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For the first time in quite awhile, I feel like there’s some stability in my life. I’m (hopefully) not travelling as much this year, I don’t have any massive moves planned in the near (or far) future, and I finally feel like I’m having more down time to focus on myself again. I’m setting some big goals this year and using my Passion Planner to help me achieve them. (This isn’t a sponsored post, I’m just delighted to have one!) It’s helping me make things into actionable items and keeping them more concrete instead of non-specific ideas like “be more positive.” I have eight goals that I want to really focus on achieving this year – here they are, in no particular order!

• Meditate: I’ve had the Stop. Breathe. Think. app on my phone for a few months, but I rarely use it. The times I have found myself making a conscious decision to not give in to the anxiety and panic and instead focus on this and really give it a try, it has helped a ton. I really want to focus on making use of it to relieve some of those feelings I get throughout the day.
• Grow blog: When I lived in Nashville, I found myself always saying I wanted to really focus on my blog again, but never actually following through with many actionable steps (or even updates.) The last few months I’ve focused on maintenance and regular updates, and I found a community I want to join. There’s some other great stuff on the way as well!
• Run two halfs: I miss running desperately. My plan was always to do the Chicago Rock ‘n Roll half in July, and I’d love to do Grand Rapids in the fall since my schedule is accommodating more races now.
• Make $5000 beyond my regular job: Honestly, compared to what I used to bring in across various side hustles, this number seems small. But there are a lot of other things I want to do (like focus on running again,) so I’m just shooting for a small, attainable number.
• Pay off credit cards: I was always The Girl With No (Consumer) Debt. That changed over the last few months due to some impulse buys and really feeling too lenient in feeling entitled to treat myself, so this is a pretty big priority. (I also have to work on shifting the entitlement mindset I’ve developed but… baby steps.)
• Volunteer: In college, I volunteered regularly, and even went on many service learning trips. It made me feel great to give back, and I’d like to focus on getting back into that practice this year.
• Read 15 books: I love to read, but I haven’t been doing it as much lately – even my beloved audiobooks aren’t holding my attention. I only read 12 books last year (and came in right under the wire with that number, at that) so increasing slightly feels attainable.
• Start lifting again: I miss lifting weights desperately. The high of picking up heavy things and putting them down, rinse, repeat: it was the best shape I’d ever been in. I felt unstoppable, like I could do anything or defend anyone, and that’s something I miss terribly. I’ve started doing some preliminary research on gyms in the area to join, but it’s going to be so hard to start over and not be able to pick up where I left off years ago.

What are your focuses for 2017?