Hello, New Decade: 2020 Goals
Going Back Before We Go Forward: 2019 Recap
It has been a YEAR, y’all. I wrote about it all in my end-of-2019 goals check-in, but I’ll give you the quickest of summaries here, too:
I’ve lived in Buenos Aires and in Mexico City. I’ve spent three and a half months traveling around my own country, falling in love with its hills and sunsets and long strips of highways and sorting through rage and discomfort at its inequality and waste. I’ve learned to make risotto and hummus and my own vegetable stock. I’ve mostly stopped drinking. I’ve gotten better at Spanish, at being in a relationship, at forgiving, at pitching. I started therapy. I’ve supported myself and sometimes someone else as a freelance writer and editor, and I’ve published and edited stories I love. I’ve been much happier than not, and I owe that satisfaction to the decisions I’ve made this year and last. Decisions to walk away from money and towards fulfillment. To go far from home and find my place somewhere new, over and over again, and in so doing, to figure out what home is to me and how to foster it. To invest in people I believe in. To expect that people believe in me. To give myself space to explore and ask and learn, and to be vulnerable about sharing where I am, where I’ve failed, and where I’d like to go next.
I love looking back and I love looking forward. I’ve traveled so far. And I have so much further to go.
Buckle Up, 2020
I’ve written about goals for a few other bylines (will link when the articles go live), so I’ve spent more time than usual this year reflecting on my process and on what matters to me.
For process, I’ll use a rough approximation of my 2019 goal categories, which are based on my core values, updated with what I’ve learned about myself this year. Within each category will be specific goals, and each goal will have a specific marker to measure success or failure.
Let’s begin.
Keep traveling to new places and reflecting on who I am in them.
1. Travel continuously. How? Be on the road for at least four months of the year.
2. Keep figuring out where I want to call home. How? Travel the rest of Central America and see if there’s anywhere that feels like home. Write a list of qualities I’d like in my future home + a list of places that come close. Figure out where to go after a US trip mid-next year and go there.
3. Reflect on how travel influences me and teaches me. How? Write at least one big travel-focused reflection essay a quarter.
Maintain financial independence while pursuing a balance of professional and lifestyle fulfillment.
1. Make enough money writing and editing to fund my travels without working so much I can’t enjoy the travel itself. How? Make 3k/month while working a max of 20 hours/week.
2. Manage money responsibly. How? Keep daily travel tracker, pay off 2019 taxes and get ahead of 2020 quarterly taxes, and develop better system for invoicing.
3. Maintain nest egg. Stretch goal: contribute to it. How? Do not touch “back to real life” savings and ideally, add to them.
Grow as a writer and creator.
1. Work with more editors and reach more readers. How? Publish in at least five new outlets, at least one of which to be print. Specifically, I’d like to write more book reviews, women at work stories, tech stories, food articles, travel pieces, and personal essays this year.
2. Grow my community. How? Be active on writing Twitter and use that + Instagram to connect with other writers, maintain relationships with editors, and host some kind of writing event (not unlike my 2019 Galentines event, but focused on writing specifically).
3. Be a top-notch content marketer and continue to gain professional experience to build into a career, if and when I stop traveling. How? Have at least five contracts with corporate clients and pitch new ones at least once a month, and ask for and act on their feedback.
Love and honor my body and brain.
1. Be active on a regular basis. How? Hit at least 10,000 steps a day.
2. Eat better. How? Eat vegetables every day, dessert NOT every day, and eat meat 3-4x/week versus every day. Honestly, if I could just reverse the amount of chocolate and the amount of spinach I eat, I’d be golden. The meat thing is both for my health (the meat I most often eat is usually red meat or highly processed meat, neither of which is ideal) and for the environment’s health.
3. Continue to find ways I love to be active—and do them. How? When in one place for a while, find a Pilates studio and do that. When not, take dance classes, go for long walks, and do circuit training while I watch TV—but be active more regularly, all around.
4. Read constantly and widely. How? Read three books a month, at least one of which is not a novel. Keep tracking my reading, sharing my recommendations, and asking for friends’.
5. Actually get better at reading in Spanish. How? Read one article a week in Spanish and discuss it with a Spanish-speaking friend.
6. Try new things and be unafraid to fail at them. How? Part of the point of this is that I don’t yet have all the answers re: things that might interest me, but some to start with: making sourdough bread, getting better at salsa dancing, learning more pottery and ceramics, learning the piano, picking up a new language, making jam, rock climbing, and more.
Invest in my relationships and communities, even (or especially) when I’m on the road.
1. Continue to grow with Diego. How? Keep the magic and romance alive while we’re traveling with surprises and generosity. Work on stretching my patience for the things we always clash over: money, controlling situations, family ideals. Give him my time and support as he grows his business.
2. Be a good sister and a good daughter. How? Love and accept my family. Call often. Be generous with time, forgiveness, and money. Spend a week+ with my family at least once in 2020.
3. Stay in touch with my friends and show them love. How? Prioritize the money and time to show up at their weddings. Call regularly—catch up with at least one person at length each week. See friends in person and invite them to come to me when I’m in one place for a while. Acknowledge that regularity does not make a friendship, but that depth of connection does, and prioritize maintaining that.
Good Luck & Godspeed
I feel good about these goals. Some will be stretches to achieve, and others will only require that I continue on the paths I’m already on. I learned this year that goalsetting works best when it’s approached with aspiration and determination and not revisionist angst, self-hate, or comparison. It’s not about rewriting who I am, where I am, or how I interact with the world. It’s about refining those things. About supporting them better. And about being more intentional about where I invest my time. I can’t wait to begin.
See you in the new decade, friends.
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