My 2025 Goals

If there’s one thing you should know about me – when it gets cold, I become a little bit of a hermit. Which is bad since I’ve spent the last week being a little hermit. And it wasn’t even cold last week, so as we have a possible looming winter storm here in Austin, I’m working overtime to tell my brain we are not hermiting this week.

I’m trying hard to keep myself moving so that I stay warm and stay active, not just physically, but mentally, too.

I talked about it last week, wanting steadiness, wanting to be stable, and this year I’m focusing on the little steps to build that steadiness. And that’s how I ended up with steady as my word of the year.

So, I had to approach setting goals in a new way – more at a micro level.

But all of these build upon each other and fit the same ideas – trying to simply just improve myself.

So most of my annual goals are numbers based, but for the quarter, they’re more of a mission statement.

Obviously my biggest goal of the year is to release Project Whisper at the end of the year. But with just the first draft done, I have some work to do. I anticipate at least two rounds of edits for this book, plus time to get feedback from readers before announcing it and publishing it.

So if you find yourself with some free time this summer, you might be asked to help.

With that being said, my goal is to write/edit 10,000 words a week for at least 45 weeks. That gives me a few weeks off to have life happen (or not happen as was this past week of the new year).

That’ll lead to the first read-through and round of edits, starting this quarter, and then another round in the summer. I hope it just takes those two rounds.

Because with the 10,000 words a week, I’m really hoping to publish Project Whisper in November. That’s my biggest goal of the year.

But I also want to have time to improve myself, not just my writing.

I want to read 80 books this year, including 20 physical books already on my TBR cart and 15 books that I’ve had on my Kindle that I haven’t read. I also really want to get the Book of the Month reader challenge award this year (you can join here if you want to get a new book every month).

There are also health related goals – mainly to just get moving again. My boyfriend got me one of those walking pad treadmills for Christmas, so I’m hoping to get to walking more frequently and get going. I’ll set it up tomorrow morning and hopefully get some good steps in.

I want to go on a walk at least 4 out of 5 days a week (a work week) and close my exercise ring on my Apple Watch 204 times this year (that’s how many times you get if you close it 4 times a week).

There are other things I want to do, too, like go on a weekend getaway somewhere in Texas or maybe find a new job, things to better improve my life, but I still believe it’s all about the writing and this year is the year I’m making it happen.