Looking back, looking ahead

I spent the week between Christmas and New Year’s thinking about what I’d like my resolutions to be. In the end, I realized that I wasn’t really thinking about making permanent changes, so much as goals that I hoped to achieve in the next six months. Which makes sense, because I just finished my fall Spanish classes, so I’m thinking more in terms of how my times gets filled each “semester”.

Last year, I only recall making one specific goal, to read fourteen books in Spanish. In the end, I only read eleven, but since I switched from youth books to adult books, I’m completely satisfied. It’s slow going to read Agatha Christie or the science of arsenic, but I have proven that I can do it, and enjoy it. I had implicit plans for traveling and being active, and also managed those.

• 7 Countries visited: Germany, US, Denmark, France (3 times), Sweden, Portugal, England
• 1450 km (900 miles) bicycled
• 2600 km (1600 miles) walked, which is a bit over 200 km per month.
• 32 books read: 11 in Spanish, 21 in English

I thought really carefully about how to make achievable, measurable goals for the first half of 2026. One is to complete the first semester of French (level A1 in Europe) by June. The other is to exercise every day, specifically: a bike ride, a long hike, or 8 minutes of weight lifting. That last option, my least favorite, is the key to success- several times, I have made it to dinnertime without doing any exercise, but I can still find 8 minutes before eating to achieve this goal. I also have a goal around making friends, but I have not quite managed to make it measurable yet. Tune in next year to find out how I did.

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Lo siento, hoy no hay una entrada en español.