New Year New Goals, or Not

I know what you're thinking, I am posting this nearly a month late, LOL
You are right!
Truth is, I wrote this in December, and just realized yesterday that I hadn't posted it.... So better late than never since I took the time to write it originally, right!

So if you've read my blog through the years you already know I don't set New Years Resolutions because only 8% of people actually keep a resolution and I figured why put myself into the possible 92% failure rate.

Instead, I always have ongoing goals, most I don't bring up on the blog much. However, with a new year beginning it's always nice to reflect on those and share a few you may not know about.

LISTENING

Last year, I had a goal to work on becoming a better listener. I made a conscious effort to do this, can't say I have mastered it. But I am significantly better than I was. This is something I am going to continue to work on. It's a good personal growth thing that can only better myself by improving upon, so why not!

READING

This year I am going to set a goal to read 30 novels. I know for myself this is a small number. But with college it might actually be a tough number to hit, as most my reading time is done while I am doing my laundry, LOL

RUNNING

I won't get into specifics, but now that I am finally healed from the work injury, the past few months I've been working on convincing my parents to travel with me and possibly begin knocking off a few more states on my 50-state and D.C. marathon goal. I've got 19 left. They are up for it, so it may just happen.
Why do the parents need to come? To be honest, I'm on a tight budget so if they come it will cost me only the race entry, LOL I am terrible I know! But on the plus side, my parents love to travel lots so this is a win-win for all of us!

Additionally, I'm going to register for at least one more marathon this year. It's not much, but like I said, I'm on a budget so it may be all I can afford!  I hate living on a budget, but the less debt if any I can go into while I finish school the better and smarter of me!

HIKING

I have a bucket list of items in the Southern Utah and Northern Arizona as well as a few in the Nevada and Southern California area's that I'd like to do while I am living here. So I will keep on doing them while I am getting in shape and working on incline hiking to get reading for R2R2R at the Grand Canyon in late spring!

COLLEGE

Okay, I won't beat myself up about it if I don't. But I'm going to work hard and see if I can't pull off more straight A's and who knows maybe attempt another 4.0 Spring Semester too?
That might be a little too presumptuous, especially now that I am actually into the classes but hey why not shoot high, right!

BLOGGING

1 I've been thinking and working on some plans the past few months. Blogging 3-4 times a week is no longer an option for me. I could do it if I stopped visiting my favorite bloggers, but that isn't going to happen I'd miss them too much. I already miss a lot only going onto blogs 1-2 days a week.

2 Back in October, I set a goal to work on getting my Twitter following over 10K and I also determined I wanted to get my Instagram following up around 5K. I have no set date, but I'm hoping I can get the Twitter goal by March since I am much closer to that one.
These are the two forms of social media I use for my blog the most and the ones I am the most active on, so logically they are the most beneficial to grow.

3 I really want to pick up my Travel Tuesday series again, I have so many saved up to showcase, I just need time to finish putting them all together.  Plus this one seems to be the favorite of most of my readers, I always get 10X's the page views on them versus my other posts.

I'm likely switching my Me Monday's to the In the Life of a Returned College student on a more permanent basis.

I'm also going to start sharing some of my thesis research with you, at least the parts that may apply to those of you interested in the influencer jobs within blogging.

Additionally, I have so many fitness and recreation posts I half created with my class assignments last semester, I hope to get them finished and start putting them out, I think many of my readers will enjoy them and find them beneficial.

4 I'm still working on my schedule to see if I will have time to host some Giveaway Hops and Grow Your Blog Hops later this year.

5 Link-ups, I have a hard time with this as I absolutely love to participate in them and I have some amazing blogger friends who host some great ones. But I am not one who just links up to link up, link-ups have a purpose and that is to grow or get to know others and share the views and comments. If I don't have time to visit at least 3 blogs and the hosts in the hop I don't link up, mostly just on my own principles, LOL

I hope to link up with some throughout the year, but mostly I will probably stick to my own posts and things until Summer when I will have a bit more time on my hands to link up! So if any of you are wondering why I haven't or don't link up much anymore, trust me it's not because I don't want to, I just haven't had the time to fully participate!

DIGITAL DESIGN

If you don't know one of the (let's call it a double near triple major) I am working on right now is one in Digital Design. I'm still in the learning process, but I am starting to get the hang of it and I am taking another two advanced classes right now and my skills are improving!

When my skill level and confidence has moved up a level, I plan on selling my new design talent. That may sound funny, but I will be needing to begin my portfolio and plan on selling my skills to design logo's, blog headers and digital ads at a much cheaper price than most do just so I can get use them to build me up so by the time I graduate I've got a lot of work to show for it as well.

So later this year if you have things you'd like for your blog or business, definitely consider me! I'll have to showcase my work and stuff more often so you can watch my skill level and design personality grow.

In fact, I'll show you one right now. This is the design project I did for one of my class finals last semester.
We were required to create an effective magazine full page spread ad and I was given the Environmental theme. I got 200/200 and not to toot my horn but it was one of the better ones in class and I am probably the most behind on learning how to use Photoshop, Illustrator and In Design. Hopefully, it's a good sign of things to come, LOL

So that's it, I have many more but if you've actually read this whole post then you are probably already thinking enough is enough, LOL.

A Reflection

This year has been an incredible year full of firsts, mending, and great adventures.
I thought I'd write a post to share a bit of a reflection on some of the highlights of this year.

GOING BACK TO SCHOOL
This was a huge thing for me to quit my jobs and put the company I own on hold to go back and finish my goal and finally get my degree.

I am only one semester done, but I worked hard and stuck with it. So much so that I pulled off straight A's and have a 4.0. I know, crazy! I'm still shocked I was able to pull that off! I am really enjoying the experience and I am actually learning quite a bit too, go figure, LOL
I am so much so enjoying my 3-week break right now, but I am also looking forward to a couple of weeks when my next semester begins!

BLOGGING NOT SO MUCH
So years ago (2011), yes I have had this blog for longer than some stick with blogging. I set a goal to always post at least once a week, and try to mostly maintain a 2-3 post a week schedule.
I have for the most part kept to that since 2012, well that was until this year.
Blogging had to take a back burner, and even though it was hard at times (like an addiction) I had to force myself to work on other priorities than the blog itself.

However, I thankfully have not let it go. I still actually live (well eat) off the income my blog and social media accounts provide me with. Yup, that is how I am paying for my meals these days, LOL
I've seen many great blogging friends come and go through the years. Sadly more go than keep it up. It always saddens me when bloggers have to leave entirely especially when I have enjoyed their blogs so much. But I get it, life should always come first.
I am not ready to let this blog go, while you may see less of me, I am going to continue to figure out ways to keep it up!

FINALLY HEALED
Anyone who's read my blog over the (almost) past four years may know a little of what I have been going through. With the tendon injuries I acquired from a work injury back in January 2013. It's been years of mending and recovery, physical therapy, setbacks, flare-ups and other injuries because of the injured tendons. I won't go into more details on that, but I am happy to announce it appears I have nearly 100% recovered from this work injury!
What did it?
Changing my lifestyle entirely, my routines pretty much everything when I quit my jobs, moved away and went back to school that is what healed me.
It may sound funny, but it's true that is actually what did it, what helped me finish healing and the reason I am able to get back to being so active and running and enjoying an adventurous lifestyle again!
For that I will always be thankful for the idea to go back to school and change my lifestyle entirely, it fixed what no amount of doctors or PT could!

READING
I set a Goodreads goal to read 52 novels this year. Earlier this year I was way ahead of schedule and I love to read so I was sure I'd hit it and then some.
Yeah, not so much. I will probably finish a couple books shy of my goal. I'm halfway through book 49 right now.
But I've read over 18,000 pages this year, and that is in part to many of the books being heck of long, LOL So I won't hit the 52 book goal, but pagewise I well outdid even last years pages.

ADVENTURE
Last spring my sister and I set out on a fun adventure to hike so many of the trails that we haven't done that were only 20-30 minutes from our front doors. While we didn't do as many as we would have liked, (she got pregnant, LOL) We did do many and had a lot of fun seeing the different trails along the Wasatch Mountains.
I also summited Butterfield Peak this year, that was something I have wanted to do for a while, heck of a climb and I did it sick too, LOL
I continued with those adventures when I moved south, I have thoroughly enjoyed hiking and getting out and enjoying the desert again.

RUNNING
Well, I only ran 1 race this year and it 5k that I decided to do last minute, so I don't really count it as getting back into racing since distance running is more my thing. But it was fun to be in a race again even if I did only run it for fun not to race.

I had to pull out of the fall marathon I entered because I wasn't trained well enough for it, I volunteered instead. I learned volunteers are awesome and there is a big difference between a participant and a volunteer and rarely they are mixed much. Most volunteers have zero desire to run and think runners are inspiring but insane.  I'm not much of a volunteer, I'm a participant and there is nothing wrong with that!

However, I did build up a great base as I've been getting back into it. I've really enjoyed running new trails and places in the new area I live.

What this year has taught me is this. I don't have to run a race to enjoy running. I don't have to get a medal to feel accomplishment and success. Those things can be great, but when you run purely because you just love it and your goals are subject to whatever mood your in that day when you put on the shoes and head out the door. There is almost even more gratification than any pronounced finish line can give me.
I will eventually get back to marathons, don't get me wrong I absolutely love the thrill of them. But until then I am thankful for this opportunity to learn and get to know myself better, to train just to train for fun, to run any distance I want because I want to, not because I have to. It's been interesting and I'm glad I had to experience this!

Well, I've had a fantastic year, and I've only shared 6 of the subjects with you. I can tell you this, I cannot wait for 2017, it's going to be epic in so many ways both little and big!


What is your favorite memory or reflection of 2016?