My “one word” for 2021 was intention. I’m proud to say I actually kept trying to live intentionally all year long, even as I got crazy busy this spring after the vaccine became available.

Because I chose a word, I didn’t do traditional resolutions, but I did specify a few things I wanted to intentionally do this year. It’s time to look back at how that went!

2021 Goals

• Stick to a healthier morning routine. Achieved! I did really well with this during the first part of the year. I started keeping my phone in the kitchen overnight instead of on my nightstand, and that small change made a huge difference. It wasn’t uncommon for me to get up and have time to make breakfast and actually sit down and eat it at home instead of at work. I backslid on that a little bit through the summer, but since I’ve started my new job, I’ve been doing a bit better again. I also started getting up at 5am for yoga class a few times a week, so that has helped too (even if it only makes 6am feel like sleeping in), and replacing my alarm clock with a wake-up light has been a game-changer.
• Read 40 books in 2021. As I write this, I’ve finished 36, and if I finish Born a Crime by the end of the week (which I’m listening to on my commute) I’ll finish out with 37. Even though I didn’t make my goal, I’m counting this as a huge win. A big reason for choosing “intention” was because I was spending a lot of my down time scrolling on my phone instead of doing things I actually like, so beating my last-few-year’s average of 22-ish books a year is fantastic. I read 37 books even with a few weeks-long breaks from reading this year, and was able to keep up with two book clubs plus my own picks. I got way behind on my monthly book reviews this year too, so stay tuned for some end-of-year reading recaps soon!

I had also listed two nice-to-achieve goals for 2021 – blogging once a week and completing four embroidery projects. I obviously didn’t achieve either of those. But I’m not upset about that at all. If 2021 had been like 2020, I would have had more downtime to do those things, but as it turned out, I spent a lot more time going out and doing things with actual humans. For one, I joined a yoga studio and began learning ashtanga, which has been fun and challenging. And I also made some new IRL friends from a local subreddit, which is something I don’t think I would have done had COVID not become what it was. My husband and I also got to vacation this year to Washington DC. (Should I post a vacation recap? It would mostly be DC food recommendations because good lord, the food there. So good.)

I decided to choose a word again for 2022. I have an idea of what it will be, but I’ll save that for a separate post. Please tell me about how your resolutions/one word/intentions for this year went – I genuinely want to hear!