2019: The Year I Improve Myself and My Business

It’s 2019! I can’t believe we’re one whole year away from 2020. I remember the date ticking over to 2000, and thinking about how strange that was. A new century. A new millennium. Now we’re almost 20 years in. Crazy.

So, as usual, I am declaring a theme for this year.

2015 was The Year I Say No.
2016 was The Year I Give No F*cks.
2017 was The Year I Have Fun.
2018 was The Year I Don't Compete.

2019 will be…

The Year I Improve Myself and My Business

Yes, this is a lofty goal but I think it jives well with what I want for myself in 2019 and beyond. I want to renew my outlook on my health and mental well-being. I want to restore my faith in my writing and my path as a published author. I want to reaffirm my commitment to a happier and more well-rounded life.

And with all of that in mind, let’s get to the goals for the year!

Writing and Publishing Goals

I will finish writing Daydreamer 5. And I will need an actual title for that book. Lol. I’m bad with titles lately! I can’t come up with anything fun or original. Sigh. I hope to be done by the end of January.

I will publish Daydreamer 5. My intention is to publish in early spring, maybe late March? I’m not sure yet but it will be somewhere around there.

I will write Books 3, 4, and 5 of the Flyght Series. My intention is to be writing Book 5 by the time Book 1, FIRST FLYGHT, publishes. My plan for this series is for it to be 9 books!

I will publish FIRST FLYGHT in September, then Book 2 in October, and Book 3 in November. I might then take off December and publish Book 4 in January 2020. Then I’d like to space them out to every 8 weeks after that.

Business Goals

I will return to advertising. I have already done this and I’m seeing results right off the bat, which is encouraging. My plan is to advertise my backlist with Amazon and Bookbub PPC. My new books will be advertised with Facebook video ads. I’m keeping things simple. I don’t want to spend a shit ton of money, even if my husband tells me it’s okay. I’ll be applying for Bookbub Featured Deals and I hope to get one this year. I’m also applying to post ads at Amazon UK, so I hope that goes through and I can also advertise there.

I will make REMOVED free again. I did an experiment and now I know the results of making this book paid. It was not good for my income. Not at all. I sell more books in this series with REMOVED for free. I plan to make it free again starting tomorrow. Getting Amazon to price match may be difficult, or it may be easy. Hard to tell. But I will do my best to make it free and advertise it everywhere.

I will continue with Pinterest. I have found my groove with Pinterest! And things are going well there. I use a posting tool called Tailwind to post there with regularity, and then I also drop in a few times per week and pin stuff. It’s driving traffic to my website according to Google Analytics, and I hope that will continue with time.

I will use video more. One thing I do not take enough advantage of is video. I’d like to post more video to my blog, Facebook, and YouTube and make more advertising videos.

I will redesign and relaunch SFR STATION. I took ownership of the SFR STATION website this past year when the previous owner moved on to other opportunities. I had a new logo and color scheme designed for it, and I’ve been looking at new templates. I wanted to wait until after the launch of WordPress 5.0 before I started the redesign though. I’m hoping to utilize the new Gutenberg backend on it, so I wanted to wait until 5.0 was stable first before proceeding. It’s my hope that SFR STATION becomes a home for science fiction romance on the internet.

Blogging Goals

I will continue to update my blog on a regular basis. My blog is my newsletter, so it’s important for me to keep it updated with content. I plan to keep the same schedule I have in the past, updating 3 times per week or more. I’d like to have at least one discussion post per month, and one Japan-related post per month as well. I’d also like to participate in more book blogger weekly memes.

I will continue to update the back posts of the blog. I’m making good progress on this. I’ve almost completed all the back Book Chats (and posted them to Pinterest), but the back Sunday Updates are going to be tough. I’m considering just deleting the broken images from them and moving on because I don’t believe anyone visits them more than a month after they’re posted. But all the other articles I’ve written could stand to be updated, and I will!

Personal Happiness Goals

I will continue with pottery. I loved learning pottery this past fall so I’ve already signed up for the next class. It starts at the middle of January. I’d like to continue with classes through the year except in summer, when they do camp and not regular adult lessons anyway.

I will go greener at home. I would like to cut back on single-use plastic this year. Last year, I cut back on paper plates and paper towels. This year, I’d like to switch the kids washable sandwich bags for lunches and wax paper for stuff that has to be thrown away. I’m already greener with my cleaning products, with buying local organic produce, and driving only if I have to so i feel like I’m making strides in this area. This is my next step!

I will explore Tarot. When I went to the Sell More Books Show in May, I was standing outside with the other authors making small talk. I turned to the woman next to me and I asked, “So, what do you write?” And she responded, “Well, I actually have a book and a course on Tarot.” REALLY? That’s so cool! As many of you know, I love astrology, so I’ve always been interested in tarot too, but I never got around to trying it out. But now I will be! I bought Angie Green’s book, THE DAILY TAROT, and a set of Tarot cards, and I’m trying out her free course too. If I’m loving it, I’ll sign up for her full course as well.

I will continue to knit, read, and listen to audiobooks. These are a given in every New Year’s goals post, right? You expect to see them here, and I’m happy to oblige! My knitting goal is to finish my current knit and start a new one. My reading/audiobook goal is to read/listen to 35 books this year. A minimum of 15 audiobooks, and the rest ebooks.

Personal Fitness Goals

I will walk 750 miles this year. I loved the year I walked 1000 miles. 2017 was a good fitness year for me. But then I fell off the wagon in 2018. This year, I’d like to bring back the goal at a more reasonable overall distance. 750 divided by 12 is 62.5 miles. That’s a little over 2 miles per day to get to my goal. I can do that.

I will conquer the stairs this year. I don’t think walking is enough for me. I need to get better about climbing hills and stairs and not panting like I’m going to die. There’s a set of stairs in the park that’s equal to 2 flights (See above photo). My goal is to start small and work my way up to doing several flights per walk. If I do two loops of the park, I can pass those stairs twice and then stop to climb them a few times. I did this the other day. 3 climbs of the stairs on my first loop; 2 climbs on my second. That’s roughly 10 flights. I’d like to get that number up by the end of the year. Maybe to 50?

I will start stretching daily. I have developed a yoga stretching routine with my Pocket Yoga Teacher app that I want to do every day. It's only 13 minutes and it's pretty simple. I have also bookmarked a few YouTube stretching videos I will try as well. It’s my goal to end the year more limber than how I started, especially with my right leg. I can easily bring up my left leg to put on socks or shoes. My right leg? Not so much. It’s so frustrating. I want to see improvement in this area.

I will work on my posture. Sit up straight. Stand up straight. I'm actually pretty good about this, but I want to be better. I bought myself a posture corrector to wear a few hours per day. Hopefully it helps.

I will save sweets for the weekend. Just like I did with alcohol, I would like to move candy, cakes, sweets to the weekends only. THIS WILL BE HARD. If I fail at any of these goals, this will be the one. I’m going to legit try. I promise. I’m going to convince myself that it’s not a diet. It’s a new lifestyle choice. And I’m not depriving myself. I still can have some sweets. Just only on the weekend. Come on, Stephanie. You can do this!

And that’s it!

I’m sure more ideas and more goals will present themselves as the year goes on, but this is a good start! I will reassess them in June, and see how we’re doing!

Want to share your 2019 goals with me?

Comment and let me know what you’ll be up to in the new year!