Well, much of last year’s plan was a bust, and I feel that most of the Home/Travel section should probably just be shunted over to this year’s plan – but it also seems a bit lame to keep chucking the same stuff in my goals every year and not achieving them. Perhaps there’s just too much to keep my eye on? Perhaps some of these recurring things are too vague so  don’t really belong here. Maybe it’s time to try a set number of things I really want/need to achieve this year and make them a bit more concrete, while keeping in mind to split these across the Health/Work/Finances/Home/Travel categories I’ve had before? Let’s try that. Maybe 10?

1. HEALTH: Weight has become a real issue again and it affects a bunch of other stuff, especially my muscle problems, stress levels, ability to meet the challenges of my job, etc. A number feels quite arbitrary, and I don’t want to make this a source of massive stress, so I’m aiming to get back into the merely “overweight” category rather than officially “obese”. Anything more than that will be a bonus but if I achieve it well before the end of the year then I need to at least maintain it to mark this as achieved 😀 Alas, this one was a fail. But on the plus side, I managed to not put on any additional plump after I got back from Australia that I didn’t manage to shed, so it’s been a maintaining year. It’s been frustrating, but at least I stopped the spiralling upwards. Travel’s been a problem, lack of exercise has been a problem, and I suspect I made things harder for myself by giving up a lifelong comfort habit in March that I’m still (December – 9 months!!) struggling with a bit. So I’m trying to not beat myself up about this but think about the good aspects.
2. WORK: ‘First conference presentation’ seems a bit of a cheat when I’ve just had word that Josh and I will be presenting at an international conference in Ghent in February, but it’s still a goal. But I think I’ll push it to be ‘first solo conference presentation’ too because I really want to get moving on this. Booked in! Ghent in February (um… again)!
3. FINANCES: I know it was in last year’s list, but I really need to get my financial documentation under control – to reconcile accounts more regularly, get my tax in with plenty of time to spare, stop missing credit card deadlines so I don’t get fined – just generally get a bit more of a handle on all of this and feel a bit more in control. This one’s a half-success. Nothing happened more regularly and I still don’t really feel in control, but I feel I’ve managed the credit card deadlines a bit better; and when uni failed to restart my fee payments, I managed to get onto that fairly quickly and took control of sorting it out. My tax, I believe, is basically done, but I do need to review it very soon – it all got held up because I seemed to be waiting on documentation from one employer but it turned out that they’d messed something up so I got that sorted out and now need to try to remember where I was with the rest of the tax stuff…
4. WORK/FINANCES:Get some sort of regular part-time work that will bring in some extra money but won’t interfere with commitments for either Bastards or uni. Employed! And with what seems to be the perfect job! I haven’t started earning yet but the contract is through so this will start up in the new year.
5. HOME: I’m going to finally paint Granny’s sewing box. Maybe just white/cream like it was before because trying to decide on a colour is driving me nuts. Um… fail… Still need to buy the paint…
6. TRAVEL: I’d really like to take a short trip to somewhere we’ve never been before that’s just pure holiday. I’m not allowed to count our 7-hour layover in Hong Kong on the way back from Aus in this though! Fail, largely due to finances – no real holidays happening at the moment and the times we’ve been away have both been to Paris. But I don’t feel bad about this one. Really nothing we could do, and we did set up our week outside Paris to be a writing/working week with a day off and evening happy hours, which was absolute perfection and I can’t wait to do it again!
7. HOME: Sewing-wise I’d like to get to grips with trouser fitting and start sewing underwear. See my forthcoming sewing summary post for more on this one. Partial success. Actually more a mostly-fail, but I’m giving it a positive spin 😀 Didn’t get anywhere near the trousers – after I got home and realised how much plump I’d gathered in Aus I wanted to trim that down a bit before I invested the time in fitting, but that never happened and then there was no time at all. By “underwear” I had meant “bras” which didn’t happen, but I DID sew underwear and feel that the latest alteration to the knickers pattern may be the breakthrough I want but even the 2 pairs I made are very comfortable and they’re a great scrap-busting project, so WIN.
8. HEALTH: I feel I need to build up strength and stamina so I need to start adding more exercise to my life than just the walking every day – perhaps more yoga, perhaps a regular set at the recumbant bike down by the river (I can’t use the other one because I’m too short!), perhaps I’ll invest in some shoes and try some running… Tried. Failed. Shoes turned out to be insanely expensive (what’s this about running being cheap to start??? NO!) which then felt like too much of an investment when I suspected the really big problem was actually underwear, which is similarly expensive and I’ve still not managed to find anything structurally sound enough to deal with the running. Shame. My legs are OK with the concept, but I like to breathe while I’m doing it. Other exercise an absolute fail for reasons which have me thinking about energy levels, travel management and how to keep the house clean in 2020.
9. WORK/FINANCES: First solo gig. I’d like to at least have this booked in by the end of the year. Related: get the live-streamed gigs from the studio happening this year too. First solo gig booked! Work started on commissioning project so I also have other people’s stuff to perform in solo gigs! Livestreaming hasn’t happened this year, largely because I haven’t been here, but it’s still on the list.
10. HOME: Be a better housewife! This sounds lame but I really hate how dirty our house always is. Apologising for the house’s inadequacies is one thing but for my own is another. I just want the place to be clean and fairly tidy. Might need to chuck some stuff. Might also need to do a thorough study of our stuff and how to store it appropriately… Um… FAIL. Still not sure how to make this happen. Work in progress.

I guess that’s 10 then. It feels like a lot. But also feels like it has more direction than last year’s. Let’s see how I go!