Quantcast

2012 Goals: Writing & Blogging

Pinned Image

This year, my main writing goal is a little ambitious, and, quite possibly, a little unrealistic.

I want to write an article for a magazine.

Any magazine.

It could be a crappy local magazine; one that sits in those racks near the entrance of grocery stores that no one ever pays much attention to.  I don’t even care.  I just want to get into a magazine.

Of course, I would be quite thrilled if I got into a larger magazine.  I’m looking at you Shape, Oxygen, Fitness, Kiplinger’s, and Smart Money.  (I don’t think they’re looking back … yet.)

Here’s the deal:  I know I’m an average person and an average writer.  The guy that sits next to me at work could probably write just as good or better than me.  Many of you that are reading this can probably write much better than I can.

But I’ve always loved to write and something always draws me back to it, so I continue to do it.  I figure I should probably give this interest in writing the respect it deserves.

I’m okay with writing on this little blog, making some money writing on other blogs, and, hopefully, some day (this year), seeing my name in print in some little (or big, whichever) magazine.

That’d make me one happy wannabe writer.

Finally, there have been a few times in my real life (not online) where certain people have tried to make me feel bad about my blog, my writing, or that either or those two things are insignificant.

Those people suck.  I shouldn’t let them get to me.  Sometimes those people cause me to censor what I put on my blog.  That’s lame so I’m not going to let them impact my life like that anymore.  Because, you know what?  Haters gonna hate.  Also, I’m guessing I earn more from side hustle than they do from their full-time job.  Ouch.

Goal: Get an article into a magazine.
Goal: Write daily.
(Even if I don’t post daily.)
Goal: Be proud of blogging and writing; write whatever I want – not what I think I’m supposed to write.

(Also, I totes want that typewriter.  {Source})

2012 Goals: Fitness

Pinned Image

Fitness

I’m hoping you’ll just skip on past this goal. Nothing to see here. Nope. It’s not like I totally gained back the weight I lost for my wedding.

Oh wait, yes I did. 

The truth is, since we got married, we’ve been celebrating our nuptials pretty much every day. By eating good stuff, apparently.  And drinking copious amount of red wine (it doesn’t help that Trader Joe’s just popped up in town and we just happen to love their Two Buck Chuck).

We’re still cooking healthy, delicious meals, but we’ve also been hitting up Five Guys one too many times.  So, although we’ve been eating healthy food, we’ve been eating wayyyyy too much bad food.  (Wouldn’t you know it – my husband hasn’t gained a SINGLE pound!  Funny how that works.)

This year, I want to get to a happy weight and stay there. Like forever.  Forever, forever.  Not for any event or vacation.  FOH LIFE, YA’LL.  (Well, except when I’m with child, but that’s the only exception.)  I shouldn’t be doing this yo-yo thing.  It’s not good for my body, my life, my health, or my wardrobe.

My happy weight is generally between 133-137 pounds, give or take. Right now, I’m … well, I’m above that weight.

It takes balance! Balance includes Five Guys once a month, maybe every other month.  Not every other day. We’ve been taking this balance thing way too far.

Also, not that I plan to have a child ANY time soon, but I do want to get my body healthy for when that time does come.  I repeat, we’re not planning to have a kid in 2012. :)

Oh, and that copious amounts of wine thing?  That’s gotta stop.  Drinking daily is bad, kids.  Even if it is just a glass or two of red with dinner.  Sure, Dr. Oz says it’s okay, but Dr. Oz isn’t going to come to your house and break you of your daily habit, is he?  Sorry, Cabernet Sauvignon, but you’re getting a little too clingy for my liking.

Goal: Weigh 133-137 and MAINTAIN.
Goal: Run 1 5k.
Goal: Work out (move) 5-6 days a week.
Goal: Drink no more than one drink during the week.  Try to limit drinking to one day on the weekends.

What are your fitness goals for the year?

My next and final goal: Writing & Blogging

2012 Goals: Prayer & Marriage

Prayer

This is both 1) a joint goal for both my husband and me and 2) also a goal for me alone. In today’s mostly secular society, we’re already praying more than most, but it often feels like a rushed chore (like before dinner when you’re just thinking, “I really just want to eat those roasted Brussels sprouts right now…”).

I’m a new-ish Catholic (2 years this Easter!), so daily prayer is a new thing to me.  But, I have found times where it comes easiest to me:

  • when I’m running (usually the second half when I’m in the “zone”)
  • when I’m driving (why, yes, I am that person talking to themselves on the highway!)
  • when I’m not rushing or in a bad mood (my prayers when I’m in a bad mood: “whyyyyy me, God?  whyyy??”  Yeah, not so good.  :) )

Goal: Pray daily (alone and together).

6-4-11-1329

Marriage

Our marriage hardly needs improvement. :) BUT, we have a few “couple” goals for this year. They most revolve around our house (!), buying a dog, and travelling.

One of our goals (as you’ll see below), is to take more pictures. We ONLY take pictures of big events or vacations; I want to have a record and memory of the daily, simple stuff that makes us so happy! Maybe this means the blog will have more pictures, too. :)

Goal: Buy a house.
Goal: Buy (adopt) a big black dog.
Goal: Travel to ….
we’re still deciding on location, but have a couple ideas in mind.
Goal: Take more/daily pictures.

Do you pray or try to pray daily?  I’d love to hear about your prayer habits. :)

2012 Goals: Money

image

Money

This area doesn’t need “improvement”, per se, but there are some goals/changes I have planned for 2012.

This year, I’m appointing myself as the person in charge (of our 2-person family) of buying food and groceries. I want to get in the habit of planning ahead for our meals and looking for good deals. I figure if I know what I’m going to make days or a week in advance, I should be able to scout out better deals.

Additionally, we’re buying a house this year. I wanna go all Young House Love and make our house pretty in a budget-friendly way. And, of course, buying that house will require a bit of cash, too. ;) (Luckily, we’ve been saving for awhile now, as you know.)

Finally, I want to make $40,000 in freelance income.

That’s right.  $40K.  I’m setting an outlandish goal just to keep me setting my sights higher. This would make my dream of becoming a writer and/or staying home with our kids much more of a possibility.

As you might expect, making that kind of freelance income will require that I pick up some more regular jobs.  Look for more details in my goals post about writing/career.

In summary, here are my money goals for the year:

Goal: Save money on groceries.  Plan ahead for meals and shopping trips.
Goal: Buy a house.  Decorate it.  Don’t blow a bunch of money doing so.
Goal: Make $40,000 in freelance income.

What are your financial goals for the year?

29 Before 29: Goals for my 28th Year

29befoToday is my 28th birthday! Weee!  Happy birthday, self.

I’m happy to say that I’m super excited about my 28th birthday this year.  Why?  Because getting older is AWESOME.  You read that right.  When I look back over my years of life, I can 100% honestly say that each year has been better than the preceding year.  I am confident, more smarter (haha), excited about my job(s), love my new husband and family, and am just really excited about what the future holds.

Bring it on 28!  Here are 29 to-dos to accomplish before I turn 29…

1. Buy a house.  ‘Nuff said.

2. Secure another freelance job OR get published in a major media outlet.

3. Write 100,000 words.  This is probably easy for most people.  I know many people write 50,000 in one month during NANOWRIMO, but, trust me, I’m no novel writer.  This is one of my top priorities for the year!

4. Become a mom…  A fur mom.  I can’t wait to adopt a big, black doggie when we buy a house.  And then name her Daisy.  And then constantly talk to Daisy in a baby voice.  I’m that person.

5. Go to one blog conference.  Plan to accomplish this with the Financial Blogger Conference in October!

6. Get involved in a local social media or blog group.  Blogging is such a big part of my life, I would love to develop a group of local friends that I can geek-out about blogging and social media with.

IMG_0949

7. Finish those books.  Seriously.  This is out of control.  I’m notorious for starting books and never finishing them.  I want to either finish them or decide to not read them and put them away (because why force myself to read a crappy book if I don’t want to?).  In this picture, I actually have finished The Pioneer Woman and The Happiness Project.  And this isn’t the entire un-finished book list.  There are more lying around my bedroom.

8. Make real connections with 3 bloggers/writers/etc.  I’ve made some great connections in the blogging/social media world over the past several years.  I feel like many of you are my “real” friends and I e-mail with some almost daily!  Connections are extremely important (and rewarding), so I plan to make an effort to make more real friends. <— Haha, just read that last sentence alone.  LOL.  I swear I have real friends.  Anyyyways, moving on.

9. Buy a grill and learn to master it.  I love grilling.  We can’t have a grill on our wooden apartment deck.  Super lame.  Can’t wait to buy one when we buy a house!  (Notice all the stuff I plan to buy when we buy a house?  Ha ha.  Good thing we saved a new house fund for our new house.  Am I right?  AMIRITE?)

10. Vlog at least once.  I have plans for this, but right now their not for this blog.  For the newbies, Vlog = video blog.

11. Learn to bargain-shop and find good prices when furnishing/decorating our home.  My husband and I are in such a good place with our finances.  But I still get such a high from finding a good deal.  I love that that feeling stuck around even after I’ve found financial balance.  Anyways, I don’t want to just go to the local furniture store and pay full price to furnish our home.  I want to find unique, classic, NOT cookie-cutter decor/furnishings for a good price.

12. Run a lot.

13. Lift a lot.

14. Pray a lot.  Notice a trend here?  ;)

15. Get a full-body skin check.  I love sun, sun loves me.  But I don’t think my skin appreciates my sun worship.

16. Figure out my CPEs for my CPA.  I need to earn like 4,569,403 CPE credits every year to maintain my CPA designation.  I have yet to earn 1.

17. Confession.  I am terrified of Confession.  I need to do it.

18. Buy nice, quality sunglasses.  My eyesight is awful.  So bad that I don’t even qualify for lasik anymore.  Lame!  :(   That kinda scares me and people have been telling me to get quality sunglasses for the longest time.  Plus, I squinted through my $10 Target sunglasses the entire 2 weeks that we honeymooned in Mexico.  G has high-quality sunglasses and there is SUCH a huge difference when you put them on.  If I’m going to splurge on any designer item, it might as well be one that protects my eyes!

19. Create a list of “Balance Mantras” for B&B … and put them to use.  <—Huge.

20. Buy an iPhone.  The Samsung Intercept is the crappiest phone ever known to man.  I’m not joking.  DON’T buy it.  When I get an incoming call, it often locks up completely.  Hearing that the iPhone is coming to Sprint in October was the 2nd happiest day of my life.

21. Purchase business cards. 

22. Create a personal website I can be proud to direct potential clients/employers to. Take a web design class.  It really frustrates me how behind I am (in the blogging/web world, anyway) on website design.  If I work on the web, I need to at least know the basics.

23. Go to the beach.  Then sit, sip (a drink), and relax.  (We’re planning a vacation to either Mexico or the big Los Angeles next summer in honor of our first wedding anniversary.)

24. Yoga. Do it more.  Seriously.  No excuses.  Just do it, Amber.  (When you’re 28, you can start talking to yourself on your blog.  You just can.)

25. Create a peaceful and useful outdoor space in our new home.  This is something we don’t have in our apartment that makes apartment living such a bummer.  I love being outside and a great outdoor space is our biggest criteria in our first home.  I have grand plans to jazz it all up and make it awesome.

26. Make ridiculously bad-for-you, homemade cinnamon rolls.  This recipe.  Probably for Christmas or Thanksgiving.

27. Get a massage. For real!  I know many people do this regularly, but I never do.  The husband and I enjoyed a couple’s massage on our honeymoon and it was epic.  Need to get one in my 28th year at some point.

28. Learn to forgive. Because people have issues.  Okay, that didn’t sound very forgiving.  That’s why it’s on my list.

29. Volunteer! Probably at church.  I need to get some sort of volunteering in my life.  I’m so blessed!  Must pay it forward.

Thoughts? Concerns? Encouragements?  Leave them in the comments!

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes