Taking a look back at the goals I made for 2020....well... most of that got thrown out the window about 2.5 months in, especially the health and fitness goals. Instead of losing 20 pounds, I ended up gaining 5. But given that I was essentially completely sedentary for about 6 months of working from home I'm actually kind of okay with that. What I'm a little more upset with myself for is that I started walking regularly and eating better in late September through November and managed to almost get back down to where I started 2020. And then the holidays came. Even without all of the parties and extra happy hours, I still managed to overdo it. Oh well! All things considered, I'm trying to be a bit easier on myself with all of this and I don't feel too bad about enjoying myself during this long, dark December.
I did do a little work on my brain in the first part of the year and listened to the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy course. And then the world went pear-shaped. We were insanely busy for the 2.5 months we were physically in work and then the shift to work-from-home and finishing out the spring 2020 semester was stressful. Although from a technical standpoint, I was ready to go from Day 1... mentally maybe not so much. I did start getting more sleep though since my commute became about 5 seconds long, so that was a plus.
And I was doing so well on the License Plate game this year until mid-March. That said, I managed to get 48 states and the District of Columbia before lockdowns and work from home... and to be honest, North Dakota and Wyoming are hard to get even in normal years. Well, Wyoming was easy for a couple of years since there was one in the parking lot at my apartment complex, but they either moved or finally got Texas plates.
BUT! I did finish the Shakespeare 2020 Project! And I met my Goodreads goal, but I did end up counting some of the longer Shakespeare plays towards the goal since my audiobook listening fell off a cliff starting in March. And I did make some headway on organizing my digital photos and I even got a few sets uploaded to Flickr! Not as much as I would have liked, but at least it was *something*. I also made more progress on reducing my debt and since I'm barely driving I expect my car to make it to summer 2021 when I'll be in a good position to finally buy a new one. And I still have lots of crap sitting around my apartment that needs to go to Half Price, etc. but that got derailed by 2020 as so many things did. I can (and probably should) write more about how it felt to live through 2020, but to be honest, I'm just ready to kick it in the ass and move on.
Now on to goals for the new year...
Health goals - I'm going to get back into the routine of walking at least 5K steps every day (with the occasional day off when the weather is crappy), doing my arm exercises, and measuring my blood pressure more regularly. I was doing pretty well with these for a few months at the end of 2020 so I think I should be able to pick them up again in 2021. Especially now that the days are starting to get longer again since sometimes I have to get the walking in at the end of the work day and in December it got dark so early! I think I'm going to skip Dry January in 2021 since I didn't really overdo the alcohol in the latter half of 2020... plus I really want some champagne on Inauguration Day! And I'm going to watch my added sugars in 2021 though since my bloodwork in late 2020 was a little concerning (although I think Halloween candy had something to do with that...).
Other goals - on finances, I expect to keep making headway on getting my old debts paid down and I'm planning to finally buy a new car around summertime. And I'm going to keep working through my comic book backlog since I didn't get to as many as I would have liked in 2020 (my comic reading time ended up being Shakespeare reading time!). I think I'm going to keep my Goodreads goal at 30 since I'll probably be counting some comic book collected volumes and I'm going to try to listen to more audiobooks while I get my steps in since I don't expect to be regularly commuting to work again until at least the summer.
I did this a couple of years ago and I've decided to do it again - watch a new (to me) movie every week. This will probably help me also start tackling my backlog of Disney and Pixar films that I haven't seen. I probably should also try to make a dent in all of the TV series that I've added to my watchlist over 2020. As we've all been stuck at home I've gotten lots of good recommendations! I also have a few new digital backlogs to work through, although not as much as a few years ago. Not surprisingly with the extra time at home I've picked up a few new podcasts and YouTube channel subscriptions. I'm also going to try to start making some headway on the 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die list since I didn't manage to get much done last year. I think the mistake I've been making is trying to do it in a particular order, but since I'm tracking it on a spreadsheet and I have the book on Kindle on my phone and tablet, it's not like it's all that hard to jump around. And I did quite a bit of stitching last year and I've got a few goals for 2021, which I've written more about on Lara's Loose Threads.
And I wanted to finish out with the things I'm looking forward to being able to do again sometime in 2021 (fingers crossed!) - happy hour with the gals, a Marvel movie at the Alamo Drafthouse, drive around Central Texas once I get a new car and maybe finally do the tour of the Spanish Missions. And I'm really hoping I'll be able to head back out to west Texas and McDonald Observatory in July!
Here's hoping that 2021 is oh so much better for us all than 2020 was and that everyone is able to stay safe and healthy!
No comments:
Post a Comment