Looking ahead to the new year

Well, then.

I had many goals this year, but life took me away from horse goals for a time. I’m a smidge sad, because I’ve had moments this year of feeling like I’ve been treading water in my riding for far too long. At the same time, I’ve accomplished a lot in other parts of my life, and my #1 goal remains accomplished: keep Tristan happy and healthy.

Still, I very much want to make some changes in the new year. In several areas of my life. I’m taking the first week of January, as I often do, by myself to do some reflection and planning. I’ll color in the lines more that week.

What do I have down so far to work on in the new year?

1. Write more. I feel keenly that I have not been writing much in my life lately. It so often falls between the cracks as the easy thing to put off and not worry about. I feel like my writing skills are rusty and slow, which is not a way I ever anticipated feeling. In the new year, I’ll be writing more, in a couple of places. This blog, for one. On my own research projects, for another. I’m also considering implementing a daily writing practice with a prompt.

2. Log every ride. I did this successfully in 2020 and 2021 and then just…didn’t in 2022. I have zero good reason why. I liked the time for reflection, the tangible way of recording the good and the bad, all sorts of things. No excuses for 2023.

3. Morgan research. Longtime readers are likely sick of hearing about the project that I always talk about but never manage to really pursue. I’m getting back to it in 2023. Regular, steady progress. I’ll blog here about some of the things I’m working on and the status of the overall project.

I’ve taken steps in the last few weeks to make the many pieces of my life more organized, among them some new technology to make work easier – a little iPad Air with a keyboard, a new Kindle Fire, and a thorough reorganization of my Google Drive.

I’ve also got some financial goals, as always. Some decluttering goals. Some fitness goals. Some political goals. Some leadership goals. Some really, really hard thinking to do about some major parts of my life that aren’t working right now. Let’s just say there is a lot of navel-gazing in my future.

Anyone out there have some goals for the new year?