Happy New Year everyone! I am hoping that 2024 is a better year than 2023 was (though there was some good that happened in 2023, it was overshadowed when my father unexpectedly passed away in September). The grief has hit me hard, and at times it has been hard to function; I miss him terribly, and my whole family has keenly felt his absence during this first Christmas holiday season without him.
So normally in this post, I like to look back at and reflect on the goals I set for myself last year. But I know full well that I didn't meet a single one (even my reading one - I only read 16 novel-length books this year). I wrote an update post in the summer where I planned how I would meet my goals by the end of the year. But everything completely fell apart, and that's okay.
I've put a bit of thought into whether I even wanted to set goals for the year. I haven't been reading much, and some days I'm just surviving, which is okay on this part of my grief journey. I have to learn to live without my dad being here to offer advice, to help me out, to go fishing, or just to hang out and have tea with. This is going to be a tough year as we get through a lot more firsts without him here.
I completed Jo Franco's 21 Day Self-Awareness Journaling Challenge in December. While many of the prompts were difficult, especially right now, I was able to start a journaling habit (I now journal every day before bed). And that gave me a bit of space to consider goals, as well as reflect a bit on the previous ones I have set. I believe the goals I have set have been too ambitious at the best of times. I need to slow things down, and aim a little smaller, especially when it comes to language learning (I am trying to tackle two languages at once). So I decided right there that I would only set one goal for Ukrainian, and no goal for French this year; I've been doing French for two hours once a week for quite awhile now, and my French has greatly improved as a result. We have been reading a book together in French for quite some time now which we will be finishing this year. So I see no need to add pressure to myself by adding more French than that right now.
So with everything that has happened, and where I'm at, I think I'm only going to set three goals for 2024:
- Read 25 novel-length books. Reading helps make me happy. So if I can get back to reading for fun, that would be great. I'm not going to worry about where the books come from right now - as long as I am reading, that's all that matters.
- Continue journaling. Journaling has helped, and it has gotten me writing a bit again (it might not be creative writing, but it is still something). I want to continue with this practice through the year.
- Read some Ukrainian every week. I've had a hard time with Ukrainian since my dad passed - we used to write letters to each other in Ukrainian. But I still love the language, and don't want to lose what I have, especially now that he is gone. So I want to recommit to studying it, even if it's just a little bit every week. I'd like to build my vocabulary, and the easiest way to do that is by reading. So I will read some Ukrainian every week and see where I get.
So that's where I'm at. How about you? Have you set any goals for yourself this year?
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