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2012 Goals

I am super excited for 2012!  2011 was kind of a sucky year so I am looking forward to good things this year.  I have lots of goals for the blog and for books I plan to read.  I also have some personal goals for the year that I hope I will be able to achieve.

Goals for the Blog:

-Comment more-I get lazy and don't always comment on reviews I read nor do I usually reply to comments on my blog.  I feel really bad about this and want to try to comment more.
-Work on layout
-Technical Stuff-I really need to figure out how to create a button!  I also need to get some working knowledge of html and need to learn how reconfigure things so that when GFC goes away there won't be too many issues.
-Better Reviews-As I said on Friday, my reviews have been pretty crappy lately.  I plan to work on that this year.
-Hosting a giveaway-I have great followers and I really want to host a giveaway to show my appreciation.
-Get more comfortable with social media-A lot of blogs are tied to twitter and facebook pages so I need to explore this option.
-Include more personal posts-This is always going to be a book blog but I don't think it would hurt if I included some non book related posts.

Goals for Reading:

-I have signed up for 4 challenges (more info can be found here):
    -Historical Fiction challenge
    -Back to the Classics challenge
    -Support your Local Library challenge
    -TBR Pile Challenge
With these four challenges, I have committed to reading 63 books this year.  That's pretty doable.  I am not setting a reading goal for the year because I don't want the added pressure.
-Focus on reading books I already own -  There are currently 81 books on my shelf that I have not read.  I know that I won't be able to get through all of them this year as many are HUGE but I would like to make a significant dent in this pile.
-Read at least one non-fiction book a month-This won't be hard as several of the books I included in the TBR Pile Challenge are non-fiction and many of the books I own and haven't read are non-fiction.
-Read two books in Russian-My Russian language skills are in the toilet right now and I know that if I don't start working on them again, I will be in big trouble.  I have read the first two Harry Potter books in Russian so I will probably pick up the third.  I also own a Russian copy of Twilight so I might pick that up too.

Personal Goals:

-Run a 1/2 Marathon in April-I cannot believe I am actually putting this out there but I have wanted to run a 1/2 marathon for a long time.  I used to be an avid runner but have kind of tapered off in the past year.  I'm turning 29 in a few weeks and I guess I just want to do something cool before I turn 30.  I started training for one a few years ago but a bad case of the stomach flu knocked me off track and I never got back on it.  I am so scared that I won't be able to cut it but I have set up a training schedule that I plan to implement this week so wish me luck.
-Eat Better-I will be honest, I don't eat anywhere near enough fruits and veggies.  I would like to slowly add more of them into my diet this year.
-Set up some savings-We are moving to a bigger place this summer and moving is expensive!  I would like to have a fund set up so that the move isn't traumatic financially.  I got some major credit card debt paid off in 2011 so I think I should be able to save some money.
-Reevaluate my work situation-I changed jobs over the summer thinking I would be moving to a better position.  Despite the pay being better, my new job is suckier than the old one.  I really need to be thinking about what I want to do in regards to my career (or lack thereof).

So that's it.  I know a lot of these goals are ambitious and I may not achieve them but I will try.  What are your goals for 2012?


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