2018 Goals

I’m not going to lie, traveling has me totally thrown off with dates. I’m not complaining, I just keep thinking it’s the first week of January when it’s almost the third! Time is weird.

So that means that this goals post is coming to you later than most other bloggers’ but it’s also given me time to think through what my goals are.

I love the idea of a guiding word or two for your year — and I’ve arrived on gentle and focus.

Gentle: I’m so hard on myself in a lot of ways. Watching my mom get diagnosed and die of cancer (in addition to all the other crap that happened to me in 2017) was obviously a lot on me emotionally, so I’m trying really hard to be gentle with myself.

Focus: After spending basically two straight years worrying about and then/now grieving over my mom, I let a lot of my own goals fall to the wayside. I know I can be a little gerbil-like, though — I have so many things I want to do!! — so I am attempting to focus down to a few.

1. Get my personal trainer certification. 

Omg, I’m sick of me saying this too — I’ve been saying it for years. But I finally have the test scheduled for late February. I just need to sit my ass down and study, and luckily my BFF is a physical therapy professor, so she’s going to help me with the anatomy. (I also bought this anatomy coloring book per a recommendation from Heather’s blog.)

2. Develop my business(es?)

Right now, I really want to be self-employed. My job gave me a lot of flexibility when my mom was sick, and even though that was for a crappy reason, I came to value it. Right now, my ideal work situation (please refer back to gerbil comment) is doing a few things: social media/blog consulting, freelance writing and running/fitness coaching. (Shameless plug: I’m at theodora@theodorablanchfield.com if you need running coaching or social media/blog help! You can learn more about run coaching here and my social media/blog consulting here.)

3. Write, write, write.

After living solely in the short-form (hello 140 characters!) game for quite a few years professionally, losing my mom and my job has  helped me re-embrace my identity as a writer. I have three writing goals.

3a. Write. every. damn. day. I consider myself half morning person. I’m so much better than I used to be, and I certainly get up earlier than I used to, but I still hit snooze every day (I know, I know) and am useless until I get my coffee (don’t you dare say a word about giving it up.) So, I try to write in the morning…but it’s usually shit. That said, I want to write nearly every day to stay in practice, and because I never know what will come up that I might want to come back to, either for myself or to try to get published.

3b. Which is a great segue to these next two goals. More bylines! I want to increase the names in my portfolio. Should you happen to be an assigning editor reading… I write about health and fitness, most specifically running and mental health, and also grief. (Write what you know, or something.)

3c. Write a damn book proposal. I have wanted to write a book my entire life and have been scared of writing a proposal. I’ll never get rejected if I don’t try it, right? Well, after all the shit that happened in 2017, what’s a little rejection? (If you’re reading and an agent…) I’m doing the free Blogger to Book ecourse to help me narrow my focus.

4. Lose ~15 pounds.

If I look on my MyFitnessPal graph, I’ve gained 15 pounds since my mom got diagnosed. (What’s emotional eating?!) I would love to get back to the weight I was when she got sick, but more importantly, I want to be able to fit into my clothes and feel more confident in my body again. I’m giving myself all year to reach this goal. For now, what that’s meaning for me is eating closer to Paleo (that’s what’s worked best for me in the past) and doing what a friend calls “Damp January.” So, not Dry January…but less boozy. I’m also focusing more on strength training in conjunction with my running — going to both Uplift (disclaimer: free because I’m working with them on social media) and Orangetheory.

5. PR in some race distance.

I’d love for this new focus on strength + running to result in a PR. Ideally the half, but I know that’s pretty ambitious right now, so I’ll take any distance. (Maybe 15K or 10-miler; that’s my slowest-paced race PR right now.)

Y tu? What are your goals?