So....it's been almost a year since I wrote on this blog. I just needed a break I guess. I dunno, one day I was blogging, and then I just stopped. I think I needed to really think about what I wanted to achieve with my online presence, not just here but on youtube as well. 2014 was definitely a year of self reflection; of figuring out not only how I wanted to blog/vlog, but why.
I started my blog and youtube channel back in 2011 and this community was radically different. The blog scene was well established and treated as a more professional setting but booktube was only just barely getting started. Now everything has exploded and has really become more of the mainstream youtube celebrity culture. For a long time that bothered me because I was seeing a close knit community that was about connections becoming more commercialized and less personal. So I took a step back and sat with my feelings and thought about how I wanted to participate in this new arena.
Ultimately I've come to the conclusion that I want to make this blog and my youtube channel more personal. This is my record of my opinions on books and media. I'm done trying to sell a book or appeal to publishers. I want this blog to be more of a life time capsule. In 6 months I want to be able to see what I thought of the movies I watched, books I read, and my opinions on things happening in my life. I want it to be a place where I can keep myself accountable for my goals that I'm setting and document my progress.
So with that said, let's take a look back at my 2014 goals and see how I did and what I want to achieve in 2015.
Bookish Goals
2014 No Reading Challenge - I really liked not having the pressure of reading a set number of books. However this also made me a little too relaxed and sometimes I would go a whole month without finishing a book. So while Goodreads says I read 85 books, over half were graphic novels or comic books. Plus I only read 1 new 5 star book, how disappointing :(
2015 Reading Challenge - I want to read 52 books in 2015. That's one book a week, and I intend for these to be actual, full length novels. Any graphic novels/comics will be extras. I think I can do this because my other 2015 reading goal is to read 25 pages a day. I really want reading to be a daily practice, but I also know that I go through slumps throughout the year. By making my goal only 25 pages I can stop reading if I'm not feeling it and it won't take up too much time.
2014 Book Buying Ban - In 2014 I initially said I wasn't going to buy any new books. LOL. That lasted about 2 months. I definitely fell into the whole, when you completely ban yourself from something you end up binging on it trap.
2015 Book Buying Throttle - I learned that I'll break if I completely cut myself off from book buying, so instead I'm just throttling it back. I'm allowing to buy myself 1 book a week, so 4 per month. However they don't roll over (so if I only buy 2 in January I don't get to buy 6 in February). This will let me still browse book stores and sales without too much guilt but will also help me cut back.
2014 Sell 100 Books - Oh yeah I totally crushed this goal! I sold over 130 books! HOLLA.
2015 Sell 100 Books - I want to do it again! I still have too many books and I know I can't read them all in the next year, probably not even in the next ten. Some have to go.
Other Goals
For 2014, I didn't really save any money on purpose, but I cut out some excess spending and I've increased my savings so YAY. I did my 10k and it was difficult but I got a sweet medal so it's totally worth it so HOLLA. I did a lot of Life Book 2014, over 50% by the end of the year, but I still have plenty of lessons to complete, so semi WOO.
So now let's talk about 2015. First things first, I got engaged last August YEAH! So I'm planning a wedding for September 2015. Lots of my time is going to be devoted to this because I really want my wedding to be special but I don't want to break my bank so I have to do a lot of the work myself (I so wish I could afford to just pay someone else to do everything for me but alas, I cannot). I do want to blog about the process however, because there's been quite a lot I've learned already and I'm sure I'll learn a lot more before I say I do.
In addition to getting married I am also on the job hunt AND house hunt. Yep, I'm going to be very busy with just basic growing up type stuff, but I do have a few other goals.
In terms of health I of course want to lose a little weight and tone up for the wedding, so working out at least 4 times a week is my goal. This will include running and weights. With running I'd like to get up to the 15k/10mile distance.
Finally I've signed up for Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday class which is great biweekly art class that's a lot less intense than Lifebook. I want to do 1 art journal page a week as a visual diary type of thing. I also want to finish up all of my Lifebook 2014 lessons.
And that's it! I have a very busy 2015 planned but I'm going into it with a lot more clarity and focus. At least I hope so.
