Well, 2021 is officially over. We’ve entered 2022, and I’d like to please ask everyone to keep their hands to themselves for at least the first month. Be polite to each other, nod hello, wear the mask, wash your hands, practice social distancing, and possibly this year may go ‘better’ than the previous two years.

While I may not have stayed off social media as much as I should have the past month or so—I am trying to still stay away from mainstream media (to help control my stress/anxiety levels). Though, 2021 could have ended nicer—I mean really Betty White??

We’re now about two months shy of starting year three of the pandemic (things in the US started to close down roughly mid-March 2020), and I’m hoping that people will be kind and considerate of their family and friends and get the damn shot for themselves and their children. In terms of the total number of cases of the virus within the US, when I published ‘November in Review’, I noted that were a little over 49.4 million cases and as of midnight—we had reached almost 55.7 million cases (an increase of 6.8 million cases during the month of December). The numbers are going up—mainly because the omicron variant is more contagious than the delta (or other) variants, and not as main adults are getting their shots (or possibly booster shots).

I’m hoping that the clinical trials for the younger children (under the age of five) has as good of results as the other children clinical trials and those shots are available come summertime. The only way this pandemic is going to get under control is vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate, and also listening to those who have decades of experience working with infectious diseases.

Again, I didn’t get as much work done in regards to the blog/website during the month of December—and I will totally blame it on the games that I’d downloaded on my kindle over the past few months (though they’ve both been ‘removed’). I’m aiming to make the transition to a remote medical/science writer this year, update/organize/rebrand the blog/website, and create a part-time freelance business by the end of the year (with the goal of it becoming full-time within the next two to five years).

But before looking too far into 2022, I need to look back at the goals I set for December of 2021 and see how I did with each of them.

The goals for December included:

1. 130-155,000 steps
2. Continuing with my second round of morning meltdown 100
3. Setting up my ‘master’ plan/outline for 2022-2025
4. Read at least one non-fiction book
5. Read two to three fiction books (and possibly have small book reviews written adn published on the blog and other sites)
6. No spend days/no spend weeks/limited spending month
7. Time outdoors, meditation/sitting quietly, and daily gratitude journal entries
8. Craft time (finish the fourth cross-stitch project)
9. Work through at least one module of a personal/professional development course

So how did I do with each of them?

1. In terms of 130-155,000 steps, I managed to meet and surpass the goal with a total of 170,166 steps. There were several walks at Boomer Lake and a couple of walks with Chaos through the neighborhood.
2. In terms of continuing my second round of morning meltdown 100–I’ll be restarting it at the beginning of the year, and probably following it four to five days a week (so it will possibly stretch a little longer than just 100 days). I wasn’t up to pushing play all that often during December.
3. In terms of setting up a master plan/outline for 2022-2025; I have a ‘master habit tracking journal for 2022 mostly set up (I just need to put in the boxes for almost every page for April-December). Since I’ve decided to go int eh direction of remote/contract/freelance writing and blogging I know that there are several things that I need to focus on this year for that to occur and I’m slowly working on that plan/outline (probably will be its own post within the next two weeks or so0
4. In terms of reading at least one non-fiction book–I only read fiction books during December.
5. In terms of reading two to three fiction books–I read the following:
   • My Bad Decisions (On My Own #4) by Carrie Ann Ryan (this is the only one that I wrote a review on last month)
   • Billionaire Unnoticed–Cooper (The Billionaire’s Obsession #17) by J.S. Scott
   • State of Grace (A First Family #2) by Marie Force
   • Snow Dragon (Dragon Knights #16) and Gatekeeper (Dragon Knights #17) by Bianca D’Arc
6. In terms of my no spend days/no spend weeks/limited-spending month–I did better towards the end of the month (especially after removing a couple of games from the kindle), but still spent more that I should have. I’ll be ‘restarting’ the challenge again come January–so this will be a monthly goal for several more years to come.
7. In terms of my ‘mindfulness’ activities (time outdoors, meditation/sitting quietly, and daily gratitude journal entries) the only one that I was consistent with was being outdoors (even if it was only 10-15 minutes at night with the dogs). I’m going to try to get back into the habit of meditating at night and doing a daily gratitude journal entry.
8. In terms of craft time–I did a few color by number pictures, some photography, but did not finish the fourth cross-stitch project. I think that currently I’m going to stick to abstract/fantasy things and not try to landscape images for awhile.
9. In terms of working through at least one module of a personal/professional development course–while I didn’t get any ‘modules’ completed during December, I did join another accountability group for working my way towards my transition to a remote writing position (one of the really pricy purchases in December).

I would say that I managed to complete a fifth of my December goals, and also made a little headway on aother two–so in total I managed two-fifths of the goals for December 2021.

Some goals only had minor progress throughout the year (limited spending challenge after January for one), while others were met on a somewhat consistent basis (step goal being within the range set)–but the important thing I didn’t just stop I continued going even if it was only little steps that might look like staying in place to others.

‘Pam’ managed to derail me this past month, but at the same time I was ‘willing’ to be derailed. The first week or so of 2022 will be spent creating various lists for things I want to get accomplished during 2022 (landing that remote writing position, reworking/branding the blog/website, and so forth). I’ve realized that one of my major problems has been trying to throw everything on a list and then struggle to get everything accomplished (or written) in say over the course of a month.

So the goals throughout 2022 are going to be similar to the goals that were set during 2021—mainly because striving for the same goals (especially once you achieve them consistently) makes them habits—and then one can start adding in ‘new’ goals.

Therefore the goals for January 2022 will include:

1. 130-155,000 steps; hoping to be able to get at least one walk in at Boomer Lake and hopefully at least one or two walks through the neighborhood with Chaos as well
2. Continue with a second round of Morning meltdown 100 (possibly on ly M-F)
3. Read at least one non-fiction book from my 2022 non-fiction BINGO card
4. Continue setting up my ‘master’ plan for 2022-2025 (and beyond)
5. Read two to four (if not more) fiction books and write mini-book reviews to be posted on the blog and other sites
6. Continue with the no spend days/no spend weeks/limited spending month
7. Daily mindfulness activities: time outdoors, meditation/sitting quietly, daily gratitgude journal enteries, and daily oracle drawings
8. Craft time
9. Continue working on updating the blog/website
10. Assignments for the diamond group
11. Work through at least one module of a personal/professional development course from my 2022 e-course BINGO card

I’m focusing on making 2022 the year of ‘changes’—landing that remote position, and getting other items check-off the list. ‘Pam’ may still try to derail me, but if I sit and chat once a month with her—maybe, just maybe we can come to a ‘truce’ on the balance between ‘doing nothing’ and ‘doing too much’.

Last year I chose the words growth, creativity, curiosity, happiness, and prosperity as my words of the year.

I’m going to be keeping those this year—mainly because creativity and curiosity are strengths, and growth is needed to ensure happiness and prosperity.

Part of the ‘master’ plan is to determine what my actual ‘definition’ of prosperity is—in other words, what will make me ‘happy and fulfilled’.

In addition I’m keeping the quotes: ‘progress over perfection’, ‘you can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one’ and ‘not caring what other people think is the best choice you will ever make’.

In terms of the last quote—I should state that is isn’t so much ‘not caring’ but ‘not giving’ preference to someone else’s opinion. I’m the only one who can live my life—therefore, I will give preference to my own opinion and needs over the opinions and wants of others.

Have you chosen any word, words, or phrases for 2022 yet? If so—what are they?