Looking Back, Going Forward: Blogging Goals of 2019 and 2020

It’s been a big year.

Lots of ups and downs, lots of learning, lots of letting go. I have had some sincere heartbreaks and set backs, I have achieved things I didn’t think I ever would. I am tired, and hopeful and ready for the “fresh start” feeling of January, the post-Holidays quiet and the focus and energy that comes from feeling prepared and organized.

I am not a highly efficient person. I am easily distracted, impulsive, flighty but I’m hard working and well-intentioned. I have stopped trying to fight the impetuous creative energy that I have always had, and instead I am learning to channel it, how to dam and pool it, how to let it run free and how to manage my own expectations of perfection. I do things, especially meaningful and creative things, from a place of heart and soul; if I don’t feel connected to an idea or a project, it is sheer drudgery. This means that in order to get things done and stay on top things, I have to organize myself in such a way that I am not overwhelmed, and the admin duties of blogging and life become exciting challenges instead of just an endless to-do list.

Best Laid Plans

Goal setting is a big part of the whole blogging process for me. I am both a wide lens thinker as well as someone who is obsessive about details. I lack the interest/skills/bandwidth to manage the in between stuff, the mundane, the necessary. I delight in the minutiae and I love the big picture planning, but the everyday battle of the everyday stuff is where I lose focus and motivation. In order to stay on track, I kind of have to trick myself into getting excited about the repetitive and process oriented parts of blogging.

It’s lucky that sex blogging lends itself to a wide spectrum of experiences and inspirations. While the day to day paperwork and productivity of an NSFW blog is much the same as any other genre, it is a topic that I am endlessly fascinated by and I’m excited to let my sex blogger flag fly in 2020 and really give myself permission to dive a bit deeper and immerse myself in the sex-nerdery that is knocking around inside my head.

I am sharing this year’s goals (2019) and their results as well as new goals for 2020. In addition to goals (which are basically pass/fail – read more about my process and methodology here) I am committing to and sharing some new habits and ways of thinking as well. These may not be hard and fast goals but they are necessary changes and opportunities for awareness that will undoubtedly help me have a successful, fulfilling year of blogging.

2019 Goals – Review

Setting goals for 2019 was hard. It was really stressful and I waffled about sharing them. You can read the post from this year that details the methodology I use and my thought process around setting goals this way and remaining flexible with them. I’m happy to say that it was a very successful year:

• 18 goals
• 12 goals achieved
• 3 unmet goals
• 2 goals deferred to 2020
• 1 goal in process/unfinished

2020’s Goals

Setting goals for the new year was much easier this time around, in part because I was able to use the momentum from an overall successful year. A fellow blogger (I can’t remember who!) said on Twitter recently “Excellence, not Perfection” and that struck me deeply. I struggle SO much with perfectionism and neurosis around productivity and I fiddle with details and waste a load of time being worried about how good (or not) my work is. Having some wins already on the board definitely validated the need to set goals and think about how I want to spend my time and energy on the VF brand in 2020.

I’ve included goals for the upcoming year, below. Some are lofty, others are low hanging fruit. All of it seems possible, but as always, this is an exercise in more than achievement. By setting these goals, by committing them to this blog post and sharing them publicly, I’m creating accountability and opportunities to further process my ideas. Now that it’s out there for all to see, I have more skin in the game, so to speak. Pride can be a positive motivator, and that is the place I want to operate from: I am proud of what I have accomplished and what I believe I will in do the future. What I don’t want is for that pride to turn into fear; I don’t want to fuel creativity with the stress of potential failure. This balance can be hard, but practice makes excellence, (see what I did there?!) and setting up do-able goals and allowing myself to feel the full gamut of associated stress and emotions and working through them (vs suppressing them or avoiding them) is how I feel I will be most successful this year.

You Don’t Grow In Your Comfort Zone

Pushing myself means getting uncomfortable. It’s taken me nearly a week to write this post and I have debated not posting it and just quietly going about my business all year, but sharing goals helps define and solidify them. It also stimulates conversations and facilitates support and collaboration. If I can help you with your goals this year in any way, let me know! We can be uncomfortable with our goals together! I’d love to connect and know what you’re planning for 2020.