Well, well, well. Here we are! A new year. A new decade. It’s exciting, isn’t it? How are you feeling going into the new year? Are you making resolutions, setting intentions, stating affirmations? How do you move from one year to the next?

I rarely set goals for January 1st. Instead, I set goals around my birthday and/or the academic school year. These dates make a bit more sense for me. That said, I seem to be setting (and revising) goals fairly constantly, especially when I’m feeling a little disorganized in certain areas of my life.

I’m looking forward to 2020. Here are 20 things (in no particular order) that I do hope to do, see, think about, read, explore, and experience in 2020. I guess these are goals of sorts!

1.Complete the challenges that my family and friends set for me for my 40th birthday. They keep adding more, so the list seems to be never ending.

2. Travel. Travel is always on my must-do list. I have a few trip ideas in mind for 2020, but I don’t have anything booked. I’m on constant flight watch though, so when the price is right, I’ll book!

3. Learn more about the Waterloo region. The more that I read about this region, the more excited I get about it. There’s history at every corner, and I find it fascinating. I think I’ll keep a look out for walking tours in the warmer months.

4. Experience more art. I feel like my life is pretty art-filled as it is, but I want to see and learn more. I want to attend more shows anywhere and everywhere that I may be.

5. Play more board games. Has anyone else out there noticed an increase in people “our age” playing more board games and card games? I played euchre and Sequence over the holiday, and now I just want to keep playing.

6. Master my mom’s signature cake. My mom bakes a marble cake that is a crowd favourite. I think I have only made it once in my life. I think this might be the year that I try to master it.

7. Wear more dresses. I mean, I already wear a lot of dresses, but I want to wear more. I will continue to add little black dresses into my wardrobe (they’re too hard to resist), but I’m going to be on the lookout for unique prints and shapes.

8. Consider adding more colour to my wardrobe. This is still a “consideration” point. I’m not going to commit to adding colour to my wardrobe because I’m not sure if I want to. Wearing black and white just about every day is really easy. And I like easy.

9. Save money. Who doesn’t add this to their ongoing list of goals? Do I have strategies for this? Sort of. I need to do more. One thing I know I can/should do is spend less on unnecessary things like random kitchen gadgets that I don’t need and Starbucks. Oh, Starbucks. Saving money will help me with #10.

10. Plan a major bathroom reno. Okay. This still might be a plan and I don’t yet know if I can bring it to fruition, but I really hate my big bathroom with its ridiculous jacuzzi tub. I know I’ve been saying it for years, but this may just be the year that I tackle the project. It would be so satisfying to rip out the old fixtures.

11. Eat more vegetables. I was on a salad-for-lunch kick for a long while (mostly in the warmer months), and I need to get this routine back into my life because if I eat at least one salad a day, I will feel like I’m eating a lot of vegetables. I don’t eat enough vegetables.

12. Buy more fun socks. I came back from Japan with many (many) pairs of fun Japanese socks. I know I’m supposed to be saving money (#9), but maybe I can make an exception for fun socks that make me smile.

13. Connect people. I’m going to continue to try to connect people when I can. This could be for business, for relationships, or for friendships. If I think two people I know might get a long, I’m going to connect them.

14. Clean closets regularly. I think I have been pretty good at clearing out unwanted items from my closets regularly, but there’s room for improvement. I keep (hoard?) too much for “just in case” purposes. I have a much-too-large collection of ribbons, for example, and the pile never seems to go down. Don’t even ask me how many empty boxes I have. It’s embarrassing.

15. Trust my gut. I’m reminding myself to trust my gut more in 2020.

16. Get a facial. Maybe one. Maybe more. I have only had a facial once in my life. I feel like I need to give another one a try. I think I would enjoy it. I think my skin would, too.

17. Embrace soup. I rarely eat soup. I think I need to eat more of it. Maybe I should make batches of vegetable soup more often (to tackle #11, too).

18. Clean up my shoes. I have so many shoes. Not too many, but so many. I have them stacked at my office at work, and they are nearly in every closet in my home. And my small foyer is overwhelmed by them. I need to keep them tidy, and I think I should polish them more often while I’m at it.

19. Pass on my magazines. I have a few magazine subscriptions, and I tend to keep issues long after I have read them. Why? Not sure. I rarely go back to read them. I think 2020 is the year that I keep passing them on for others to enjoy.

20. Have fun. Life is short, right? I will continue to have fun and do things that make me happy.

I wish you all a healthy, happy, and productive 2020!