Top Ten Tuesday - Goals, Goals Goals

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature over at the Broke & The Bookish. Feel free to join in.

With tomorrow being New Year's Eve and Thursday bringing in 2015, this week's topic is about goals for the new year. Reading goals. Blogging goals. Personal goals. What ever type of goals. In fact this past weekend at my Mary Kay event, my director had us write obstacles and challenges we've faced on one side of a board (actual wooden piece about 2 inches thick) and on the other side we wrote our goals. Then we break the boards with a nice big karate chop.  It really is a lot of fun and the first year I did it, I didn't think I could. But now I KNOW I can, and I always break it on the first try now.

The action shot of me chopping my board!

Over the years, I've found out that I'm not one to make New Year's Resolutions, because by the second week in January, I've broken them. But I like goals. Goals are something I can work towards. Maybe it's my Mary Kay training where we learn to make goal posters and track goals, but I find that for me at least, a goal is easier to reach than a resolution.

So here are my top ten, or rather five, goals for the new year. It's a combination of books, blogging, and personal.

1. I have a goal set to read 175 books this year. I'm pretty sure I can reach it thanks to the wonderful Goodreads challenge tracker. This past year, I set a goal of reading 140 books. As of the time that this was posted, I've read 166 books. Those are the ones that I remembered to mark that I'd read them. Here are all of the ones I read this year, officially. I'm thinking this year, I'll display them here on the blog's sidebar.

2014 Reading Challenge

Dawn has completed her goal of reading 140 books in 2014!

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166 of 140 (100%)

view books

2. For my blogging, I have a goal of only posting book reviews M-F, unless the publisher has a specific date that the book needs to be posted and it falls on a weekend. I want to save the weekends for blog posts about life, the universe, and everything. ;) Seriously, I'd like to keep the weekends free for anything that is not book related.

3. I have a goal of doing one giveaway every 3 months, because I'm horrible at remembering to mail out the packages. So for instance, a giveaway in January, one in April, one in July, and one in October. I think I can remember that.

4. The biggest goal I have in my personal life right now is regarding my job. I need something that will allow me to really stay focused on paying down my student loans while still providing for my needs. I'd LOVE to be able to drop between $2,000 and $3,000 a month onto my student loan and have it paid off (and then I'd be completely debt free) within two years. But to do that, I need a better job.

5.  I have a goal of earning my red jacket. I've actually got my eyes on moving into directorship. But this is my first step. All it takes for me to earn this is for me to have three active recruits. I'd love to share my story with you about what caused me to join Mary Kay and why I stay in it. Because this is a company that is about so much more than just lipstick. Sure we are a cosmetic and skin care company. In fact, you can look at my website to see our products. But it really is about so much more. And I'd love to share it with you. If you want to know more, then leave a comment on this post just saying "I want to know to know more about Mary Kay" and an email address where I can reach you.

At Seminar July 2014 "borrowing" a sister consultant's red jacket so I could see myself in it.

I'm sure that there are other goals I could set. But these are the ones that are the most important to me. 

What are some of your goals for the coming year?