2024 Goals + Word of the Year Recap

It’s that time of year when we reflect on the year. What we accomplished, the things on our list we didn’t check off. I’m a goal-oriented person in general, motivated by checkmarks and gold stars. In the last month or so, there has been a shift in me that feels more… actionable? I can’t describe it, really, but I feel it. It’s like I’m more ready than ever to take the metaphorical bull by the horns and make things happen.

I’ve been deep in my 2025 planning, but before I share some of my plans and goals for the new year, let’s take a look at how I faired with my 2024 goals.

My 2024 Goals:

Prioritize my physical, mental, and spiritual health.

I broke this one into a few sub-goals:

Complete the Platinum Challenge at Pure Barre. 15 classes every month for 12 months. I managed 15 classes in January and October, and that’s it. I quickly realized that 15 classes a month was a difficult feat for me, given my work and teaching schedules. I made a goal of going to 12 classes a month instead and managed to do that 8 out of 12 months. The months I didn’t make it to 12 were months where I either traveled or had major work projects/events going on. I teach 3-5 classes on average most weeks, so I’m pleased with this overall.
Find a therapist. I did not do this. I started searching, got overwhelmed with all the options and all of the “not taking new patients” messages, and didn’t follow through.
Read my Bible and journal more. I feel pretty good about how I ended up with this one. I could have been more consistent, but I was better in 2024 than I was in 2023, so we’ll call this a win. I also added more quiet into my life – highly recommend driving in silence as well as going on walks without your phone.

Read 35 books.

Done! I read exactly 35 books. I tried to make it to 36, but didn’t quite manage it. I’ve prioritized reading over scrolling the last several weeks of 2024, and it’s made a big difference in a number of ways, not just with meeting my reading goal. I’ll continue this practice into 2025.

Publish 4 books.

I published my first novel, Off The Record, in January 2024, and it did better than I could have ever imagined. I sold 309 copies and counting! My goal was to sell 100 all time, so I am THRILLED with this. I was planning to publish a second book set in the NASCAR world, but the more I edited it, the less “right” it felt, so I shelved it to revisit it later as I still love the concept and moved on to my next project. I published a Christmas novella, Of Gingerbread and Snow Globes on Christmas Day in the middle of editing that project. While I didn’t publish four books, I DID write… several more. Yes, you read that right. 2025 is going to be a big publishing year… 👀

Follow me on Instagram to keep up with my career as an author!

Focus on community.

After moving so many times in the last few years (North Carolina to Los Angeles in 2021, Los Angeles to Nashville in 2022, Nashville to Knoxville in 2023…), I really wanted to build community in 2024. I started going to church, joined a small group for the spring semester, and really dug into my Pure Barre community, where some of us have formed a book club and a cooking club. I also feel like I started cultivating community on social media, as weird as that may sound in this day and age. I want to expand on all of these things in 2025.

Be mindful with my spending.

Ya girl needs to stay out of Target. That is all I can really say on that one. Try again in 2025?

Travel to two new places.

While I did get some traveling done, it was to places I’ve been – Los Angeles, Nashville, my hometown… 2025 for sure has some new travel opportunities on deck, however!

Try one new recipe a week.

I started off strong, but I didn’t stay strong. I’m a creature of habit, and I like to meal prep for the week ahead. Keeping it simple isn’t always a bad thing. I DID make a lot of new recipes throughout the year, however, so it wasn’t a total bust!

Duolingo.

I wanted to do a Duolingo Spanish lesson every day for the year – mission accomplished! It takes me less than five minutes, and it’s proven to be a great brain break while I’m in the office. I’m going to keep this up in 2025.

I’ll give myself a solid pat on the back for 2024. I didn’t achieve all my 2024 goals by any means, but I did make solid progress on all of them, even the ones I didn’t achieve. I’m pleased with my efforts and excited about the year ahead.

While we’re here, let’s talk about my Word of the Year for 2024, shall we? It was MOVE, as in move towards my goals and my best self. I didn’t always keep that word top of mind in 2024, but I feel like I truly did my best to MOVE in 2024. I published my first book and a novella, worked towards a number of my goals, and moved my body more than I did in 2023.

How did you fair with your 2024 goals? How about your 2024 word or phrase of the year? Let me know!