We are officially 4 days into the new year (at least according to the Gregorian calendar)! This means many people have started setting their 2021 goals and/or resolutions. Read on to find out a few of my goals this year and how I’m planning on achieving them. Happy New Year!

I love goal setting. I know I might be alone in this, especially this year, but goals are some of the best tools of reflection for me. At the end of the year, I celebrate goals I hit and consider the reasons why I maybe didn’t reach the other ones. Sometimes my priorities change as the year progresses. That’s completely okay. Sometimes I realize the reason I set the goal was out of fear or insecurity and I addressed the root cause of that and realized it wasn’t actually about the goal in the first place. I also celebrate that growth. For the past two years, I’ve intentionally kept my annual goals pretty broad. While I briefly considered not setting any goals or resolutions for 2021, I ultimately couldn’t fight my North Leadership Compass tendencies. Here are my major goals for the year, organized into categories, of course:

Personal

If 2020 reminded me of anything, it’s the importance of the people we choose to keep close to us. One of my hopes for 2021 is that I nurture the relationships around me more, especially as it relates to my family. I plan on doing that by:

• Calling Grandma once a week. I occasionally call my grandma, but I want to start being more consistent about it this year. She cannot see very well, so calling is the best way to reach her.
• Texting parents once a week. My parents are busier than my grandma and are decent at texting, so that’s why I chose this mechanism. We typically Zoom (they don’t have iPhones) about once a month for 2-3 hours each time. This in combination with more frequent text updates during the week should work for us.
• Continuing to check in and catch up with friends. It’s hard being a good friend in the middle of a pandemic. There were times last year where I probably wasn’t as present as I could’ve been. Even though I wasn’t blatantly blowing anyone off to be rude, I definitely prioritized work a little too much. What this will actually look like, I’m not 100% sure, but I wanted to make sure I had my friends on this list too.

Another thing 2020 inspired me to do is to find a way to be more present each day. With so much time spent at home, the days tended to blend together. I had a difficult time distinguishing days unless something significant happened. To combat this, I plan on:

• Journaling at the end of every day. I know some people are already really good at this, but I’ve historically been more of an emotional journal-er. Which means my journal entries are typically only written when I’m feeling frustrated, really happy, sad, or stuck. My hope is that I can look back at my daily journal entries from this year and remember more of the small details of 2021.

Health

I’m about to turn 26 at the end of January. Even though I know I’m still quite young, it’s been making me think a lot about the person I want to be when I’m 30. And one of those things is physically healthy. There are a lot of things I still want to do, and I need to be healthy in order to do them. Health looks different for everyone, so the following are simply what I know works for me and my body:

• Drink 120 oz. of water a day. There are many well-known benefits of drinking more water, but it’s something I’d never intentionally tried to do. So I’m hoping to change that.
• Be more mindful of what I’m putting in my body. When I’m at home, I typically eat pretty healthy. But my main issue relates to portions because, well — I simply love eating. I’m going to try the 21 Day Fix portion plan and follow the recommended container amounts for my body in the month of January. Depending on how it goes, I may or may not choose to continue the rest of the year. I’ve already done it for a few days and I will say that it has encouraged me to eat more veggies. As a word of caution: I never struggled with disordered eating, so this method may be triggering if you have. Definitely consider what works best for you!

Movement

• Continue exercising 4-5 times a week. Lately, I’ve been trying to exercise 7 days a week. 2 of those days are usually “lighter” workouts such as yoga, pilates, or barre and the rest are cardio or weights. Moving into the school year, however, I recognize that 7 days is a little ambitious, so I’m providing myself some wiggle room.
• Walk for 30 minutes every day. I recently purchased a small treadmill and I’m so excited for it to arrive. I don’t live in a neighborhood conducive to leisure walking, and with COVID I really don’t like walking with a mask on and trying to avoid people. While I do workout, I’m just not getting as many steps in as I used to, hence the treadmill purchase.

Professional & Academic

Honestly, my main goal within this category is to just make it through the next semester with slightly better planning, organization, and (hopefully) energy than Fall 2020. But there are a few other goals that I’m pretty passionate about achieving in addition to this:

• Finish Project Management certificate course on Coursera. If you read my last blog post you’ll know I started this at the beginning of Winter Break. I’m hoping to make it through before I get charged for another month of the membership.
• Start academic journaling. I’m hoping to start weekly academic journaling as a means of reflecting on what I’m learning. The hope is that it will help me process everything and lead to more realizations and direction as it relates to my research, academic interests, and goals. One of my professors last semester recommended it but I never actually did it because I barely journaled personally, but I’m hoping to change that as well (see goal in “Personal” section).

Language

• Improve my Mandarin. I’ve already booked 5 private lessons via TakeLessons.com, and my first session is on January 15th! I’m a little nervous, but my tutor seems really cool and willing to meet me where I’m at.
• Study Spanish. This has been a longstanding goal of mine, but I’m hoping that my Mandarin lessons will help start using the LOTE (Language Other than English) part of my brain more and thus encourage me to get more serious about Spanish. I’ve studied it in the past and am really used to hearing it, but I need to actually practice consistently. My current goal is to be able and have basic conversations with people in Spanish.

#YearOf52

• Read 52 books (for leisure) this year. I’ve always loved reading and can read decently quickly. But being in school and doing a lot of academic reading really led me to fall off from reading for fun. Oddly enough, my PhD program has actually led me to want to read outside of class more. The more you read, the more you realize you don’t know, and if you’re like me, the more you then want to learn. 🙂

Social Media + Blog

Creating a public Instagram and a website/blog was a big deal for me because I’ve historically been pretty private about what I’m doing. But I’ve been having a great time meeting everyone and connecting with folks all over the world, so my hope is to put a little more energy into both of these platforms in 2021.

• Post 1-2 times a week on IG. I was pretty good about this before my semester started, and then I got pretty trash at it. While my priority will always be making sure that responsibilities in my “real” life are taken care of, I want to be more intentional about content creation because I do really enjoy it.
• 1-2 blog posts a month. I love non-academic writing, and this blog is a way for me to do it. I did not make any blog posts in my first semester of grad school at all, so my hope is that I can post a few a month in the Spring semester and be more consistent. Plus, I’m paying to have this website up so I might as well utilize it!
• Host a giveaway. I’m not really sure what this will look like or when I plan on doing it, but I want to give back to you all. For some reason, you’ve decided to follow me and I really appreciate that. I never thought 500+ people would decide to hit the follow button, but it’s honestly still incredible to me.

Uncategorized

This list is less of a goal list and more a dump of stuff I may or may not decide I want to do in 2021. If I do decide to pursue any of these more seriously then I’ll re-work them to fit more of a goal format:

• Get another tattoo(?). My parents would be horrified if they read this. But it’s been a minute and I want to add to the rose one on my shoulder.
• Buy a car (?). This will significantly depend on what Fall 2021 looks like in terms of the semester. I’ve been driving for 10 years now, but never had a car of my own. It’s typically not really necessary in Boston, but COVID has made me rethink the way I get around. If I have to be back on campus in the Fall, then I’ll probably get a car.
• Save money. My goal is to have a certain amount of money in my checking and savings account combined by the end of 2021. I don’t want to disclose the exact number just to be mindful about different views on discussing money, but for a vague idea it’s $xx,000.

More Vague

• Be more patient with myself and avoid comparing myself to others. I’m feeling a lot of age pressure again and it’s resulted in me comparing myself more to other people who are my age or younger and worrying about whether or not I’m doing enough. I’m going to try and release this tendency and embrace where I am.
• Do something that (mildly) scares me. In 2019 that was applying to PhD programs and in 2020 that was applying to speak at my first solo conference appearance. I’m not sure what it will be this year, but we’ll find out soon enough!

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That’s pretty much it for my goals this year. There are a few I left out because I’m also a believer in keeping some things to yourself and making moves in private, but ya’ll got to hear most of them. As a final note, while I did set goals this year, I’m also letting 2021 be a year of reflection, processing, and healing. I will be okay if I don’t accomplish all my goals this year. If you set 2021 goals, I’d love to know what they are. If you didn’t, let me know who you chose to abstain. Either way, wishing you the best in the new year. Talk to you in the next one!

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If you have feedback on anything I said, or the way I said it, please let me know. I am still learning and growing. I know that even if I had no intention of being hurtful or harmful in my writing, the impact might be different.