Tag: reading

About Feeling Better Journey What I'm Doing

Goals: Reflecting on Yearly Achievements

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of each year I set goals for the upcoming year as I reflect on the one coming to a close. The questions I ask myself are: Did I meet the goals I set for myself this year? Did I exceed the goals I set? Do I need to adjust my goals up or down for the upcoming year? I think these three questions are all I need to ask myself as I reflect and look forward. So how did 2025 go for me?

Reading Goal

I originally set my reading goal to 300 books for the year and set up a detailed spreadsheet for tracking. Not only did I meet that goal, I got there on May 25. At that point I adjusted the goal to 600 books. Where did I end up? I read/listened to 767 books. However, some of those books were omnibus volumes and if I were to add the total number of books in each of those volumes, the number goes up to 839 books. That’s a lot of reading and I enjoyed every minute. With that being said, I don’t plan on reading that much in 2026. I have other goals and plans for 2026 that will, out of necessity, mean less reading. So, I have set my reading goal for 2026 for 500 and can always adjust later if needed.

Fitness Goal(s)

I totally bombed on my fitness goal(s) for 2025. I stopped paying attention to what I was eating and I didn’t exercise near as much as I wanted to. My goal for 2026 is, simply put, to do better. With that in mind, I have set reminders to log my food on the two apps I have on my phone and I have signed up for virtual challenges. The fitness challenges designed to get people moving. You don’t have to be a runner/jogger, you just have to move. The first challenges are the One Day At A Time and Invincible 2026 challenges via Run Motivators. The second challenge is the Walk The Year challenge via Run the Edge.

For 2025, Reading and Fitness were all I set goals for. As the year progressed, I realized I  had some things I would like to do. As a result, I started this blog and have signed up for some online courses for skills I would like to improve. In 2026, I will spend more time improving skills and writing. I am not setting a specific “number” to reach, my goal is simply to get better at specific things and write more.

So far, 2026 has not started out to good. But as of today, I can honestly say I have started the journey to meeting the goals I have set for myself. Those goals will more than likely change as the year progresses, but for now I have a starting point and a end goal in sight. Do you reflect on the previous year when setting goals for a new year? How do you set your goals? And do you adjust the goals as the year progresses? Let me know!

What I'm Reading

So Many Books, So Little Time

I spent many years as a single mom. This means I had little time and/or money for myself. As a result, one of my favorite things to do, reading, was way down on my “to do” list. Do I regret being a single mom and not having the time and/or money for just myself? Absolutely NOT! My daughter is my greatest blessing. But she’s grown and has kids of her own so….bring on the books, movies, and things I want to do just for myself.

Reading Is My First True Love

I fell in love with reading at a very young age. It is my first true love. And I am one of those people that can read a book multiple times, so I want to not only read them…I want to own them. I want to own books because I am someone that will reread books multiple times. Every time I open a book I’ve read before, it’s like visiting with old friends. The problem is, I don’t have the space to create a physical library in my home. The solution to that problem….my Kindle!

My Personal Library Is Digital

My Kindle has saved me from the disappointment of not being able to have a personal library. Thanks to it, not only do I have a personal library, it goes with me everywhere and I can revisit old friends in stories I’ve read dozens of times. I also have the ability to listen to a book via my Kindle. This is a huge help when I’m walking the dog, traveling, doing chores, or whatever because I don’t have to pause the story. I can switch between the ebook and the audiobook seamlessly. Hallelujah, and thank sweet baby Jesus in his manger!

I Still Borrow Books

I not only have the ability to purchase books, I have the ability to borrow books from my library via the Libby app and thru my Kindle Unlimited subscription. Borrowing digital books allows me to try out new authors, as well as established authors I didn’t have time to try out before. As a result, I am loading up my digital library every week!

As of this moment, my personal library has a little over 500 books in both ebook and audiobook formats. I own most of what is in my Kindle and Audible library and I’m adding to that as often as I can without bankrupting myself. My friends tell me I have a problem and threaten me with an intervention. I tell them I’m perfectly fine with my reading/listening addiction and don’t feel an intervention is necessary.

Over the course of writing this blog and sharing my daily adventures with you, I will be sharing my reading adventures via book reviews. I will share with you my thoughts on the book itself and the narration of the audio version of the book as well. Some reviews will be of older books because I’m just now getting around to having the time to read them. Some reviews will be of new releases just out. Either way, I hope you’ll hear me out and let me know if you read the book or not. And if you have, I hope you’ll let me know your thoughts. But please….do NOT send me a review. I just want to know if you like it or not, and why.