Well, well, well. Look who still has a blog.
Honestly, it’s a little embarrassing how long it has been since I updated this. I had the best of intentions in 2018 but I feel the year got away from me a bit. Between losing my job (and returning to my previous job!), football season, life… Well, I just lost track of time. It happens.
Funny enough, I intended to write this yesterday but then this happened:
So… I’d say 2019 is off to a pretty great start. ✨✨✨ pic.twitter.com/Fcb7T5BMLp
— Erin Sorensen (@erinsorensen) January 1, 2019
So, the first day of the year got away from me a bit. For good reason though, I’d say.
But here we are. January 2, 2019. A new year. I’m not one for resolutions, but I do like setting goals. I didn’t do a very good job of setting goals for 2018, and maybe that’s why the year felt a little jumbled. Maybe setting them and putting them here will help for 2019? We’ll see.
For now, I’m going to share my plans for 2019. If nothing else, it’s a good jump start for the year and at least I can look back at the end of it and see how I did.
Without further adieu:
Read more
I’ve set a goal to read 12 books this year, or one per month. If I read more than that, great. But I hardly read any books in 2018, which wasn’t great. As a writer, reading is one of the best ways to get better at my own job. Plus, it’s probably better to spend an hour reading at night versus scrolling through Twitter for the 800th time in a day.
So, 12 books. Let’s do this.
You can join me on Goodreads this year too. You know, if you want.
Get more active
I sort of set this as a goal in 2018, but I did a really bad job of holding myself accountable. For me, it’s not so much about a number on the scale or any of that. It’s about feeling for me and right now, I don’t feel great. I don’t sleep that well, I’m usually sluggish and it’s just getting old.
So, how do I challenge myself to get more active? I have a few ways:
- Sign up for the Lincoln Half-Marathon in May. Running has always held me accountable (mostly because I spend so much money to run the race that I better not putz out), so I feel like having this goal will be really good for me.
- Get to the gym at least three times a week. I’d like it to be more, but I can’t just say that when I haven’t been consistent to begin with. If I can get there three times a week, maybe we’ll up it to four and so on. For now, three days seems reasonable.
- Walk the dogs. Yes, this is important. It’s important for them and their health, but it’s also important for me. Having a fenced-in backyard can sometimes make you lazy, because it’s so easy to just open the door. But that has to stop. Outside of rainy or snowy days, we need to go on a walk (even if it’s just 10 minutes). Something is better than nothing.
Also, I’d like to eat better. I thought about making this its own goal, but I don’t know yet. I don’t want to overwhelm myself with goals. I just think a more active lifestyle will lead to better eating habits, so we’ll just put this here for now. We’ll see what happens.
Spend more time here
Yes, on ye ol’ blog. I wanted to invest some time here in 2018, and then I didn’t. I think a lot of it had to do with not knowing what I wanted this space to be, and I need to stop worrying about that.
Maybe I’ll post about my outfits. Or maybe I’ll talk about meal prep and running. Or maybe I’ll talk about nothing. I don’t know. I just need to stop worry about what everyone else thinks and just write about whatever I feel like.
So maybe you’ll like what I share here. Maybe you won’t. Ultimately though, this needs to be for me. If it’s not, I won’t be sincere or genuine and that’s not going to be a good use of anyone’s time.
Donate more
This could be time. This could be money. Whatever I’m available to give, I need to give more of it. I started doing this a bit in 2017. I’d find random classrooms or GoFundMes and donate. People had been so good to me after my accident in supporting me, that I thought I could and should do the same.
I’d just like to be more consistent with that. I’m going to give myself a monthly budget to donate to whatever cause, fundraiser, classroom, you name it. And I’d also like to start making more time to do the same. For now, I’m going to kick off my year by supporting The V Foundation in honor of Tyler Trent. I’ve linked the donation page if you’d like to do the same.
***
I’ve been seeing a lot of people selecting words for new year. Words they’d like the new year to embody. Maybe mine is “more,” just by looking above. I believe I can do more for myself, and more for others. So I suppose we’ll start here.
And with that, I wish you all a very happy new year. May 2019 be so good to you.
I’ll be back. Promise.
Erin