Happy New Year and my Goals for 2018

I hope you have an excellent start to your New Year. Before the New Year started, I sat down and reflected on the past year. Despite some deaths in my family that rocked me to the core, 2017 was a decent year.

As I reflected on the past months, I revisited things in my mind that worked for me and things that did not work for me and made me feel crappy health wise. I allowed work stress to get to me that caused a few relapses with my M.S., and I had another health scare in October that I am still dealing with, but it isn’t as bad as it seemed at the time.

Most of my friends and family have been talking about their New Year’s resolutions throughout December. I hate making resolutions; I have never stuck with one in the 48 years I have been on this planet. I like to look at them as goals because my logical mind can process that data better. I don’t know why that is, but goals work for me. Perhaps I feel more driven to keep climbing to reach a goal with the mindset that it is an achievement where failure is not an option, whereas, in my head, a resolution is just a suggestion.

I also try to set goals for myself that are not so ridiculous that I know I am setting myself up for failure. Somethings require baby steps before you can take off at a full-speed run. You have to build up a little to get that momentum going, and once you have that drive, increase that goal, and keep on a truckin’.

Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them. -- Les Brown Click To Tweet

My Goals for 2018

Finance and Legal:

January list:

(I do these same things every year. I guess you can call still call them goals.)
1. Go through subscriptions we haven’t used in the past 6 months. (Revisit again in July)
2. Go through cable TV packages no one has used in the past 6 months. (Revisit again in July)
3. Revisit auto and homeowners insurance policies (Revisit again in July)
Note: Do your research when shopping for Insurance. Here is a review of the
Best Homeowners Insurance Companies to get you started.
4. Review Investments
5. Review Retirement Plans
6. Review my will
7. Cash in my coin jug.
8. Track expenses for January, and continue until the end of March.
9. Revisit my credit card, check for points and APR. Can I get better at another company?

 Is one of your goals to save money this year? Check out my post on the 15 Habits That save Money. 

Home Improvement goals:

1. Main common area bathroom:

This is going to take both time and money. My first thought after pulling down the shower enclosure because it felt mushy to me was to gut the bathroom entirely. Folks, you cannot put standard drywall in a tub surround. Drywall is not made for heavy water use. The former homeowner either didn’t realize that simple fact or was taking the cheap route to sell the house.

My tub enclosure has been down to the studs drying out for the last 3 months. I also had to have a mold person come in and make sure there was no black mold as a result. Luckily, he gave us the all clear.

I am doing this reno in baby steps instead of gutting the whole thing and hoping I can finish it in a weekend. This reno will probably take me all year, but it will be done by the end of 2018. The progression will look like this:

    Resurface the tub since the walls are out of it.
    Hardibacker wet cement board the surround.
    Tile it, and add the new shower and tub fixtures. I am planning to add a safety rail to the surround.
    The bathroom is a long rectangle, 5 wide x 10 long. I have a lot of open wall space in it, so as I remove the drywall from the walls, I will mark and make spots for built-ins for storage, decor, and an in the wall toilet paper holder. I know you can use regular drywall in a bathroom, but I am going to do the whole thing with Hardibacker wet cement board. Overkill, maybe, but I don’t plan to rip out the drywall again in another 5 to 10 years. In my area, the Hardibacker wet cement board only costs .75 cents more a sheet than drywall. Then, mud, paint and put in a new door.
   Build my bathroom vanity because I am going for the industrial farmhouse look, so think modern Steampunk. I already have the re-purposed wood in my shed ready to go for the vanity and the built-ins.
    New flooring and subflooring.
    Add in trim, board and batten. Add new ceiling vent fan that also has a light and heat.
    New toilet with a shelf built to hide the top cover because they are ugly. The shelf will be easy to remove if I need to get into the tank.
    Update outlets and add more grounds.

2. Craft Room:

This is going to be an easy reno. I can do this in a weekend. All my craft room needs are new flooring, paint, door, and trim. I also will be adding a new light fixture and updating the electrical outlets.

3. Master bedroom:

The master will also be an easy reno. I can do it probably in two weekends. I will be painting, hanging a new door, and putting down new flooring the first weekend. The second weekend will be building a new headboard that is inspired by a Murphy bed, storage, and more storage.

4. Guest Bedroom:

I tore this room apart January 2017. I put in new drywall, new flooring, repainted and added a new light fixture. The room is technically finished, but I want to shiplap a couple walls and build a new headboard with floating nightstands. I still have to update the electrical outlets, and I bought an outlet that has USB ports in it. The USB outlet will go on the TV wall, with a shelf underneath for guests to use as a phone charging station.

5. Hallway:

The hallway just needs some new paint, new trim, and flooring.

6. Get estimates

    To move laundry appliances (water hookups and sewage line) from basement bathroom to the unused 10 x 10 room next to the garage.
   For upgrading our electricity and look into purchasing solar panels.

ME Goals:

1. Read 30 books. I read 30 this past year, so 30 more this year won’t hurt!
2. Spend an hour a day putting myself first and schedule it on my calendar. This past year I scheduled everything for everyone else, including work, family and my housework; I forgot to add myself to the schedule. Oops… : P
3. Go thru personal social media and remove people who make me feel anxious, bad, or can’t be bothered with me unless they want something.
4. Take cake-decorating classes and invite my daughter-in-law to join me.
5. Attend more writers’ workshops.
6. Home Improvements! I count those as “Me Time” because I love working with power towels and being all “Bri the Builder.” It relaxes me.
7. Take time out to play my guitars and piano more often this year. There will be no more walking past them on my way to the basement carting a basket full of laundry while muttering, “I miss you, bestie.” I will be moving my favorite guitars and piano to my craft room since I will have room for them once I have the guest room and craft room finished.
8. Stress less. This includes not allowing my OCD to stress me out when someone puts an orange cup where a blue cup should go.
9. Meet new people. I love the people who have been in my life, but meeting new people and experiencing new things in life is a good thing, mainly when you include your current friends and family in the new.

Personal Relationship with my better half:

1. Start having weekly meetings: Review our finances, review our upcoming week and schedules, discuss issues and concerns each has about XY and Z.
2. Attend more local theater and concerts together.
3. Watch my tone more when in a disagreement.
4. Plan a camping trip, no kids allowed, for this summer
5. Make more time for each other. We work so much at our careers, most of our evenings are spent talking to each other about work, and not about fun things. Having a weekly meeting to do more of the work and household conversations will free up a lot of the time during the week to talk about things we actually enjoy together or do something together with those few hours before bed.
6. Create some rituals we do together with no one else involved besides our regular date night.
7. Set goals together.

Family:

1. Two vacations or stay-cations a year.
2. 1 weekend outing a month to a new place or new experience.
3. Call my parents and parent-in-laws, and siblings and sibling-in-laws more often.

Work:

1. Learn how to say “no” instead of overextending myself physically or my time. Because my time is just as valuable as anyone else’s is. I should put that on a sticky and slap it on my monitor.
2. Remind myself that I don’t have to respond to an email at 9 pm or later, it can wait until my work hours start at 8 am.
3. Learn to delegate and not be afraid that they aren’t doing it right.
4. Hire my own assistant.
5. Redesign and make a new logo for my Pen Name’s blog and social media.
6. Talk to various cover designers and go with one that is reliable for my books.

Blogging:

1. Continue to post 2 to 3 posts a week.
2. Create an excellent opt-in freebie
3. Grow my mailing list
4. Create a monthly newsletter
5. Build a more active social media presence: Test out Instagram and Tumblr, step up my Twitter, Pinterest and FB game.
6. Continue the discussion with a community.
7. Fill out my editorial calendar for 3 months in advance
8. Write blog posts up to 1 month in advance
9. Consider monetizing the blog with affiliate links and my own products
10. Revisit the current “new” content that I started back in September when I revamped and did a 180 on Dusky Illusions.
11. Rewrite my about page, and make a mission statement.
12. Consider moving my gaming blog to Dusky Illusions under Culture category since I do not have time to maintain three blogs.

Your turn!

How do you feel about goals vs. resolutions? Have you made any for 2018? Share your thoughts in the comments below!