I have no idea why I added “+ coffee” to the title of this. There’s always coffee, so it’s not specific to this moment in time. Whatever. It’s the Pacific Northwest around here so praise be to coffee.

ANYWAY.

Here I sit, on the precipice of 2015. First off, I didn’t finish 12 books in 2014. I made awesome progress on Game of Thrones book four, but there’s still 400 pages left. So even if I finish it up this weekend, I’m not counting it toward 2014, but toward 2015 instead. Is that cheating? Quite possibly.

I have the next few books lined up, so I should be able to pick through them at a steady pace. I mean, I should be able to, but that doesn’t totally mean that I will.

Sorting out goals felt really different this year. There haven’t been things that I’ve been wanting to do and haven’t done yet, so nothing really obvious jumped out at me. On Christmas I tackled a big journaling entry to try and iron out the wrinkles in my feelings, and it totally helped. That’s one of the reasons doing more personal writing is on the list for the year. Whether it’s in my journal or on the bloggy, I’m working to get more personal writing done.

The writing helped me really figure out what things or activities in my daily life help to make me happy and feel peace and contentment. Some of them I was able to resolve right away, others will take time.

For the record, goals are as follows:

1. Keep a regular exercise routine. Getting started on this is the hardest part, and then once life gets busy and I’m tired, that’s the second hardest part. But I really do feel better when I exercise regularly and I need to take that into account when I self-assess. But getting outside when it’s a hard freeze out there feels… really hard.

2. Sewing. Last year I wanted to sew a dress, and I didn’t get around to it, so it returns to the list this year. Also, I have a quilt in progress that I haven’t touched in months. I’ve been feeling some twinges to get that done, so I’m hoping to get that done this year.

A friend of mine also has a long-term crafty project for this year. She came over yesterday for a few hours and I helped her make some progress on it. Maybe I can invite the ladies over once a month and we’ll have a crafty night? Open a bottle of wine and cheese to make it official of course. 🙂

3. Stop procrastinating. This sounds really huge to me, but a lot of my life’s stress and dissatisfaction is self-inflicted because of my procrastination. There’s a disproportionate amount of “I’ll do this later” happening, and it really causes me anxiety when “later” comes around. My goal this year is to tackle one portion of the process, typing notes, and get in the habit of doing it sooner rather than later. There are so many advantages to typing notes right after an interview or event, and I really need to be better about getting that work done in a timely manner.

There are plenty of things I want to do regarding work. Lots of reading and professional development, but getting to them falls squarely in the “stop procrastinating” category. So in lieu of listing them all, just know the list is long and exhaustive and exciting and will lead to fantastic things.

4. Visit three National Parks. Rainier and Olympic will be fairly easy to cross off, but the biggie is the Grand Canyon. I’m really hoping to take a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon, but it’s pretty cost prohibitive. I also might take a trip to upstate New York, and Niagara Falls could make the cut. Although it’s a state park, so I guess it wouldn’t count toward the overall goal here. Either way, if the Grand Canyon does not make the cut again this year, Oregon and Montana aren’t too far away and either one of those would be good for the bigger goal here.

5. Pay off debt. I’m not convinced that all my debt can be paid off this year, but I want to make significant progress. There are a few small debts that can be paid off easily with a little focus so those are first on the list.

Finances are a big one on the list this year. There are so many things that I want to do that I just can’t justify the cost for, and I’m ready to be done with that conversation in my life. It’s time to stop procrastinating financial health.

6. Read 12 books! Yadda yadda. You already read about this one, but I felt I had to add it to the numbered list to make it officially official. Y’know what I mean. Yeah, you do.

So. There you have it. In all it’s listy glory. Quite a list. I’m excited. Are you?