going beyond that. But I’m setting its standard to that this time.
Anyway, boldness this year wouldn’t hurt. I also do not speak a lot on some issues because I worry about what others might think. Would look forward your stories about boldness this year!
a happy 2016 to you, becca! about your former views on the new year’s resolutions, that’s how i feel about them lately, or perhaps because i tried few years ago and didn’t stick to them!
that’s great though that you have a change of heart about new year’s resolutions.:) for your own goals for this year, knowing you (based on your posts!), you have been consistent on updating and you’re a passionate reader, no doubt you can do them, being bold also takes a lot of making believe that “i can do this”. i believe you can also do it, becca! at first you’ll be surprised with what being bold does to you and maybe to the people around you but it’ll feel so great.