The Treasure I Hope to Find in 2019

I've been looking through my various end-of-year and beginning-of-year posts.  Should I be depressed at how my goals stay fairly similar through the years?

My spouse and I have both lost weight this year--having a kitchen ripped out and not replaced has helped us be very mindful of our eating.  We have often not snacked because it was so much effort to prepare a snack--and our meals have gotten simplified.

But this year, as with most years, I have needed to eat more fruits and veggies.  That goal remains the same.

My Fitbit has helped me too--with the calorie counting that I did through part of the year and with my efforts not to merge permanently with my desk chair.

I've been trying NOT to let this time of year be one of self-loathing and reproach.  I've met some goals, held onto some progress, while at the same time, having plenty of room for more progress.  I'm always happier when I end the year with weight loss than weight gain--but I will need to be very intentional to be successful at keeping these 12-15 pounds lost, not creeping back.

But more than that, I want to keep doing the things that will help me stay healthy as I head towards older age.  The months where I've been more successful at covering 10,000 steps each and every day have been months where I've felt less achy.  I would do better if I concentrated on 10,000 steps each and every day--but most months, I haven't done that.

I often think that I haven't sent out as many submissions as I have in the past, so this morning I counted up my submissions.  I've submitted a manuscript size work 3 times in the past year.  I've made 40 poetry packet submissions, and 22 fictions submissions.  I also wrote one piece by invitation, my piece on medieval female monastics for Gather magazine, which was published.

I've decided to keep my goals simple in terms of being easy to remember.  I want to make 100 submissions of creative work during 2019 and read 100 books.

My cataloging brain wants to know what will count as a book.  I will count chapbooks of poetry, but not long articles.  I will keep track of page numbers this year in case I want to pages read goal for 2020.

Likewise for submissions--if someone has asked me to write an article, I'll count that as a submission.

I'm making these goals because my reading lists for the past years have been similar.  Each year I read roughly 50 books.  I could do better.  Likewise, each year I make 50-75 submissions.  Long ago, I submitted more, and I got more acceptances.

I am ready for this year.  Yesterday, I made a sketch of my word for the year:

I like the word treasure as a verb even more than as a noun.  Let me remember to treasure all of this life that I have crafted.