Blogging Goals for 2017

You’ve heard me say this before, but I’ll say it again anyway: I am no fan of new year’s resolutions. Most of the time, I think they’re unrealistic and unsustainable. You don’t become a new person simply because the number on your wall calendar has changed since yesterday. We are who we are, for the most part. The best we can do is try our best to become better versions of ourselves.

That’s why I believe in setting goals. I try to do this on a daily basis, by using To Do lists, and on a smaller scale as well. Every time I go to the gym, for instance, I have the goal of doing just a little more than I did last time–cranking out a few more reps, lifting a few more pounds, spending a few more minutes on the treadmill. (Not all in the same visit, of course. I’m not a machine.)

My blogging goals follow this same philosophy: I just want to get better at what I’m doing. I want to make this space more useful to the people who take the time to read my work. I want to make She Dwells a place where women can find the inspiration they need to make the changes they want to make.

With all those things in mind, here are my blogging goals for 2017:

1. As I mentioned in my word of the year post, I’m going to offer a monthly challenge for the She Dwells community. I hope you’ll find at least some of these challenges helpful. In case you missed that post, can find the first challenge here: 30 Days of Wellness. I plan to check in with those readers who are taking each month’s challenge on the She Dwells Facebook page, so be sure to Like that page if you want to participate in those conversations.
2. When I started She Dwells, I created a series of posts called Five for Friday. My original intent was to highlight five interesting or amusing links I’d come across in the course of a week, but those posts came to feel a little random. So I switched to themed lists of five items. At this point, I have simply run out of the energy to come up with new and different themes. So I’m going to discontinue Five for Friday posts and, instead, begin a series called Feminist Fridays. These might be reading recommendations (a blog, a book or author); they might be profiles of historical figures; or discussions of a concept, a current issue, or something else related to feminism. And by the way: if the words “feminist” and “feminism” make you a little twitchy, stay tuned for this Friday’s post. I can almost promise you’ll feel better about them.
3. This year I intend to complete my first e-book, “Revising the Story,” which grew out of this blog post. As a writer, I understand the importance of words. I recognize that the stories we tell ourselves about our lives shape the way we think and feel. They become the truth in a dozen different ways. “Revising the Story” will focus on telling the truth of your life, but rewriting that story in language that empowers you as its heroine. As I work on this project, I’ll offer some glimpses of my work-in progress.
4. I already have an Instagram account (follow me!), but I’ll start doing more intentional work with inspirational quotes and images this year. As I said in Goal #3, I understand the importance of words. My return to making visual art this year reminded me that images are important, too.
5. This last goal is more personal: I want to continue growing the She Dwells community. I have various numbers in mind, but I won’t share them here because they aren’t relevant to anyone other than me. Those numbers are simply a way to measure whether or not I’m reaching readers the way I want to.

There are some big goals on that list, but I’m planning to hold myself accountable for achieving them in various ways–including check-ins that I’ll publish here throughout the coming months.

Here’s to a productive 2017!