The Terror of Knowing

I have a horrible tendency of setting New Year’s Resolutions and then promptly forgetting about them completely until 1st January of the following year when I start setting new ones for the year ahead. Obviously that defeats the entire point of having goals to begin with, so I’ve decided to do quarterly ‘check-ins’ with my goals and progress, partly to keep me accountable but mostly to force me to remember to actively work towards achieving resolutions rather than having them become utterly pointless. This is the first check-in, so I’ll do a quick look at each of my 2017 Resolutions and see how I’ve fared in the months of January, February, and March.

For those who care to have an in-depth reminder of my 2017 Resolutions you can find that post here. Now let us examine how I’m doing…

READING, BLOGGING & WATCHING GOALS

1. Read at least 52 books in 2017

Verdict: On Track
At the time of writing this post, I’ve read 26 books and Goodreads informs me that I am well on track to completing the arbitrary 52 books goal I set myself as I am 14 books ahead of schedule. Thank you, Goodreads, that’s very good to know, I shall bask in the glow of that meaningless accolade. I know my own reading pace, and I know it fluctuates, so setting a book a week seemed like a manageable goal, and I have previously achieved it. Maybe I can even get to 75 books this year – is that too ambitious? We’ll see how I’m feeling when I get to Quarterly Check-in #2.

2. Write more reviews

Verdict: Failing
I really need to  buck up my ideas when it comes to writing reviews. Sometimes, it’s much easier to write a review for a book you hated – does anyone else ever feel that? My A Court of Thorns and Roses review just spewed out onto the page/screen so easily, whereas trying to explain why I love Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom trilogy is a bit harder and so I keep putting it off which is silly because of course I want to gush about the books I love, that’s part of the whole point of this blog in the first place. Must do better.

3. Blog more & comment more

Verdict: Failing (partially)
I’m writing a decent enough amount of posts considering I always feel a little bit slumpy when it is the start of the year. (I think it’s something to do with the weather… that’s what I’m blaming anyhow!) I need to get back into a routine of writing blog posts on the weekend and then scheduling them. Knowing you have posts all ready to go frees up time on those weekdays to actually read other people’s blogs and leave more thoughtful comments. I know that this logic works but I just need to actually apply this logic to my own blogging process and I’ve slowly started to try to do this in the past few days.

4. Read at least 4 classics

Verdict: Failing
I’ve stalled with reading Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. I figured I would give myself a boost by reading one of the longest classics to prove to myself that I could do it. Besides, after tackling Tolstoy’s tome, something like The Mayor of Casterbridge would be small fry! Yeah, there’s a key part to this plan… I have to actually finish War and Peace before this plan can move forward. Perhaps I should start reading another classic just as a back-up in case more months pass in which I don’t even pick up Tolstoy’s classic and just gaze at it blankly instead.

5. Be mindful of Reading Challenges and actually complete them!

Verdict: On Track (partially)
In terms of the Goodreads Challenge and the Around the Year in 52 Books challenge, I’m doing pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. In terms of the Book Riot Read Harder challenge, I’m failing completely, like so spectacularly failing at keeping it in mind that I’d rather not talk about my failures, ok thanks, let’s just focus on the fact I’m 22 out of 52 books into the Around the Year challenge but March is only just ending.

6. Explore more TV shows/films

Verdict: Failing
As I type this, me and Liz are on a re-watch of Friends, so something tells me I’m not doing too great with exploring different/new shows and films. However I did watch season 1 of The West Wing and really enjoyed it so I’ve not not explored new-to-me TV shows, I just haven’t really prioritised it as I thought I might. I’ll try to change that moving forward.

PERSONAL GOALS

1. Exercise more regularly

Verdict: On Track (partially)
I still don’t go to the gym as often as I would like and at the end of last year I hurt my foot pretty badly when I ran on the treadmill so it feels a little bit like the world was telling me to take it easy and ease my way into this trying to be vaguely fit lark. However, I do now walk a good 20 minutes to/from work so that’s not too shabby.

2. Experiment and find a skincare routine that works

Verdict: On Track
I’m pretty sure I have my desired face wash/scrub down and decided – St Ive’s. It’s gentle enough to not completely ruin my sensitive skin, even if I do use it every day, which is always a plus. I’ve managed to work it into my daily shower routine so that’s even better because I don’t not wash my face now. However, as far as other products go, I still haven’t found one that works. Whilst I prefer my skin once I’ve used No. 7 face creams (I have a day and night one), my hands have started to become irritated again and I’m wondering if they are to blame. I need to work it back out of my routine and see if I notice a difference in my hands. Just being more aware of what my skin is doing (and what might be causing irritation) is definitely the key to mastering this going forward.

3. Travel more

Verdict: Failing
I’m partially blaming the weather for this. The winter months don’t make for very compelling reasons to venture outdoors, unfortunately, let alone leaving the local area. I’m hoping to very soon plan jaunts in the UK and hopefully abroad in order to give me a holiday to look forward to though so watch this space…

4. Allow myself to write more

Verdict: Failing
You know, I’m not even sure what I meant by this resolution, probably it was a way to allow myself to not be scared of being kind of shit at writing. After all, no one was born with the ability to craft amazing prose. Recently I happened across some writing I’d done for a forum roleplay several years ago and I was laughing at how bad it was in comparison to how I write now. Not that I write amazingly well but just… yeah… it has improved. I need to let myself write more, whether that is working on that novel I abandoned during NaNoWriMo or trying to get inspiration for some kind of new project. Or maybe I should just allow myself to write more reviews, for a start.

Overall

Overall, I may seem to be failing a bunch of my resolutions but I don’t think it’s too bad since I’m at least on track with a few of them – that’s a damn sight better than I’m usually doing at this point in any given year. Hopefully doing these quarterly check-ins will mean that I keep my resolutions in mind this year and who knows maybe I’ll even stick to all of them and succeed for once??? (Too ambitious? I sense that’s too ambitious.) Who knows what the future will bring but we shall see in due course…

Did you make New Years’ Resolutions or goals for this year?
How are you doing at achieving them?

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