New Year's Resolutions 2017
Jan. 7th, 2017 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lokifanSomewhat belatedly, here are my New Year’s Resolutions for 2017. (The first of many catch-up posts.) First comes the round-up of my 2016 resolutions and
1. Improve my Italian significantly.
I’ll give myself a yes on this, actually. The improvement was less significant than I’d have liked -- I’m still A1 on the European framework and I can’t use future tenses -- but I had a couple of conversations with strangers, and several successful half-English half-Italian chats with flatmates who spoke very little English, and I could understand a decent amount. Given the givens (a six-month stay and English-speaking colleagues) that’s a win.
2. Write 500 words a day.
LOL NOPE. ~50k was my total, same as for the previous two years.
3. Read 50 books, including 5 non-fiction ones.
Fail. This is perhaps my least productive year reading-wise basically ever, because I read only 22 books. :(
4. Don’t be static professionally, whether that means qualifying as a Cambridge examiner while in Sardinia (fingers crossed, but might not be possible in six months) or whatever I decide to do in September.
Hmm. I mean hard to say so far, but I’d say that’s a win. I’ve survived the winter at my London school, which means I’m in a position to begin my next professional qualification and have the school pay the £3k-odd cost. I’m a bit underpaid here but it’s worth it for the qualification. I mean I think so...
5. Write 20 letters/postcards to Grandpa.
No :( I wrote about 3. Must Do Better.
6. Keep up with friends in the UK via Skyping/texting/emailing etc.
Partly. There are definitely friends I fell out of touch with a bit but it was definitely better than in Vietnam. WhatsApping with one of my BFFs in particular kept me sane.
7. Reduce my personal debt by 25%.
NOPE. I increased my personal debt, unfortunately. It’s not a huge fail though; I managed to save money in Sardinia despite a low wage, and so pay my flight home & rent & deposit in London without help; and autumn had some weeks with no work thanks to my zero-hours contract, but I held it together enough to survive. And that’s an investment, because it’s how I’ll hopefully get the school to pay for a new qualification - one which will open a lot of doors professionally.
8. Practice some swimming, hiking and photography while in Sardinia, since it’s the perfect place and I bought the equipment.
Not really. I did go swimming at the beautiful beach despite bikini issues and I did take some lovely photos, but not much of either. Hiking was a fail - I’m thinking of one gorgeous hill in particular - although that’s also down to imperfect boots and a surprising-to-me lack of public transport outside the city.
And yet, I’m going to give myself a Partly. Because I went swimming by myself, which is scary for me because I’m incredibly short-sighted and have to leave my glasses behind, and I was like the only person in the water while the Italians judged me for going in in May - and swimming in that incredibly clear water, in that beautiful bay, is I think my favourite memory from Sardegna.
9. Write 10k of original fiction. (Keeping it achievable.)
FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL. SUCH A FAIL.
10. Finish and post 3 old WIPs. (SO MANY WORDS MOULDERING ON MY HARD DRIVE OMFG.)
Yep, definitely: Resting With The Enemy and Student Digs were both like 40% written for aaages and I got past the block! And Utter Cockslut - omg, there is literally a conversation in the comments of the art that inspired it between me and the artist about the scenario, with porny ideas I used in the fic, from SIX YEARS before I actually wrote and posted the thing. VICTORY.
Two yeses and two partlys. Not as good as last year, but not bad.
And here are my 2017 resolutions:
Begin the DELTA or eliminate my personal debt. (In other words: start my next professional qualification, or move to Moscow and become a governess for a Russian oligarch so my ~4.5k of debt can vanish in no time.)
2. Write 10k of original fiction (try it again!) and 80k [counting proper meta, which I didn’t this year] overall.
3. Exercise 60 times. (i.e. just over once a week. I want to go back to doing it twice a week, but 60 times would be a huge improvement, and anyway am scared of the gym just now. I’ll go back in another week, and hopefully not suffer anyone trying to bond over dieting and New Year’s Resolutions to hate themselves with the fat chick who has clearly never been in a gym before.)*
4. Write 20 postcards/letters to Grandpa.
5. Read 50 books including 5 non-fiction ones.
6. GO TO THE FUCKING DOCTOR. I have so many things I should ask a doctor about :((( But registering at a doctor is hard and going to one is scary, especially as I pile up things I need to ask about.
7. Go out with people. Like on dates. I did that three times in 2016! Which is a lifetime record for me, and it was fun, and also like… wow, there are a lot of people out there, and some of them are attractive and seem cool and want to go out with me! I should do that more.
8. Don’t go further into debt. My plan for the year has made it depressingly clear that my costs have gone significantly up and my pay only slightly up since 2014. But I CAN hold steady with some work.
9. One act of activism a month. Phone calls, emails for people further away, protests, donations to political groups, etc. Keeping it low and achievable.
10. Embrace living in London. This is one I’m good at anyway but I want to push myself because it’s important to me. I bloody love this city. The rent is insane and the transport costs are ludicrous but there’s a reason I stay and so many reasons to love it. Some colleagues of mine were discussing how when you live in a big city, you don’t really because you don’t go to many places or do much of the vaunted “so much to do” and my thoughtbubble was “not everyone.” Theatre, free art and museums, weird parties and niche events. <3333
Do you guys do resolutions? How’re they going?
*Do what you like with your body! Dieting is not inherently an act of self-hate (although it’s also not often an act of self-love.) But being a fat woman in the gym in the first two weeks of January just seems like it’ll be unpleasant.
1. Improve my Italian significantly.
I’ll give myself a yes on this, actually. The improvement was less significant than I’d have liked -- I’m still A1 on the European framework and I can’t use future tenses -- but I had a couple of conversations with strangers, and several successful half-English half-Italian chats with flatmates who spoke very little English, and I could understand a decent amount. Given the givens (a six-month stay and English-speaking colleagues) that’s a win.
2. Write 500 words a day.
LOL NOPE. ~50k was my total, same as for the previous two years.
3. Read 50 books, including 5 non-fiction ones.
Fail. This is perhaps my least productive year reading-wise basically ever, because I read only 22 books. :(
4. Don’t be static professionally, whether that means qualifying as a Cambridge examiner while in Sardinia (fingers crossed, but might not be possible in six months) or whatever I decide to do in September.
Hmm. I mean hard to say so far, but I’d say that’s a win. I’ve survived the winter at my London school, which means I’m in a position to begin my next professional qualification and have the school pay the £3k-odd cost. I’m a bit underpaid here but it’s worth it for the qualification. I mean I think so...
5. Write 20 letters/postcards to Grandpa.
No :( I wrote about 3. Must Do Better.
6. Keep up with friends in the UK via Skyping/texting/emailing etc.
Partly. There are definitely friends I fell out of touch with a bit but it was definitely better than in Vietnam. WhatsApping with one of my BFFs in particular kept me sane.
7. Reduce my personal debt by 25%.
NOPE. I increased my personal debt, unfortunately. It’s not a huge fail though; I managed to save money in Sardinia despite a low wage, and so pay my flight home & rent & deposit in London without help; and autumn had some weeks with no work thanks to my zero-hours contract, but I held it together enough to survive. And that’s an investment, because it’s how I’ll hopefully get the school to pay for a new qualification - one which will open a lot of doors professionally.
8. Practice some swimming, hiking and photography while in Sardinia, since it’s the perfect place and I bought the equipment.
Not really. I did go swimming at the beautiful beach despite bikini issues and I did take some lovely photos, but not much of either. Hiking was a fail - I’m thinking of one gorgeous hill in particular - although that’s also down to imperfect boots and a surprising-to-me lack of public transport outside the city.
And yet, I’m going to give myself a Partly. Because I went swimming by myself, which is scary for me because I’m incredibly short-sighted and have to leave my glasses behind, and I was like the only person in the water while the Italians judged me for going in in May - and swimming in that incredibly clear water, in that beautiful bay, is I think my favourite memory from Sardegna.
9. Write 10k of original fiction. (Keeping it achievable.)
FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL. SUCH A FAIL.
10. Finish and post 3 old WIPs. (SO MANY WORDS MOULDERING ON MY HARD DRIVE OMFG.)
Yep, definitely: Resting With The Enemy and Student Digs were both like 40% written for aaages and I got past the block! And Utter Cockslut - omg, there is literally a conversation in the comments of the art that inspired it between me and the artist about the scenario, with porny ideas I used in the fic, from SIX YEARS before I actually wrote and posted the thing. VICTORY.
Two yeses and two partlys. Not as good as last year, but not bad.
And here are my 2017 resolutions:
Begin the DELTA or eliminate my personal debt. (In other words: start my next professional qualification, or move to Moscow and become a governess for a Russian oligarch so my ~4.5k of debt can vanish in no time.)
2. Write 10k of original fiction (try it again!) and 80k [counting proper meta, which I didn’t this year] overall.
3. Exercise 60 times. (i.e. just over once a week. I want to go back to doing it twice a week, but 60 times would be a huge improvement, and anyway am scared of the gym just now. I’ll go back in another week, and hopefully not suffer anyone trying to bond over dieting and New Year’s Resolutions to hate themselves with the fat chick who has clearly never been in a gym before.)*
4. Write 20 postcards/letters to Grandpa.
5. Read 50 books including 5 non-fiction ones.
6. GO TO THE FUCKING DOCTOR. I have so many things I should ask a doctor about :((( But registering at a doctor is hard and going to one is scary, especially as I pile up things I need to ask about.
7. Go out with people. Like on dates. I did that three times in 2016! Which is a lifetime record for me, and it was fun, and also like… wow, there are a lot of people out there, and some of them are attractive and seem cool and want to go out with me! I should do that more.
8. Don’t go further into debt. My plan for the year has made it depressingly clear that my costs have gone significantly up and my pay only slightly up since 2014. But I CAN hold steady with some work.
9. One act of activism a month. Phone calls, emails for people further away, protests, donations to political groups, etc. Keeping it low and achievable.
10. Embrace living in London. This is one I’m good at anyway but I want to push myself because it’s important to me. I bloody love this city. The rent is insane and the transport costs are ludicrous but there’s a reason I stay and so many reasons to love it. Some colleagues of mine were discussing how when you live in a big city, you don’t really because you don’t go to many places or do much of the vaunted “so much to do” and my thoughtbubble was “not everyone.” Theatre, free art and museums, weird parties and niche events. <3333
Do you guys do resolutions? How’re they going?
*Do what you like with your body! Dieting is not inherently an act of self-hate (although it’s also not often an act of self-love.) But being a fat woman in the gym in the first two weeks of January just seems like it’ll be unpleasant.