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2020 Goals


The start of a new decade has rolled in, and with it new chances, changes, and promises. There have been many goals over the years or ‘resolutions’ that I have told myself I was going to stick to, but if I’m being honest, I barely kept any of them.

However, I did accomplish two of my biggest goals last year in 2019: I graduated from college (YAY!!) and I published my first book (EVEN BIGGER YAY!). Those two goals were a trial in and of themselves to get through. College is nothing easy, and I commend everyone who has gotten through the grueling years of college. As an English major, everyone kind of expected me to teach or something along those lines. They also thought English was an easy and cheap major.

First of all, I’m dying laughing at people who think English is easy. They’re also usually the people who don’t know the difference between there, their, and they’re. And they probably think English was derived from only one ancient language (I cracked myself up with this one, y’all). Anyways, English isn’t as easy as people think it is, and because of that, getting an English degree is not only something I’m really proud of accomplishing, it is something I know I worked hard to get.

Second of all, I’m not cut out for teaching. Unlike my sister and other family members who are natural born teachers with patience levels of saints, I am an awkward, blunt, and emotional person with the patience level the size of a teaspoon. Don’t get me wrong, I commend teachers for the work they do, but it isn’t me. The best I could do is tutor some people. I always knew that wasn’t the path I was meant to go down, and I did not for one second entertain the possibility of choosing something I knew wasn’t for me.

And with my book, you already know how long it took for me to get it out, as explained in a previous blog post (here’s the link to that post: https://hayleefowler4.wixsite.com/website/single-post/2019/12/16/Choosing-a-Path). It was a long time coming. I’ve been telling myself I’ll have something published since 2015, and now we’re finally here. I’m so proud of myself, and I haven’t actually processed how cool it is that I am a published author. Thinking about it makes me really giddy. I’m proud of myself for being able to get the book finished and published last year.

Last year held a lot of great memories, trips, adventures, accomplishments, and hardships. But it was a good year. So now, I’ve set my sights on even bigger goals that I want to accomplish in 2020.

I want this year to be a year of success and learning. And I will do everything in my power to make it be such a year. If anyone has ever heard of Masterclass, awesome. If not, go look it up. It’s a wonderful program and I’m looking forward to how much I’m going to be learning and already learning. I also have books on my shelf that are dying to be read, movies to watch for research (mostly for research), ideas to hash out, projects to finish, and on and on. Maybe it’s a lot to hash out, but if I really put my mind to it, I think I can accomplish what I want to this year.

My biggest opposition: procrastination. My biggest note to myself for the new year: stop procrastinating.

People always try to say “new year, new me” or make all these huge promises to themselves that they have no intention of keeping, but it makes them look good for the time being. I am NOT a “new year, new me” type of person. I usually keep most of my resolutions to myself so when I don’t do them, well hey, the only one who knows is me. But what I am doing different this year is I am setting five big goals that are well within my capabilities of accomplishing. They have little steps to make it up to the goal, but if I am determined enough, I can very well get it done.

Here are my top 5 goals that I want to do this year:

  1. Find an agent to represent my fiction novels (doesn’t matter how many times I’m told no)

  2. Publish the 2nd part to my study guide, as well as have my fiction book in the process of being published

  3. Be more active on my blog and update regularly

  4. Read at least 15 books this year

  5. Be more positive and confident about myself and my work (I’ve been too cynical for too long)

Some of these may seem outlandish, and some of these seem simple. But let me tell you, they are all goals I will be struggling to achieve throughout the year. They’re all founded on the basis of my goal to be an author. Normal stuff, right?

Well, no.

These are going to be very hard goals for me to keep to. This means I have to stay focused, determined, not procrastinate (bane of my existence), and stick to a plan. Every day is going to be busy. Between working, going to Jiu Jitsu and kickboxing – yes, coaches, I’m still coming – to having a second job, and writing on the side, I will have to be very mindful of my time. I’m not going to try to kid myself by building a top 20 list of things I want to do in 2020, because at the end of the year when maybe 7 of those are checked off, I don’t want to feel like a failure or be sad because I didn’t do what I thought I could.

I’ll keep it to these 5. Anything extra that comes out of this year? AWESOME. Another success. If I add more to this list to keep to myself? None of you will ever know.

From now on, each year I will try to make goals that are hard to achieve, but also very possible if I don’t give up. I can’t sit by and wait for things to happen, so I must challenge myself if I want my dreams to become a reality. So this is my challenge to you as well: make a list (small or big) of things you know are going to be difficult, but know you can accomplish within a year. Don’t make an impossible list or things that you want to do but would be impossible for you to do this year: ex.: you want to go to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics but only have $8,000 to your name. DON’T DO THAT.

Maybe just think of five things you know you want to accomplish. They could relate to work, personal goals, career choices, health, etc. But make that list and have a plan of how you’re going to stick with it. And then do it. They aren’t going to be done by March. These are results you’ll be seeing in October – December. It’s still within the same year. The best things just take more time to complete. It’s worth the wait, and it’s worth the effort.

Let’s all do our best to make 2020 a year of new accomplishments and overwhelming success.

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