Checking In On My 2019 Resolutions
Things Didn’t Go As I’d Planned but I’m Happy With the Results

Every year, before I announce my New Year’s resolutions, I like to revisit the resolutions I made at the beginning of the year and see how I did. You can read my 2019 Resolution post HERE. You can read below to see how I did on meeting my goals.
- Finish my writing projects. This goal puts me in the mind of the motto of House Dooley: “Work is never done.” I did a lot of writing, mostly revising my book, blogging, legal decisions. So many words. Nothing is really finished though, and I’m okay with it. Writing is a process, and if a writer stops writing, it’s like a shark that stops swimming. It means they’re dead.
- One sewing project per month. No idea if I accomplished this. I made a blouse, a couple of pillowcases, some coasters, a dress, and a few purses. I’m not sure why I insist on turning every hobby into a life enrichment goal. The point of my hobbies is to enjoy them, and I enjoy sewing. I’ll do it whether it’s a goal or not.
- Read a book for 10 minutes each day. I tried to track this and failed miserably. I don’t read in 10-minute spurts. I read in fits and starts, devouring a whole book quickly and then reading only my phone for several weeks. According to my journal, I read the following in 2019: Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James; The Wife, Meg Wolitzer; The Library Book, Susan Orleans; Zero Waste Home, Bea Johnson; Wishcraft, Barbara Sher; How to Write a Business Plan, NOLO Press; Citizen, Claudia Rankine; Dreyer’s English, Benjamin Dreyer; The Grown-Up’s Guide to Teenage Humans; The Cost of Living, Deborah Levy; The Power, Naomi Anderson; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John LeCarre; My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh; The Seas, Samantha Hunt; The Perfect Spy, John LeCarre; Fleischman Is In Trouble, Taffy Brodesser-Akner. That seems like a more-than-adequate amount of reading.
- Break up with my phone. This didn’t happen. AT ALL.
- Reduce drinking. I think this happened but I didn’t end up tracking it so I’m not really sure.
- Drive my car less frequently. Again, this may or may not have happened but I can tell you that tracking your mileage every day is a huge pain in the ass, and it’s easier to just keep my bike near the garage door so I don’t have to hunt it down every time I decide to ride it.
- Add back 2 days of exercise each week. I did pretty well with this one, but two days a week is a low bar. I was pretty consistently active this year.
- Gonna push harder on spousal dates this year. We didn’t go on as many dates as I hoped in 2019, but we did go away together for ten days to Italy, and that made up for a lot of missed time together. I just hate how life gets in the way of the people we love.
Here’s my takeaway from 2019. I didn’t meet my goals, but also, I did meet my goals. Maybe the resolutions are the problem, not the solution. They put too much pressure on achieving an outcome, and do very little to enrich my life. I’m processing this as I decide what my 2020 resolutions are going to be.