Sarah and I have done goal-setting episodes since Best of Both Worlds began in 2017. That makes this the fifth one! In this week’s episode we talk about whether we remember our past goals, and the framework we use to set our goals. Then Sarah and I share a handful of goals we intend to focus on.
I’m feeling a bit goaled-out. 2021 has featured a lot of long projects that have required multiple complicated steps. Doing a 10-week time perception study and then writing the manuscript of a book about it! Renovating a historic house! Preparing my current house to list and then putting it on the market and doing showings. I don’t really have the energy for many big projects in 2022.
That said, I’m always looking forward, and so there are a few things I want to focus on for the year. I want to make my new (old) house feel like home. I want to read all the works of Shakespeare in 2022, just as I read War and Peace methodically through 2021. I want to do three things a week to support the launch of Tranquility by Tuesday, though three is a pretty loose goal (for instance, in a pinch I could count blogging or publishing a podcast as building my platform…so it would be pretty hard to fail here).
Sarah would like to attend a professional conference in person. She wants to boost her casual wardrobe and acquire some jewelry. She would like to stay in one planner! And she wants to train for a faster 5K, and possibly a longer race. She is moving too, though her renovation plans are a wee bit less ridiculous.
In any case, we are hoping for a good year! We’d love to hear your goals too. I’ll put in a plug for the BOBW Patreon community here. For our December meet-up (Tuesday the 14th at 8 p.m. eastern) Sarah will be leading a goal-setting workshop. She’ll really help us think through our long-term goals and plans. This will be a lot of fun, so if you’ve been considering joining, please do so in the next week!
In the Q&A section, a listener asks about her ambivalence over her extreme part-time work. It’s working for her family, but should she model being more ambitious? Please give the episode a listen, and as always we welcome ratings and reviews.
I applaud your goal to read all of Shakespeare’s works! I know that if I tried doing that, the plots and characters would all blend together in my head, and I don’t know that I could keep them straight over time. My memory isn’t good, and I know it would muddle things. So I’d be interested to hear how you go about it, and whether you are able to compartmentalize one story from the next in your head.
@Kenia – I’m sure some of the plays will blend in together but the point is more to experience reading everything. I’m not trying to pass a final exam at the end talking about the different themes in Hamlet vs. MacBeth. So if it blends, oh well 🙂
As someone with a book coming out in 2023, I’d be very interested to hear more about what sorts of things you might do each week to promote your book — especially before it’s available for preorder etc!
Congratulations on publishing your book!
@Rebcecca- congrats on the book! Definitely build up an email list. You need a way to communicate with your people — and then grow this list. It’s also good to build up a community of people with their own communities who would be willing to share the news of your book and encourage people to buy it. So it’s basically creating content and networking but both of those involve playing the long game so the earlier you get started the better 🙂
This was lovely and inspired me to spend a few minutes jotting down ideas. I think it’s a bit of a year of reset and recovery, after 2 very intense years.
Self: I’m hoping I can get back to my pre-pandemic yoga practice. Online yoga just never worked for me, and I’ve given myself some grace but I’d like my core strength back please. And continue with my 10 year international reading project (a book from every country in the world). I’m quite tempted by W&P as well, I loved Anna Karenina but never made it through W&P. I’ve been reading in the morning, sometimes for just 5 minutes, and it sounds ideal for that time.
Family and relationships: More couple time, swimming lessons for my son, and some fun family holidays.
Home: Strip wallpaper and paint the sitting and dining room, tile the entryway (currently a hideous red), and have a garden plan.
Work: Redraft and submit my book proposal, and hopefully get it under contract (academic book), get some articles out the door, groundwork for a new project, and design a new course (forms in early January, it’s always nice to check one off early).
@Cb – good luck on the book. And I’ve found reading through W&P at the rate of a chapter a day has been very very doable. Since it’s only a few minutes I’ve never gotten bogged down and tempted to stop, which happened to me the first time I attempted War and Peace. Patience is a fun experience.
Yes, I’m a voracious reader, but got bogged down trying to read it when there were NEW SHINY books around. So it’s worth a go.
Thanks, I’m meeting with a publisher in the new year, need to reorient the book but feeling a bit more optimistic and enthusiastic about the project.
I’m ready to think about goals a bit more in 2022 than I have over the last 2 years. Going into 2020, I knew we wanted to get pregnant and was hopeful we’d be successful so I didn’t really set any goals for myself which turned out to be a good thing w/ pregnancy + a pandemic! I didn’t really set goals last year either as I find the first year of a baby’s life incredibly challenging and exhausting! But now he’s 1 so I feel a little more motivated to set goals. I’m planning to read Count of Monte Cristo using the Serial Reader ap. Another friend did that in past year and said she loved the book and that using the Serial app was a great way to read it. I also want to be more thoughtful about what I read so will be using Anne Bogel’s reading journal to give me a format for thinking about what I’ve read/why I liked or didn’t like it/etc. I want to hopefully run another 10 mile race in 2022 and at a less slow speed than the race I did this year! And lastly, I’d like to hire a wardrobe consultant to go through my closet and help me figure out what to keep and what I need. I know that’s going to be a pretty big investment but I’m done having kids so my weight should stay about where it is going forward so it feels like the right time to focus on my clothing/appearance!