New Year’s Resolutions: how did I go?

So, it’s getting to towards the end of the year and I’ve been thinking about what I hoped to achieve at the start of this year and thought I’d go through a bit of a performance assessment of my own ability to achieve my New Years’ Resolutions for 2013.

For those of you who need reminding this is the list of resolutions I posted in January:

1. Finish the first read over and edits for draft 1 of my NaNoWriMo novel by 18 January.
2. Write one page synopsis of novel by 18 January.
3. Take the Intro to Acting course at National Theatre.
4. Ride my bike to work (except when it’s raining or forecast to be over 35 degrees).
5. Write a novella length piece for young adults.
6. Win NaNoWriMo again.
7. Keep writing!
8. Take trips to interesting places in Victoria for photo opportunities and adventures.
9. Continue to attend writing groups, philosophical discussion groups, and look for others.
10. Make more time to read (the pile of books in my bedroom on my ‘To Read’ list is growing).
11. Plan my next big holiday.
12. Make new friends and spend time with old ones.

Let’s go through each one then, and see how well I did.

• Finish the first read over and edits for draft 1 of my NaNoWriMo novel by 18 January.

This one’s pretty simple to measure, and I did that one! Go me! I’m starting off well!

• Write one page synopsis of novel by 18 January.

Yep, did that one!

• Take the Intro to Acting course at National Theatre.

Done! I did the Intro to Acting course, and then I did Acting level one! It was an awesome experience and maybe I’ll go back to acting next year because it was super fun!

• Ride my bike to work (except when it’s raining or forecast to be over 35 degrees).

This one is a bit harder to say I definitely did it. I do ride my bike to work regularly, but it isn’t every day. Sometimes I just feel a bit shit and don’t do it, but it’s probably less that once a month, so that’s pretty good!

• Write a novella length piece for young adults.

Ah, yes, well. I haven’t actually started this project. Damn, I was going so well too!

• Win NaNoWriMo again.

Totally kicked goals with this one! See the blog about that here.

• Keep writing!

Well, this one is a bit hard to measure too, but I have been regularly going to my groups, and writing quite a lot. I don’t write as much during semester when I have classes but I still do a bit here and there.

• Take trips to interesting places in Victoria for photo opportunities and adventures.

This one I did really well with for the first half of the year, and then it was winter, and I got lazy and I haven’t done a photo adventure for ages. I really should get back into that!

• Continue to attend writing groups, philosophical discussion groups, and look for others.

I’m still attending the Boroondara Writers’ Group every month. I went to a photography group for a while but then didn’t really feel at home there, I’ve been looking at what other avenues I can go down in this regard so I think I’ve done ok.

• Make more time to read (the pile of books in my bedroom on my ‘To Read’ list is growing).

I have definitely made more time to read, but unfortunately the ‘To Read’ list has not gotten any smaller (I keep adding new books to it, plus all the books I have to read for uni). I’ve read quite a lot this year, but I’m sure I could read a bit more. I have a tendency to watch stupid videos on Youtube instead of reading and I really should be more strict with myself there.

• Plan my next big holiday.

YES! Definitely! It all happened rather quickly but I spent 4 fantastic weeks in the United States in July so that’s a big tick (see the posts about the US here)! This is probably one item that I’ll put on the New Year’s Resolution list every year.

• Make new friends and spend time with old ones.

This one, it turns out, is much harder than it appears (the making new friends bit is especially). I’ve made a real effort to make some new friends and I have to say I’ve probably only been marginally successful at it. I think I am a bit shy about getting people’s details in public settings, and also a bit judgmental of people I don’t know well. I’ll have to work on this a bit more in the future, but I’ve asked the universe to help me out so hopefully that will help.

Overall then I’ve done pretty well. I haven’t achieved everything I wanted to achieve when I wrote the list, but I’m sure I’ve achieved other things that were on the list so it balances out right? Now I just have to work out what I’m going to put on the list for next year! What on your list?