Back at the beginning of 2019, I decided to share with everyone some of my goals for the year. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, with posting my goals for everyone to see. But here’s how I did in 2019:
Fitness:
My goal for 2019 was to run/participate in one 5k every month.
I kind of met this goal and kind of didn’t.
I didn’t participate in one 5k every month however I did end up participating in 13 5ks in 2019. There were a couple of months where I didn’t complete any 5ks and a few months where I doubled up and completed more than one. I collected a lot of swag including 10 t-shirts, 8 medals, a zip-up hoodie sweatshirt, hot chocolate, and a donut.
Here are the races I ran:
- Valentine’s Day Dash 5k
- Hot Chocolate 5k
- PJ 5k
- St. Patrick’s Day Dash 5k
- Mimosa Me Crazy 5k
- Top Pot 5k
- The Color Run 5k
- Run Like a Viking 5k
- Christmas in July 5k
- Viking Dash Trail Run 5k
- Women of Wonder 5k
- Tacky Turkey Sweater 5k
- Jingle Bell Run 5k
It was so much fun picking out which races to run. I also enjoyed the reactions I would get from people when I told them my goal of participating in one 5k a month – some folks were impressed, some folks thought I was crazy. But it was still a lot of work and I learned a lot from completing 13 5ks in 2019.
Money:
My goal for 2019 was to pay off one credit card.
I met this goal and more – I managed to pay off 2 credit cards and now I only have 1 left. I am so close to being credit card debt-free! Then I’ll just have the rest of my student loans to tackle.
Paying off debt is difficult. Luckily, a couple of things happened that made this process a bit easier.
- I landed a new job that had a substantial pay increase. With the increased income, I am able to pay a lot more towards my balance. I can’t tell you how much of a weight is lifted. At my old income, I didn’t have a lot of extra money left over after everything that needed to be paid was paid to go towards paying off debt. Now I can put almost three times as much as what I was paying before towards my debt each month.
- When I left my old job, I was able to get a payout for my unused vacation. I had about 2 weeks of vacation so I got a check that was equal to about a full paycheck and I was able to put all that money towards my debt.
- I transferred all of my debt to a couple of zero interest credit cards. It was so frustrating to see so much of my payment go towards interest. It felt like I was just throwing money away and that it didn’t count. Now that my balance isn’t accruing any interest, all of my payment goes towards my balance which is super exciting.
So with these things, I was able to make a dent in my debt. I have a lot of plans for 2020 and what I’m going to do with my money once I finish paying off the credit cards.
Reading:
I didn’t have a reading goal in 2019 however I did read 52 books last year. I usually read about one book a week so this seems about right. There are so many books I want to read and I hate that I don’t have all the time to just do nothing but read. Check out my 2019 reading in review here.
Writing:
My goal for 2019 was to write a review of every book I read.
I just about completed this goal. I wrote a review for every single book I read this year except for one. The one book I missed was a book I read at the end of the year and I just did not have time to write anything about it before the year ended. But I still feel like I accomplished what I wanted to with this goal.
Writing a review for every book gave me something to aspire to. At first, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to think of anything new to write about for each book. I had envisioned all my reviews basically sounding the same. But I tried to find something specific to write about for each book. I am slowly learning new ways to say “I liked this book.”
And that’s a wrap-up of my 2019 goals.
Leave a Reply