My 2023 goals

The holidays are over, the new year is upon us, and it’s time to start making goals! 

I mean, technically you can make goals anytime and I as a creative small business owner reevaluate my goals every three months to make sure they still work for me, but hey! It’s January and we’re all making goals now! It’s fun! It’s peer pressure for good, encouraging us all to be better people. Or at least, make some better choices.

So in the spirit of positive peer pressure, I’m sharing my list of 2023 goals today. And I’m hoping that you’ll share your goals in the comments sections. In this way, we can hold each other up, and reach for better things in 2023.

This year, I’m focusing on just five goals. While there are smaller goals I’m reaching for, they all feed into these main five things. While in the past I had very specific goals and used the SMART goal planning to achieve them, these are a little more nondescript. But I think they’re still going to help me. Because these five goals will instruct everything that’s going to end up on my to-do list. If the item doesn’t move me closer to one of these five goals, then it doesn’t belong there.

Goal one, paying off debt. 

We have a mess of debt we need to pay off. I honestly don’t think we’re going to get it paid off this year. But I’d like to take a big dent out of it. 

Goal two, finally learning Spanish

I think I say this every year. But more and more, I feel like I need to learn Spanish so that I can communicate with people in the countries around me.

Goal three, creating good stories

This, of course, is for you. It’s also for me because creating stories is still the best thing I can do with my time. So, it’s really for us. 

We’re launching season two of AA on Haunted MTL soonish, heavy on the ish. I’m also working on the final Station 86 book.

That’s right, I said the final Station 86 book. Everything’s coming to a thrilling conclusion either quite late this year or early next year. Depending on how much hustle I can manage, of course.

I also want to make more for you all on Instagram and Mastodon. I want to make more poetry and word art, so keep an eye out for that. 

Goal four, taking better care of myself

My word for 2023 is self, so I’m working on taking care of myself. I’m making doctor’s appointments, drinking tea, and exercising more. I’m getting towards that age where if I’m going to make any improvement in my health, it should probably start now.

Goal five, make some significant progress on a political topic

I can’t go into much detail here, but there’s one cause I’m particularly interested in. And I’ve decided to get active about it. No, I’m not running for any office. But I am stepping up more. Writing letters, showing up at politicians’ offices to ask questions, and organizing people. 

This is something I encourage all of you to do as well. I am absolutely sure that there’s something you care about enough to want to make a change. So do it. Make your voice heard in your neighborhood. Make the changes you can make, and make sure your local politicians remember that they work for you. 

Now, it’s your turn. What are your major goals for 2023? Let us know in the comments. 

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2022 Midyear Check-in

It’s July first, so it must be time to check in with our goals for 2022 and see how we’re doing.

My goal progress has been a mixed bag so far. Some goals have been slam dunks. Some are lagging. And some got dropped altogether.

Let’s see where we are, and check-in with our progress together.

Step one- How it started

What were your goals at the start of the year? I had nine specific goals. 

Read the entire bible

Read 42 books

Take 24 Masterclasses

Build our emergency fund

Plan a covid safe vacation

Get the husband’s health on track

Join SFWA

Attend a con

Make progress on my novels

I want you to write your goals down just like I did, without any judgment about how far you’ve gotten, or not gotten. Any progress is fine. No progress is also fine. 

We all tend to apply magical thinking in January, don’t we? We think this is going to be the year we do all the things. Nothing’s going to stand in our way in January. We’re going to be our very best selves every single day, and so is everyone else.

And in July, that same magic feels like it’s working against us. We tend to forget the two weeks we were sick, the unexpected expense, and the emergency that we had to deal with.

Life is just never going to go to plan. Sometimes we can compensate. Sometimes we can’t. 

Step two- How it’s going

Now is the time to look at where we are with each of our goals. If we reached a goal, or are on track, that’s freaking awesome! If we’re not, now is the time to consider why we’re not. 

Do we need to work on time management?

Do we need to focus on better habits with our spending?

Or is this just a goal that no longer applies to us?

Some of my goals, like taking 24 masterclasses, are going away. Masterclass is expensive, and going to Nebula con was more important. 

Some of my goals needed a new tactic. Reading the bible every day just was not happening. Until I found a bible in a year podcast. Now, I can listen to the daily readings while I’m cleaning the kitchen. Win/win! 

So, at this stage, you want to take these steps.

1. Decide if any of your goals are no longer a priority to you. Drop those right off your list. 

2. Take anything off your list that you’ve accomplished. Yay, you! 

Here’s what I had left after that. 

-Read the entire bible (Currently eleven days into the bible in a year podcast I found)

-Read 42 books (21 down, 21 to go)

-Get the husband’s health on track (this is a work in progress) 

-Join SFWA (Still a work in progress)

-Make progress on my novels (Got one book out, making progress for some exciting content for you guys in 2023!)

Step three- Where’s it going from here. 

Finally, it’s time to make some realistic goals for the second half of 2022. Make sure you’re considering things like holidays. I don’t know about you, but my second half of the year is always less productive than the first.

Another thing I like to do is add some not vital projects to my list. They’re not my top priorities, but they’re on the list of things it would be awesome to finish before the end of the year. 

Right now, my list looks like this.

Join SFWA

Get a literary agent

Make progress on the bible in a year podcast.

Finish 42 books 

Study tarot cards, one card each week

Achieve Camp Nano goal

Study cartomancy

Celebrate each holiday and sabbat to its fullest

Create a go-bag in case of emergencies

Build my fuck off fund

Achieve Nanowrimo goal

Finish the scripts for the second draft of AA. 

Redo my laundry room

Redo my holiday supply closet

This list has three things on it. Goals that I plan to make progress on but may not finish. Goals that are super important to me that I will finish before the end of the year. And finally, projects that enrich my life and will make me happy to complete.

And please, if you take nothing else from this post, take this away.

Your goals should be there to make you happy. 

All of my goals are designed to make me happy. All of your goals should be designed to make you happy. 

I hope your midyear check-in goes well, everyone. We’ve got six more months to go in 2022. Let’s see what we can accomplish together. 

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you want to support this blog, you can do so on Ko-fi.

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