2024 Goals + Aspirations: Staying Low-Key, with Self-Care as Priority

I can’t recall the last time I actually did a goals and aspirations post — apparently it was back in 2023 and all of that went straight out the window very quickly — but it feels like it’s been ages. I know it’s May, so we’re nearly halfway through 2024, but when you’re unemployed, sometimes you just want something to work toward, you know?

(Or maybe I’m feeling a little like my normal self again despite this year getting on all the nerves and truly testing me. (ง •̀_•́)ง)

The Priorities

I used to divide it into three simple sections: blogging, personal, and reading. This year, I’m doing something a little different instead of doing the same three things. I’m restructuring it into two sections instead: priorities and non-priorities. I’d love to do a semi-priorities section, but I feel like just the two is simple and more low-key.

The Priorities are my major goals that I want to work toward throughout the entire year (preferably) or something long term. Or something that, for obvious reasons and possibly out of my control, has to be at the top of my list even if I don’t want it to be.

Self-Care

I don’t think I mention self-care in any of my previous goals and aspirations posts (or maybe I did, but it was briefly somewhere in my personal goals). But I think, sometime in 2023, when things started going downhill (and continued going downhill — I won’t get into any further details, but I think it’s pretty obvious if you read my bookwyrm breakdowns or notice just how little I posted), I pivoted my goals and there was only one goal in mind: taking care of myself and putting myself first.

That meant nearly every goal went out the window, and while normally I’d beat myself over it, I’m finding that this is okay. And it’s also okay if it somehow morphs into “trying to survive the year.” And in a sense, it kind of is trying to survive the year.

Finding a New Job

Looking back at some of my old posts, I actually alluded to this way back in my 2022 goals, but I didn’t want to disclose it directly. But now that I’m a free bird (in a sense), I can pretty much publicly say that I’m looking for a new role after I got laid off in February.

If I had the choice and privilege to do so, I’d put this as a lower priority. Because burn out sucks, and I wish I could fully rest and recharge and do things I wouldn’t have the chance to do with a full-time job (like maybe trying to get back in touch with my inner child a little). And job hunting is very demoralizing where sometimes I just want to yeet myself into the woods and try to figure out how to build a cottage so I can frolick among the trees and just vibe in nature or something.

(I also just want to, I don’t know, possibly do a career pivot. Think about what I really want to do: maybe even attempt dipping my toes into freelance writing and see where that takes me, but I always feel like I just don’t have the energy to write like 5-20+ articles a week. Maybe that’s the low self-confidence talking. It likely is. Maybe I just find numbers daunting. I never was good at math.)

Unfortunately, the harsh reality is I don’t have that luxury, and I hate that for me. I also don’t know the first thing about building a cottage, which isn’t surprising considering I’m also a bad enough cook that I’m banned from the kitchen (and have been for the past decade pretty much). I’d probably end up as a pancake.

But I digress. I hope this year, if there’s only one thing I accomplish, it would be finding a new job before I find myself houseless.

The Non-Priorities

The Non-Priorities are just that: they’re not my priority, but they’re nice to do. Some of these probably fit better under a “Semi-Priorities” section, but my goal is to be low key this year.

Read at least 1-2 old ARCs/review copies

I always say I hope to finish all of my old ARCs in the year, but I never actually do it. So I’m going to dial back like 10 full notches and aim for 1-2.

Could I do more? Yes, because I read more than 9 books a year, which is about approximately how many ARCs I have. But clearly it wasn’t working.

Post at least once a month (preferably excluding wrap-ups)

If I counted wrap-ups, technically, I’m already doing this. And if all I do is wrap-ups, then well, I guess that’s how the cards fall. But ideally, I want to do (or try) at least one post monthly that’s not a wrap-up, and it can be anything really:

• Reviews: of the full-length and mini variety, or maybe even teetering toward analysis a little
• A draft still in the dungeon somewhere
• A fun quiz: I miss those; they were fun to make (the last time I did this was back in 2019, which is like an entire chapter of life ago)
• Redoing a tag from years ago (but this year’s edition, to see if any of my answers have changed)
• Tier Ranking a discography from a favorite artist

Truly, the bar is low for me. Except for that last one. That one feels as daunting as when someone asks, “what’s your favorite book?”

(This is also under the assumption and ideal situation where I find a job soon.)

Post at least 1 article on The Arts STL

Genuinely, I don’t remember when I last posted without actually checking the site itself; that’s how long I haven’t posted. And since it’s volunteer-run, it very sadly becomes something I kick out of my priorities when life kicks in.

It’s also not a good look if I ever want to pursue freelance writing… how am I supposed to write enough stuff to make a living if I can’t even be consistent not making a living… (ಥ﹏ಥ)

(She doesn’t even regularly post on her own blog.)

But existential crisis aside, I want to try and post at least 1 article there before the end of the year. Even if it’s an end-of-year roundup about K-Pop after procrastinating, which I haven’t done in a while. (See? Low bar.)

Find at least 1-2 new blogs to visit each month

Bonus points for dropping a comment, but sometimes I have nothing to say and that’s okay. Or I’m reading on my phone where I have a habit of hitting “reply” to someone else’s comment instead of making a new comment (( >﹏<。)) when I suddenly have a random question that pops in my head and get distracted when I should be reading.

Spring cleaning the blog and my portfolio

Technically, I’ve started doing this when I’m not job hunting, so I’m cheating just a little. And I usually try to keep my personal portfolio up to date yearly, but I don’t think I’ve checked to see if there’s any updating for this year (I updated my personal bio there, though!).

As for blogging, I try to go back in regularly to add in internal linking where I can, but sometimes I miss those opportunities (or I push it off)! I also think it’s just good to look over categories and see if I need to reevaluate those (creating new ones, phasing out vacant ones, etc.).

Another thing I want to do this year is reflect on my blogging and whether my alignment has changed since it’s been awhile that I looked at that, which generally involves updating the about page and having a little existential crisis there. (I did recently update this, though, since I’m going back to solo blogging for now.)

How I’m Going to Keep Myself Accountable

I write the post and hope I remember it by the time the end of the year rolls around and everyone’s doing their goals post for the next year. But I kind of want to try something a little different this year, so I’m adding a new section to my wrap-ups to keep myself accountable! It’ll be like a little personal check-in of sorts. I haven’t decided if it’ll be for every wrap-up or if it’ll be every other one, but I think I’ll figure that out.

Here’s to manifesting a turnaround for the rest of the year!

Let’s talk: how are your goals going?