Blogmas Day 29: Goals and Dreams

I'm not sure if I ever wrote here about my goal of reading 75 books this year.  It isn't something I'd ever considered before, but due to being on Goodreads, I couldn't help noticing the Reading Challenges that people set themselves on there.  And being who I am, I love setting goals and seeing my progress.

75 was kind of a random number, but I knew I wanted to read more than one book a week.  As it turns out, I didn't even manage that (my current count is 49 books so far this year).  However, I am not feeling bad about not reaching my goal.  For a start, it isn't anything important, just something I was doing for fun.  And secondly, I had no idea how many books on average I read a year so had nothing to base my goal on.  Now I have a more realistic idea, I can set this year's challenge so that it's still challenging, but not so over-ambitious that it is impossible to complete.  Basically, I'm saying that doing something with a goal in mind is enjoyable and motivational for me, but only as long as I know what I can and can't achieve, and whether or not it actually matters.

There are things I had hoped to achieve this year that are now collecting dust.  I haven't forgotten or abandoned them, it just turned out that this year was not the right time for them.  But I am determined not to let that stop me dreaming and planning and doing (which, of course, is the most important part).  I now know what my dreams were and what some of my new dreams are.  Yet despite this, I have no idea where I'm heading.  This year has been rough for me and I have a horrible suspicion that next year may be just as tough.  I often wish I could simply give up but I guess that's not in me as no matter what, I always start to try again.

This post, once again, went into a different place from what I had planned.  But I'm kind of enjoying these rambles that start as one thing and then open into a whole other place within me.  Writing this is as much for me as it is for you (actually, probably more so), and I hope it helps you to uncover who you are and what you think as you read what I'm discovering about myself.