I shared on my Substack that I always think of September - both my birthday and the new school year - as the time to reset and set goals for the year, even more so than in January. So I thought it'd be fun to share some things I want to do this year - some big, some small, some in between!

I was reading this article from The Cut recently, an essay on dysregulation and how the word is suddenly appearing everywhere. It goes on to describe that dysregulation, at it's core, seems to be about some sort of traumatic event happening (of any nature) that has you not feeling like yourself, and wanting to get back to feeling like you again. And for me, right now, that feels pretty appropriate.

Well hi there - I had a little unexpected time off last week when I ended up in the hospital! I'm feeling much better now, and was able to come home Friday afternoon so I had the weekend at home to relax and start to recover from sleepless hospital nights.

I don't like to choose resolutions for the year, because often it feels like you're setting yourself up for failure. But I do like to set goals! To me, they're a little bit different - goals are just things I'd like to focus on over the next year. I keep them reasonable and attainable, too. I'm absolutely not trying to set myself up to fail, but rather trying to help myself grow over the next year (very fitting given my word of the year this year!). So here are the goals I have for 2024.

For the past few years, I've chosen a word of the year - a word that (I hope!) embodies the mindset that I'd like to have going into the new year. It's just a way for me to think about what I'd like my year to look like, and what word sums that up. For 2024, that word is GROWTH.

This past year - but especially this summer - has felt a little bit like living in survival mode. There's just been so much going on in my life that's it's felt like something new every time I blinked, and it was really hard to plan. I kind of had to just focus on living in the day-to-day - on getting the things done that needed to get done, and calling it good enough. There wasn't really a lot of time (or mental capacity, maybe) to spend worrying too much about longer term wants and plans - I had to focus on the here and now to keep from getting too overwhelmed.

Today is my 35th birthday - I think that means I'm now solidly and officially in the mid-30s. I don't know that I ever really thought to imagine what my life would be like at this point, but if I had, it probably would've looked different than the reality of it. In general, I feel great being in my 30s - more settled, more content, and more confident than I ever did in my 20s.

I debated not writing this post - it feels almost like I'm bragging to write about getting to see Taylor perform after so many people tried and failed to get tickets. But this was a huge moment for me, and I want to share a little bit about why, and what it was like.

Just like I haven't always been a "word of the year" person, I similarly haven't been a New Years resolutions person, either. But I do think there is something to setting goals in January to help guide and direct you through the rest of the year. I am careful when I pick my goals, though - I really only focus on things I'm actually passionate about and feel really strongly about trying to achieve. I'm not going to pick a goal that I feel like I "should" have on my list - it's more about things that I know I want to work on all year long because they add value to my life. So with that in mind, here are my goals for 2023.