Last year I went a little heavy on the goals because of this writing - it might as well have been titled ‘topics I will write about in 2025’ rather than goals for the year.

This year we’re back to what I usually do - just a handful of things I’d like to do over the next 12 calendar months:

Moving Forward With My Book: I don’t quite know what the end goal here is. I still have edits to work on - I haven’t opened the document in a bit but I’ve been thinking about it a lot and have some changes/additions/improvements I’d like to make - and I think I’ll be devoting probably the next month to all of that. After that, I’m not quite sure. End result: I don’t need to submit to agencies or self-publish to feel like I’ve accomplished this goal - as long as it’s not sitting stagnant I’ll feel like I moved forward in some way.

Posting On Instagram: I haven’t done a lot on any social media over the past year. That’s probably been somewhat healthy for me in the long run. This year I’d like to get back to posting regularly on Instagram, which I was pretty good with the first year or so of my new running Instagram. Unfortunately, here we are on the cusp of the new year and I have nothing clever to write about. (Tomorrow I should be able to get a good one in…after that I don’t know what I’ll do.) End result: Hopefully I can build back some non-bot followers (I guess I’ll try to track that as a little sign of growth) and not be sick of myself posting and maybe people will enjoy what I do and it will help motivate me.

Not Be Shy: Relatedly, I need to promote myself and what I’m doing more. That ‘sick of myself’ sentiment is how I get when I feel like I’m putting myself out there too much…and I have no idea if other people are sick of me or not. Like here - I did not do a good job of telling people about this all year. But when I did mention it people read it and liked it. (And I forgot to mention in Monday’s post about writing every day that I am very grateful to those of you who read and come back every day and help chase this ‘sick of myself’ feeling that I get. Knowing there’s an audience is part of what keeps me doing this, so thank you.) End result: Just be better about sharing what I’m doing. Maybe the follower count will be an indication of that.

All Genius: The end-of-year wraps got me thinking about the games I play and whether I can get a perfect score on one in the new year. Spelling Bee is my most likely candidate, so that’s what I’m going for. End result: 100% genius level on Spelling Bee in 2026. (So long as I don’t drop my subscription when the price goes up.)

Sub-2 Hour Half Marathon: This is the big goal, but I don’t think it’s unrealistic. Can I run 9-minute miles for 13 miles? I think I can. We’ll see how the training goes and whether this goal needs to be adjusted, but I think if I’m singularly focused on 13.1 instead of 26.2 it will make a difference. End result: Well, we’ll know in March after the NYC Half where I’m at. If it doesn’t happen then maybe that will dictate the rest of my running year. And will I be shattered if I don’t get it? No, but it’s a reasonable goal because a half marathon PR would have to beat 2:02 anyway - we might as well go for 1:59 or better.

Happy New Year. I hope 2026 is good to you.