January 1, 2021 · 7:01 am

21 for 2021 List and Balance

The last few years I have been doing a one-word focus for the year. 2020 was Improvement. 2019 was Organize. 2018 was Create.

This year I’m going to try something different. Gretchen Rubin published an article about making a 21 for 2021 list and I thought I’d give it a try. Initially I had difficulty since all my goals were work-related. I don’t want to be working ALL THE TIME, even as we continue in our quarantine, I thought I needed some balance. 

So in 2021 the one-word focus for me will be Balance. I divided the 21 goals into home improvements, creature comforts, spirituality, family, career, financial security, and physical/health. I also ordered a habit tracker calendar from Amazon to help me stay on track when the days all run together.  So here are my goals:

Home Improvements

  • Paint the outside front of the house
  • Buy the lot next door
  • Maintain a clean living environment (not as easy as it sounds).

Creature Comforts

  • Buy new pajamas and fluffy slipper socks sets (for continued quarantine)
  • Read 12 books I love
  • Take the time for foot treatments for cracked heels

Spirituality

  • Express daily gratitude
  • Take time to enjoy the moments in nature
  • Garden

Family

  • Help my son work towards adulthood by getting passport/bank accounts
  • Give love and attention to the animals daily
  • Maintain the good health of all family members

Career

  • Finish writing 3 books
  • Complete 2 Udemy courses
  • Work towards creating a new blog for ESL teachers

Financial Security

  • One full-year online writing job
  • One part-year online job 
  • One full-year online teaching job

Physical/Health

  • Use the stationary bike every day
  • Take a minimum of 3 dog walks every day
  • Maintain vitamin/medication regime

I’m hoping that in 2021, the old adage we used to say about March in Pennsylvania holds true “in like a lion and out like a lamb” when it comes to COVID. Even so, I tried to make goals that can be done while socially distancing. There’ll be time enough for travel and other activities after, I hope.

What do you have planned for 2021?

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December 31, 2020 · 10:12 am

2020 Improvement Results

Well, we’ve made it to the end of 2020 and what a year it’s been! While it didn’t turn out quite how anyone was expecting, I did manage to meet some of my beginning of the year goals. This year I picked a sort of lame word for my focus “Improvement.” I’m calling it lame because I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d accomplish but as long as I “improved” I’d hit the target. I thought I’d work on 5 sections of improving my life. 

  • Work: career and finance
  • Health: physical and mental health
  • Learning: personal development
  • Social: relationships with others
  • Home Environment: living conditions

Work

  • 2020 #1: Find two new sources of short term income.
    • Ultimate Bundles Herb Book
    • OE curriculum writing
  • 2020 #2: Find one long-term income source.
    • 2-3 articles per week for a website that focuses on the elderly 

Health

  • 2020 goal #1: Lose 20 pounds by December 2020. 
    • HAHAHAHA!
  • 2020 goal #2: Engage in 30 minutes of physical activity daily. 
    • Mostly met.
    • I did get a stationary bike for more indoor movement and yet another dog for more outside movement. 

Learning

Social

  • 2020 goal #1: Make one trip to the U.S.
    • Pandemic meant no travel
  • 2020 goal #2: Make one trip in Mexico. 
    • Duh, Pandemic again!

Home Environment

  • 2020 goal #1: Finish the back porch.
    • About ½ finished
  • 2020 goal #2: Finish the front of the house.
    • Progress but not finished

So, as you can see, some aspects improved more than others. I managed to crank out 5 new books and 3 paperback versions for previously published ones, which was way more than I expected. Therefore, I’m not going to fret about what didn’t get done. It was a stressful year, wouldn’t you agree? How did your goals go?

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December 28, 2020 · 6:28 am

The History of Moroleon for Kids in Paperback and Other End-of-year Improvements

The History of Moroleon for Kids is finally available in coloring book format! It took forever and a day because I had such a hard time formatting it. However, that long editing process resulted in uncovering more information about Moroleon, Guanajuato and the inclusion of some activities in addition to the coloring pages. 

There’s a delay between when I publish a book and when it’s available to be shipped to Mexico, so I haven’t received my proof copies yet. That makes me a bit nervous to announce its availability since I haven’t seen the final version, but online anyway, the book looks fine. 

In other news, I’ve redone Surviving Mexico’s home page. If you haven’t taken a look at it lately because you get your update from me delivered directly to your inbox, you should! I’ve tried to make the site easier to navigate with the dropdown menus but I’m sure I’ll probably keep tweaking things as I go along since there’s a learning curve to all this technical stuff. 

I’ve added an About the Author page with an interview with me! The About Our Lives page now has the video my son made a few years ago about La Yacata. That was fun to rewatch.

Anyway, these items were the last of my yearly Improvements. Stay tuned for a recap of how my 2020 goals panned out (or didn’t).

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