2021

It's become an annual tradition (fourth year running now!) for my sister Rachel & I to pick out a word that we want to be our focus as we start a brand new year. After the year that was 2020 (and it was truly a doozy of a year), I struggled a little bit with my choice for 2021. But I've finally settled on the word confidence. I want to hold my head up high with the security that comes from knowing what I'm capable of. I want to charge forward and ahead into this brand new year with all its struggles and triumphs. I want to stand up for what's right and, to quote Frozen II, do the next right thing. I also want to walk in the certainty of knowing that I have folks in my corner who will love me for me. 

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I can't help making a list of goals every year, even when I find myself unable to cross them all off my list. I wanted to pare it down just a tiny bit for 2021, so I'm choosing to focus on the three lifestyle goals below specifically in the hopes that I'll be able to work on accomplishing them as the year goes on.

Drink more water. I've been doing a little bit better with this, but I want to continue to strengthen this as a habit. It'd be ideal to drink exactly the amount of H2O I need in my body every single day, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can hold myself accountable!

Exercise once a week. In 2020, I've started to become really conscious about my physical health and that includes the state of my body. I'd really like to try to get my blood pumping and use those muscles in a regular way.

Write regularly. Thanks to the copious amounts of fan fiction I read and all the encouragement from my friend Danica, I've been dabbling in writing again. It's starting to become a more regular habit (and I'm coming up with entirely too many ideas), so I'm hoping to continue to fan that flame this year.

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I didn't intend to make too many reading commitments for 2021 (apart from Friends with ARCs with my best friend Rachel). But I did have two reading related goals planned... and also have somehow found myself involved four different book clubs for the year ahead. I'm not even mad about it because everything just sounds like it's going to be so much fun!

Get my TBR to total 100 books or less. I was hoping to reduce my TBR number last year, and I kind of did, but I also didn't since I acquired a lot of new books. Anyway, all things considered, I will always have this as one of my yearly goals until I've finally gotten this to 100 books or less. And, to be very clear, I'm counting both my physical and digital (ebook and audiobook) TBRs for this item.

Read 6 classics. I didn't read as many classics as I wanted to in 2020 (I was ambitious and aimed for 12 - who was I kidding?), but I did get around to reading (and enjoying) 3. I'm going to aim a little lower and read six for 2021, starting with The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Continue with the Paranormal Book Club. This is an ongoing casual book club I do with my friends Rachel, Kristin & DJ where we read (or reread) older YA paranormal and fantasy series starters. We managed to read four books last year (one per quarter) and we're aiming to do the same in 2021!

Continue with my family book club. My sisters Melissa and Rachel, my cousin Carmela and I started our book club on a whim in June last year. And it's really cool that we've managed to stick with it through the end of 2020! We're hoping to read more books this year, especially since we all have such different reading tastes and end up challenging each other to try new (or new-to-us) things.

Start the FandomBuzzz Book Club. Macky and I often talk about how much we want to reread old favorites. So, we decided that we would try to do that more often in 2021! We've picked out a list of series that we want to revisit (or finish, in some cases), and we're excited to tackle them together.

Join the Historical Hellions Book Club. When Samantha and Jess announced they were going to run a book club to read older historical romances, I was all in! It's been a hot minute since I've really immersed myself in the world of historical romance, and I'm excited to get back into it. Especially after the Bridgerton reread and the Netflix series release from late last year!

What are your goals or plans for 2021?