I have never been one for resolutions for the new year. Part of this is that I hate failure, and making resolutions on January 1 for the rest of the year just feels like setting myself up to fail. But also, after the last almost two years, we know that so much of life is unpredictable – resolutions may shift and change as the world, and my life, changes.

But I have really recently come to appreciate the act of setting goals for the year. Maybe this doesn’t sound that different than resolutions to you, but in my mind, there’s a subtle difference. I know that I am a deadline-oriented person – I will procrastinate forever, even on things that I’m passionate about. But setting deadlines, and actually writing down goals, helps me stick to things that I genuinely want to do.

I want these to be a mix of personal and professional goals – and most of all, I want these to be things that will make me a happier, healthier person. I am choosing goals that matter to me, because they’ll make me feel better – not because I think that they’ll make me look better to society. I think that’s the most important part of this whole process.

Prioritize Rest

I love to sleep, and sleep in majorly on the weekends, so it might seem like I’ve already accomplished this one. But I’m bad about consistently resting. With my job, this blog, and my other commitments, I feel like I’m going a LOT of the time. I’ll push off sleep for 30 minutes to finish a post, or to send an e-mail. But I know that I’m so much more productive when I’m well-rested! So I want to be better about prioritizing rest and sleep each night, so that I don’t feel like I’m constantly trying to make up for a sleep debt that I’ll never be able to conquer.

Grow This Space

I am so, so hesitant to write down goals for my blog and social media. I love, love, love writing here, and don’t want to make it seem like I’ll only continue if I can continue to grow. I’ve been writing about things that I care about since the beginning, when no one other than my friends and family were reading. So it feels a little… tacky, almost? to say that I want to keep growing this space. But I would love to get some more blog and social media opportunities in 2022 – an expanded reach here and on Instagram, and some sponsored posts, too. It all comes back to disabled representation – I want me (and other people with disabilities) to be seen and heard.

Be Intentional With My Time

This is a revised, hopefully better version of a goal that I’ve tried to set for myself at various times throughout my life. Basically, no matter what I’m doing with my time, I want to be fully invested in it. If I want to spend time watching TV, that’s totally fine – I just want to be better about not mindlessly watching just because it’s on and I’m there. So I guess another way of saying this is that I want to focus on being present, regardless of what I’m doing.

And finally (the one that I’m most nervous to share)…

Write A Book

This is a dream of mine that I shared when I took over Elizabeth Holmes’ Instagram, and enough people were supportive that it started to feel like something that was actually possible. So I started an outline and have a rough idea of stories that I’d like to share from all different parts of my life – growing up, going to college, working, being in a pageant, and more. It’s absolutely terrifying to share this, but I want to have a draft done by the end of the year.