Reflecting on My 2014 Goals

I've realized something about myself.  I'm pretty consistent when it comes to making posts about my goals and resolutions for the new year, but I'm not very good at reporting on them and keeping myself accountable.  So I think that around the start of the new year, I need to not only post my new goals, but write about what I did the previous year, if only for my own reference, as well.  So here we go!

My reading goals for 2014 were to:

1. Read 50 books in a year.
2. Read more sci-fi.
3. Read more graphic novels.
4. Listen to more audio books.
5. Read more of the books that I already own.

While I wasn't very good at keeping a running list of the books I finished, this blog does that for me every time I add a book review tag at the end of the post.  I did read 50 books in 2014, although not all of the reviews have been posted yet.

I don't think I fulfilled my goals to read/listen to more sci-fi or to read more graphic novels.  I blame at least the lack of graphic novels on my being away from home.  I had a Nook e-reader with me, but my Nook is not ideal for reading anything with pictures, which includes graphic novels.  I might have to upgrade to a kindle at some point.  But not now.

I did listen to quite a few audio books, although I don't think I can attest to listening to 15 of them.  I listened to audio books over the summer while I was working on campus in the flower beds.  I'd load about four or five audio books onto my iPod at a time so that I could have a constant flow of people reading to me.  It was really nice.  Kept my mind engaged too.

I read some books that I own, but being at school and being in Europe away from home made it difficult to read a ton of books off of my shelf.  I think I can safely say that I failed to meet this goal.

My blogging goals for 2014 were:

1. Post one review a week.
2. Post more about the things going on in my life (outside of reading).
3. Chronicle my study abroad adventure (before, during, and after).
4. Review more movies.

I succeeded in posting a review every week.  I'm really happy that I was able to stick to this goal.  It helped to have a surplus and then I could take my time reading something else and write reviews about those over the course of a few weeks or longer.  It was nice to be able to do this and still feel like I had time away from this blog.  I don't think I want to fulfill this goal again in the coming years.  It's just nice to know that if I want to write a review every week, I'm capable of doing so.

I think this year, two and three were one and the same.  I successfully blogged about my adventures in and around the Netherlands while I was there.  I still have to blog about after my time in the Netherlands, but there's lots of "after" time.  I fulfilled the "time sensitive" part of this goal.

I reviewed no movies in 2014.  This blog is very much a book blog, what can I say?  I don't have a big authority on movies, I guess, even if I really enjoy them.  That doesn't mean I can't talk about them in the future, it just means that I probably won't make movie reviews a priority any more.  And that's okay.  I can't do everything.

My life goals for 2014 were:

1. Do more yoga.
2. Learn Basic Dutch.
3. Take more photos.

Yoga was something that I did in the very beginning of the year... and then never again.  I'm re-attempting this goal again in 2015 and I will post about my progress every once in a while.  

I did learn basic Dutch!  Enough to survive the grocery store, order food, and be nice to people.  Dank u wel, Rene!

I took A LOT of photos in 2014.  Holy cow.  I'm still a little afraid to know exactly how many I took, since I'm eventually going to print a bunch of them.  I think I'd like to keep up this goal this year too, now that I know I'm capable of taking decent pictures.

2014 was an amazing year and I've made some incredible memories.  2015 is going to bring some challenges and changes, I'm sure, but I think that I'm ready for them.

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude