Q06

Describe one thing you'd like to achieve by this time next year. Why is this important to you?

I’d really like to quit smoking cigarettes/vaping. It is an unnecessary expense (and life is already expensive here in Israel), and terribly unhealthy. It contributes nothing positive to my life. Just an extremely hard addiction to break. Despite multiple unsuccessful attempts, I am not giving up.

I would like to learn something new. I want to challenge myself, and not just continue with my status quo, although I'm happy with many things I do.

I want to sort out and have applied to rabbinical school and possibly (hopefully) be starting or just exploding everything and taking some crazy other new career path. It’s an important midlife culmination of many years of work and exploration

I want to have physical, emotional and spiritual routines that work for me -- independent of my husband. I want to be comfortable enough in my own skin and in my own sense of self that I can freely assert what I want for me. I've lived so long being fearful of judgement of others. I need to embrace "me / not me" and make the choices that will bring me joy and happiness in this life. This is not about being self centered or concerned only about my wants and needs. It's about taking care of myself so that I can be a better person, mother, daughter, wife, sister, colleague .....

By this time next year, I hope that I have found a therapist for myself. This is important because I think it will help me be a better person all around - a better wife, a better mother, a better friend, and better daughter, sister, a better professional, etc.

By this time next year, I want to observe shabbat fully. To turn off my phone for 25 hours and disengage from technology completely. To go to shul and pray with a community. I want to pray 3 times a day and immerse myself in the Jewish calendar. I have made excuses not to do this for years, and this year I really want to commit to it.

Manage being a mom and my job. I hope that being a parent will help me become a better teacher.

I would like to be cancer free by this time next year, or at least feel less like a science class frog being poked and prodded all the time. Would like to feel more in control and at home and not physically uncomfortable in my body.

Applied for school in a field which I have researched and want to be part of Bought a house Updated web site and taken seriously the extended catalog My intention is not to tell myself no, to let other people do that but not to do it to myself.

This is dumb but I'm really scared about getting an internship and I would really like to achieve getting an internship at some point in the next year. This is important to me because I want to know I made an okay choice by going into design and I love design and want to have a future in it but I'm scared that I won't and that this is one of my last chances or else I'll always be overqualified and underexperienced and unemployable.

I'd like to keep living a full life that's deeper in meaning, experience, development and rich with compassion, love & joy. Because I'm in the present moment and not chasing for the next moment or procrastinating. I'm here for it all.

I'd really like to have a better sense of what/how I can have professional meaning and accomplishment alongside a robust personal life -- joy, community, running/activity in a regular schedule. Like, talking with Alex and she was saying that "Monday is for X and Tuesday is for Y" and that's how my life used to be in DC and I loved it. I'd love to have some of that back. I'd also love to feel really happy at work, a sense of feeling like I'm in the right place, on the right path, and fulfilled in what I'm doing. I keep thinking that maybe this is about my eitzar hara--being a workaholic-- and trying to quell it and struggling with that and what it would mean for my relationship / future (knhp) family if I leaned into work more. But also maybe I'd find joy if I did. But also maybe I'd crash and burn. Or align myself with values that aren't really mine. It honestly all feels so circular and I can't piece it apart. Is this about Tom and that trauma? Is this about A and not wanting to work so much because a) she doesn't want that/doesn't see the value in my work (besides the high profile / swag stuff? *but she says she does...but those early comments still linger for me?) and b) I want to spend time with her? Is this about my values shifting and wanting something different? But WHY are my values shifting -- is it something endemic to me? Is it an external factor? Does it matter? It feels like it does -- like if it's external, then it feels like I'm not being authentic to me. But I don't know if that's really true? Looking back at past years, it seems this question about work meaning is actually a bit of a constant for me over the past few years., which I guess means it's a ME thing and not an external thing? It's funny I guess because it feels so acute and unique this year, but somehow it's something that's weighed on me for a long time. Which, I don't know, does that just mean it's the way of life/the world/growing older?

I would like to be better at public speaking. It is important to me because I believe it will help advance my career.

I want to be riding my book about profiles in democracy, and the draft 2026 declaration of Independence. I do it for democracy and for my ancestors.

By this time next year, I would like an agreement with Enya about how she'll repay what she owes me. I would also like to have finalised my divorce (that feels hard to say). I want to have continued to get fitter and to have lost weight.

I don't have any big goals, but I'd like to feel connected to God even more deeply than I do now. It seems I say that often, every time I make a gola. But I keep making it and it keep happening, and changing as it happens. So I hope I have a new understanding of what that means, similar to how I feel I do now.

Last year I spoke about my shame at being unable to drive. And here I am still useless. I hope to be motoring this time next year. It's up to me to make it happen.

I would like to be free from the relational turmoil in my marriage. This is important to me because I feel the tremendous negative impact on my mental and physical health as well as energy and work life. I need to be in a different place relationally, whether we are still together or not.

I want to finish writing my book. I have stories that I want and need to tell.

debt free so I can retire and enjoy life more

I'd like to be more recovered in my Long Covid, if possible. I hope to feel emotions or feelings in my body, after all these months of numbness.

Is it wrong that my first thought was "I'd like for Jules to be fully potty trained by this time next year" lol? Somehow that feels achievable though. What feels much bigger and more nebulous, but I pray is achievable by this time next year, is to feel like Matt and I are in a good place in our relationship, to feel like we're equal partners in parenting. While there will always be ups in downs in any marriage, I want to feel like the negativity is the exception not the norm, and that we are fundamentally in a strong, positive, productive, and also playfully fun union. There's nothing more important to me than my relationship with Matt and my relationship with Jules, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to achieve this.

earn more, do less. need to find something sustainable.

I have that steady additional work so hoped for this time last year! Next, I'd like to achieve regular employee status, instead of the, not particularly legal and stressfully complex, independent contractor status I'm currently working within. Also, finally, to have a regular therapist.

I really really really really want to be done with my book! At least first pass. I feel like it is my passport to a new level of professionalism. That said, it is important for me to stay with the evolution of my new album and the videos that go with it. So I will begin writing, and see where it can go in a year. As it (I?) catch fire, it will take on a life of its own. And not to be greedy, but I would also love to have tripled my amount of clients next year. This year was so so so great, and I want more!! I want to learn more, serve more people, get better, have the higher energy of a larger group of clients, so they can feed each other and grow in more directions.

By next tile this year, I hope to achieve a way of balancing my health with my life and the things that matter again: friendships, love, activism and creativity. It’s important to me because the diagnosis of chronic illness was very impacting and I think I would be proud looking back and seeing I’ve managed this better.

One thing I hope to acheive by this time next year is exercising regularly. It is important to me to have an active body and to be as healthy as I can be. I want to be able to live a vibrant and active life with confidence in how my body moves, looks, and feels.

I signed up for a certificate program in my church’s seminary that has a self-paced class on the topic based specifically on a creative vision the Lord gave me in a dream. I am slowly working my way through the material and would like to advance from my current snail’s pace in the coming year and finally complete the course.

Hm.... I think have learned all of Tanach. I'm getting there. To have read a few more intellectual Jewish books. To have completed another surrogacy and paid off a chunk of the student loan debt. To have saved up some more money in my IRA accounts and savings account. I'd love to say be financially solvent but that's not likely to happen until I get a job with a significant pay incease, but I am not ready to switch yet emotionally and I also need to gain more experience to even think about getting a pay raise. I'd like to have a better relationship with my teen daughter. I'd like to have all of the house cleaned out and organized, as I've been doing this year and really making progress. That includes: storage closet (mainly done), attic, basement, all the drawers. Lei's room who knows. A fun goal if tons of money randomly falls into my lap would be to renovate somewhat the attic and basement. Maybe I'll paint the kitchen cabinets this year. Whatever, I'm not setting high goals because that's the sure path to disappointment. My main goals are to be a nicer person and know more things.

I'd like to be in a committed, mindful, monogamous relationship with a beautiful woman. With a partner that is accessible, responsive and engaged. Same answer as last year!

I'm struggling with this. I suppose at a minimum, I'd like to get my first coffee manuscript from my Colombia work under review. I want to make an impact on the coffee industry and it's not happening in the timely manner I'd otherwise like. I did all the data collection part, but since I've been back, the writing has been extremely slow-moving stymied by other goings on that I need to figure out how to reprioritize. I want to learn to communicate with people again. I want to continue to put myself out in uncomfortable situations that I can grow from.

I want to take my health more seriously - do my physical therapy exercises, figure out what makes me nauseous and avoid it, and bring lunch to work more. I want to be more financially mindful - track my spending, make more sustainable fashion choices, and build up savings. I want to clean up my life - clean my apartment more, answer texts and emails, and call out of town loved ones more often I want to have fun while I'm young - invest in my dating life, learn guitar, and do creative things that keep me nourished

My goal for 2024 was to go see live music. I have yet to make that happen. I'd like to try to do that as a way of feeling something different, slowing down and enjoying myself, being/not doing.

I write the same thing every year :( would like to know what I am/should be doing, and have the strength to move toward/forward/upward... But also I hope to have my gallery/studio established

Just one thing? I want to visit Niki. I want to meet Blade. I want to go to a family reunion. I want to travel. I want to visit blue waters. I want to get my poetry published. I want to paint again. Now that I don't have my Mom to focus on any longer, I have so many opportunities. Which will I choose? Which will I follow? I don't know right now. Everyone asks me, what are you going to do now? I don't know! I suppose that one year from now, I will have chosen something and hopefully achieved it. I hope it's joyful and loving whatever it is.

I would like to have a consistent meditation practice. Until two days ago, I would have said I want to grow my business but in the wake of my dad's diagnosis, I've had a couple of ER visits with awful chest pain and vomiting. It's GERD, but the underlying cause is stress. I am working hard on healing my body and my spirit now -- I've reached out to a therapist, enrolled in yoga classes, and plan to start meditating tomorrow morning. I want to be able to nurture my heart during this period of intense grief and anticipatory loss so that I can be healthy and regulated for Ellie.

By this time next year, I'd like to know for sure where we're going or if we're staying put. We've spent the last 3 (more?) years feeling uncertain about staying in Portland, moving back to LA, or relocating to Tucson. Our jobs/careers and where these fields have the most opportunity has made this all the more fraught and complicated. I wish someone could tell us what to do and when it will happen by, so that I can enjoy however much time we have left in Portland. I've been doing my best since the wedding to feel rooted here and to live every day here like it could be our last--to be present in whatever space I find myself in. But I feel like the clock is ticking and it's jarring to have no idea how much time is left on it. Some way or another I'd like to not feel this way next year.

A new self sustaining culture of Respect at my work place

why do i have a weird relationship with goals and not wanting to make them and also i am inclined to echo exactly my answers from last year. i should always keep dancing, if nothing else! and i am, as lame as it is, excited to hopefully do something cool next summer and to keep learning (or start learning??) useful things.

Starting a podcast. I want to have wonderful and deep conversations with people I think are fascinating.

I would like to be finically free to have a house and not be worried about money I would physically like to have lost weight and have less inflammation to have a body that’s easier to move. I love you body! You got this

A house! Security

Maybe having a place to live that I pay rent for, or that isn't living with my mom or a family friend or extended family. Looking back at journal entries recently from my last semester at UW-Madison, what stood out to me was the busy-ness and independence. I think my independence made all of the connections I built feel more precious and exciting, because it felt that I built them on my own. The life I had felt more the product of my own efforts, whereas I think right now I feel a bit more that the life I have is more just the product of me being a scavenger, of staying in the same place for long enough and making something out the the leave-behinds. And I like that resourcefulness in myself, but I think I want to push myself more, maybe, feel that preciousness and excitement again.

As I have wished for years: I have to weigh less. I'm not getting younger, but I pray to get older--much older--and than can only be achieved with leading a healthier life.

Working in Toronto is a way that positively serves my community.

I'd like to have achieved a Union contract with the AMPTP that means animation writing is no longer a hobby but will continue to be a steady career, as it once was. Scrounging for freelance work that pays half the price isn't sustainable. I'd like to say I did everything I could to make this industry better for animation writers, allowing them to keep healthcare, pay rent, and feed their families.

I would like to find more mental peace in my mind.

exercise! I want to be in better shape, a healthy weight, and have more energy.

I'd like to have recovered the two chairs in the garage. While that in itself isn't so amazing, it would mean that I had time, discipline and skill to do it!

Get published again. Something. Hopefully Zombie Seder (yes, still working on that). Also want for sure to submit something to the Lesbians in Space anthology, which is due Dec 31. And I'm really excited about Pathbreaker, too. It's important to me because I'm diving deeper into my identity as a writer, and I want to increase my confidence. Heck, maybe I should frame this goal as SUBMITTING, because I can't control being published but I can control submitting. Also, I'd like to get into the short story cohort next year. I was rejected from the one I just applied to with no reason given, and it's given me some fuel to really examine the quality of my writing.

Thinking

I would like to finish up my next deep level of healing. It's clear that I have some big beliefs that no longer serve me and are holding me back. I liken it to having a broken leg that wasn't set properly. The improperly healed leg causes a limp, and also causes the person to walk a path that veers off to one side. Until the leg is rebroken, reset, healed, and physical therapy undertaken, any journey that is undertaken will always end up going in the same, wrong direction. Nothing I have tried to accomplish with my larger mission in the world has succeeded, and I don't want to make any more plans until I can shift my beliefs and attitudes.

I want more creativity in my life, and more energy for doing creative things. As part of this, I would like to develop and surround myself with an aesthetic drawn from this idea that we (necessarily?) act as if the limits of perception are the limits of reality. I have become lazy and narrow, and this is a habit developed over a lifetime. I would like to bring inspiration into my life. I have some financial stability, per last year.

I would like to be fully healthy and injury free. Ideally I would also be promoted again at work to be senior manager of operations, but that's actually secondary to just being healthy and whole.

Everything has to change by next year or I will f****** collapse implode melt fall off a cliff and any other extremely exaggerated thing you can possibly f****** think of. But I don't know how and it's important I figure it out and before I die. ALL I DO IS "DO" NEVA GET TO "BE" being. And no goals or ideas fruitioned like AT ALL.

I would like to achieve more independence and confidence in myself. This is importance because self growth is a never ending process and continuing to grow means you learn new things about yourself

A trip to Thailand. It is a place to which I feel a deep connection.

Create and finish at least one quilt. I would like to be able to show my work and/or join a small group. Get back to goal weight. I am tired of struggling with my weight and feeling embarrassed and unhealthy with it.

I’d like to learn how to chill out - properly - and make it a daily practice. More and more I am convinced that it’s nervous system dysregulation which holds me back - affecting my sleep, with my mind, so busy sometimes/often I can’t read or pray. The warning signs are when on a Saturday night I just find it impossible to quieten down. And another warning sign is when I go through a period of snacking constantly - That’s how it’s been for a few weeks now. And yet in contrast, I’m thinking back to a time when life felt more regulated. It was mid April to mid June this year. I remember because I had a notebook and I was writing down day by day what I ate each day. That little bit of focus helped ensure what I was consuming was what I actually wanted to consume - But what I learned from that period with hindsight was that sleep was under control and life was relatively under control and when those things go out the window it’s almost impossible for me to live the life I want to live. So I’ve started this rebalance course with Rebecca Holland. It has five pillars including nutrition and exercise which I already focus on well – when life is fairly regulated – but it also has an interesting focus on nervous system regulation. I will be 50 in under six months, and when I reflect on my bucket list really this is the only item on it. Learn to chill the (heck) out.

One more big piece of art. Just to see if I can.

Complete my dissertation: I started my doctoral journey over 15 years ago. I'm excited to wrap it up and launch the next phase of my career. I've learned so much! 💗

Hiring a financial advisor. Renovating the other apartment. Otherwise same as last year: Winning the lease to my parents' apartment and exploring how to buy it and renovate it. Receiving the 9/11 Survivors benefit. Retiring.

This has been on my list each year. And it will continue to be on my list until I accomplish it. I would like to lose 50 lbs. This is important to me for a number of reasons: It will improve my health. It will improve my self confidence. It will allow me to move through space and move my body in a way that is more comfortable to me. I also hope that through this process I shake the focus that food and weight carry for me. I guess that is the root of what I want to achieve - shake this addiction that food provides for numbing, procrastinating, filling.

I would like to feel a bit more secure in my feelings and feel a bit better and calmer about my mental health. This is important to me because I want my daughter to know that having big emotions are okay and that she has a secure family network who can all help her if she needs it in the future, but I need to be okay for that to come true!

By this time next year, God willing, I will have been ordained as a rabbi.

I'd like to continue clearing out my house. Dealing with cancer this past year has taught me that life is short. I can't leave this mess for someone else. I need to feel ready to leave.

By this time next year, I want to be more confident in my career decisions, and my balance of time invested in career (code/music/film), different hobbies, family, romance, etc.

To be resolute in my sense of self. To honor others' senses of self without feeling left out or rejected when they do or need something that works for them. To be strong, good, kind, and self-confident. To have a clearer vision and be a far better communicator and to really READ / see / hear when someone is trying to communicate with me. Harmony in my relationships. Better communication all around.

Professionally, I’d like to get my Instructional Design Certification so that I have a more well-rounded resume and diversify the types of roles I’d be a match for. Personally, I’d like to have a better grasp of my health issues. More stable labs, consistent approach to nutrition, and improved stress management… all to better manage my autoimmune issues. I’ve made great progress but there’s lots to learn. It won’t be perfect by then since the human body is just a walking chemistry experiment, but in a good place!

Although I haven't accomplished as much as I'd hoped based on last year, I have taken some pretty big steps to get my life on this track. I'm working with a business mentor to get my own business set up and running; I'm eyeballs deep into my book edits for my thesis, and I graduate in January. By this time next year, I want to have: 1. Finished my novel and be shopping it around. 2. Be completely consumer-debt-free and closer to paying off all my student loans. 3. Planning my trip to Japan with my best friend. 4. Planning my first trip to Korea. 5. Having sorted out my post-graduation plan and the next stage of my career. 6. Love myself a little more than I did this year. 7. Have more audacity to go after the things that I want. 8. Have a more fulfilling day job (or be completely self-employed) 9. Playing cello regularly again and making music professionally. 10. Have a literary agent. 11. Have a successful YouTube channel 12. Continue to get closer to fluency in Korean

I would like to make the Company Competition Team at my Dance studio. This is very important to me because I love to dance and this team is more competitive and has more opportunities that I can take advantage of. I will like to perform a solo, duet, and or a trio not just group dances at competition. I want to become an amazing dancer and the only way to do that is to take big steps in my dance career before time runs out.

I am repeating what I said last year: “By next Yom Kippur, I want to have history of my family in presentable form. This would include pictures/videos/film; stories of generations I know about and lessons to be passed on based on those stories.”

Regular attendance at a local synagogue here in the Jax area. I need community and a spiritual home. I can clearly recall my rabbi reminding me - and reading - that Judaism is a communal religion, it cannot be practiced alone.

I hope to find a new direction for myself now that my kids are in college or beyond.

I would like to have my name on a published manuscript. I think it would help me feel like I'm doing something at my job. I know this is kind of silly because I am working hard at my job, but I think that recognition will help me feel more comfortable and less like an imposter.

Despite getting on in life, I still have active fantasies. I’d like to hike a length of California’s Coastal Trail. It’s important for several reasons. First, I enjoy being outdoors and the satisfying results of exertion. And then, there’s a need to complete a trek-a pilgrimage of sorts that allows time for extended contemplation. Don’t have the resources to walk the Camino de Santiago nor the youth and endurance to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. It would be great to embark on this modest adventure.

My prayer is to continue opening my heart & being so that I experience people & life fully. I’m very good at putting up boundaries, by this time next year I’d like to have learned to lowered a few boundaries and to have opened to one person, maybe even more than one. Why is this important? I hope to experience life more fully.

To have a new job and money to get along with my life.

A new job! A new job! Please please please Hashem, let me have a great new job by this time next year. Things have been so terrible with PDSA for so many reasons. I am shocked at how Caroline has treated me and how terrible I feel about working at PDSA. That, compounded with how the world feels like it's falling apart with everything around Israel... I just need to be back in the Jewish communal space. I just had a second round interview with Hillel - I pray that when I read this next year I am smiling, because either a) I got the role with Hillel or b) I didn't, but some other great role came along that was the right one for me. By the way, past Laura - it's true, having a baby isn't exactly an achievement, but also, it sort of is after you've been through a rough fertility journey. So yes, I also hope we're in a much better place in our fertility journey - and that WILL feel like an achievement!

I'd like to have found ways to feel more simple joy and happiness. So much of my time is bound up in duty-eelared activities. I hope there is more leisure but not too much leisure in retirement. At the same time I hope I find meaningful activities that make demands on me in retirement.

hopefully i will have moved back home with my partner. hopefully he will be my husband. i want to be home and near all of the people that i love.

To have more self trust and self love than I had in the year before. To be living a life in alignment with my values

I think I’d like to achieve many things, but I feel very thwarted/challenged and like I lack the resources to “get what I want” - I am am exhausted and untethered, doing everything on my own, and so I have to keep my dreams in check. I would like to have a better understanding of my finances and a solid investment plan in place by next year. So I have confidence in myself and my money future. I dream about living abroad in Europe, and discovering the world for myself, becoming an “international person” — though this may take more time. I would like to go on a group “swim vacation” to a wonderful place like Greece, Hawaii, Australia, Mallorca, Panama, etc. the life of swimming and simple coastal living really calls to me.

I definitely want to have completed a book I am shopping to agents or publishers -- either fiction or a second poetry collection or both. I want to have a good daily writing schedule, time I really give to myself and hold sacred, recognizing the writing time is important enough to prioritize.

•Me & Rylee need our own home to live in. We need to be/feel safe, relaxed, proud, happy, wherever we are living (which is NEVER going to happen in this hell-hole). •I want to enrol in TAFE. •I want to be financially literate, savvy & smart. •I want to get into a fitness routine (and buy a bicycle) for my mental & physical health. •Learn how to do arts & crafts, painting, be creative for Rylee (and myself).

I would like to be debt free. If I get a chance, I would like to totally minimize my debt and I would like to be better off financially.

I must control my anger at home. At least the verbal responses to my husband. Keep still, breathe deeply, do not respond to words that hurt as perhaps I misinterpret their meaning.

I need to lose 10kg of weight to lower my blood pressure. Definitely need to do this, as the important things in life all depend on me continuing to stay healthy.

I would like to do better at balancing my work with my life. Also, I would like to learn to focus on one task at a time and not let myself get distracted by the flurries of emails that generally cause problems for me. It's important to me because I would like to reduce my stress levels whenever possible.

Financial stability! It’s absolutely critical and essential. Massive wealth would be nice but far from necessary. Not making a living is very hard to face though I could survive of course.

Swim to the island. I love the water and I do better when I set a goal.

Kamala Harris must be elected president. Otherwise we are looking at Fascism.

I’d like to be a father. I want my wife and I to be able to provide life to a tiny little Jew and pass on the biggest mitzvah a Jew can engage in: parenthood.

I want to build an emergency fund that I don't touch but have on hand if my freelance work dips (as it did for 2 weeks this year). I also want to learn to invest.

how I view relaxing especially during the week. Being a stay at home mom does not mean I have to constantly be doing it is ok for me to take an hour a day or more if needed and focus on me/things I love.

Passing the career exam. I have dedicated the time and stopped second guessing my decisions on the test.

I hope to have found balance between work, family, volunteering and health. I don't want work to be dominating. I want the family to feel close and supported. But I want to be kicking personal goals too. Maybe it's a pipe dream, but I think balance is my aspiration for this next year.

I would like to try and find a bit of peace. I found the summer at school really difficult, because it was so quiet and I got absolutely no external validation/connection. Similarly a week or do so there was a particularly slow day where I had practically no emails. I had a dentist appointment that day which started very late, and I was really anxious that I was going to miss loads of stuff so I kept checking my phone and kept having no emails, which just made it worse! I’m always comparing myself to how others describe their work - so busy, so many emails, so many meetings, etc - and I don’t have that most of the time, which makes me feel like I’m not doing well at my job. I’d like to find some peace personally too - particularly in my relationships. Eg if Chris is a bit quiet, maybe I could just let him be a bit quiet and not feel the need to peck at him all the time, are you ok, are you ok, what’s the matter, are you ok. And accept the fact that I am a bit of an outsider in my family relationships at the moment but that’s at least partly my fault for not being as present as I used to be. So yeah. Peace and happiness.

I want to be back to where I was, physically - which wasn't all that amazing, but that would be so much improved over right now. Right now, I have to plan big trips, like going to the mailbox and back. I'd like for that to go back to being a nothing sort of little walk.

I sound like an episode of Pinky and Brain now, but taking more time for my personal life and spending it where my energy is recharged and I don't have to worry about language, or safety is of paramount importance to me this upcoming year. And I need to take time to create that space so the time opens up easily in the future.

Do a 5 or 10k - this is a big deal. I used to be a runner, but had knee surgery 10 years ago. They told me I could never run or dance again. I have started with baby steps over the year, and hope to get to one of those distances - slow but who cares?

The pedestrian answer is recharging my physical and psychological health through physical exertion and through psychological therapy. But if America succumbs to fascism in the coming months, then the thing I'd like to achieve is escaping.

I’d love to actually start writing

I would love to get a big boy job that gives me health insurance. Its important for many reasons, one obviously being that I need it to survive, but it would also be really valuable for me to know that I can be of service to the world without sacrificing my livelihood, and that the world has room for the impact I would like to make.

Under our circumstances with my husband’s multiple myeloma, it took some thinking to get to my answer here. I wanted a goal that is tangible, something I can measure. I also wanted it to represent my new life after two years of crisis and struggle…a cleansing of sorts to make room for what’s to come. As I drove us to Charlotte one morning for one of my husband’s infusions, a vague thought solidified: purging… every drawer, cabinet and closet. Long overdue, and frequently on my mind, this seems to meet all my criteria.

so this year, I bit the bullet and signed up for Ironman Canada; it's happening on my birthday in Ottawa next year and that's been a bucket-list race for me to cross off my Life's to-do list of experiences. I'm still feeling terrified and questioning my life's choices, but I no longer feel obligated to do this for anyone other than myself. At first, I felt like I owed it to Dad to live up to his big achievement expectations and make the most out of my privileged able-bodied status to do something that he couldn't, or was denied. I brought it to therapy and Ariella reminded me to consider my role in relation to Dad -- that I'm the little child in the grand scheme of it all -- and he's the parent. I don't have to live my life for him or my grandparents; I don't have to DO anything grand to make him or them proud of me. And it was putting a WHOLE lot of pressure on me to not only finish, but finish "respectably", whatever that means in my judgey head. Ariella suggested that because I'm the child and he's the elder, that, considering my actions as a means to offer my elders an experience through me of something they couldn't do in their lifetime is kind of arrogant; they may not even approve of my choices (dad would totally think I'm crazy). She also said that I can honour the people who brought me to where I am today without feeling obligated to live my life in service to them. So after that, I'm still fairly terrified of next August, but I'm not longer feeling like I'm doing this out of obligation or pressure. I'm looking forward to getting stronger physically and mentally, excited to see how my consistency in training pays off and I mostly want to conquer something new that I haven't done before that will make me proud of myself. Cross the finish line within the time allotted with no new injuries and feeling relatively good; that's the goal!

I want to learn to leyn and to complete my adult Bat Mitzvah, to feel like I too have passed that rite of passage as a Jew.

I want regular, familiar activities and events in my life, monthly and weekly and seasonally. Daily?

I want to be someone that people recognize as kind, ot going, but also popular. I want to have good math and english scores. I also would like to find a strong, unique group of friends.

Achieve a way to make money by having a business. A way to make money from anywhere. This is important because youre feeling selfish.

Again, a normal BMI. It is something I have control over. One of the only things!

I’d like to apply for some internships or jobs. Just to get back into the practice of interviewing and upping my game. I don’t know that I’ll do an internship or volunteer in the Spring or Summer but it fees like a next logical step once I graduate from my Masters program at tech. I could also see doing coaching again for tennis but at the same time, as much as I love that, l am hoping to do new things and gain new experience, and my time is limited so I know I’ll have to pick and choose. Maybe I’ll follow up with the Enterprise institute or other places I’ve previously talked to for ideas and next steps in my career path.

Still looking for my LTR! I really want to find someone to spend the rest of my life with, reaping the rewards of hard work and financial stability. I really hope this year the research piece picks back up.

I would like to be primarily, simply, sitting on the land. I set this intention because of it is my most compelling, and most unfulfilled desire.

By this time next year, I would like to maintain my practicing of walking with friends and doing yoga with my dad, taking my health and body seriously and treating it with kindness. I want to take care of my 'home'.

By this time next year, I would like to run an entire real estate transaction on my own. I want to advance my professional skills deeply. I am beginning to see the path for me to begin having the power I have craved for many years. It is important that I am able to begin enacting the change in my life and the world that I envisioned when I set out to get my law degree.

Maintain a consistent exercise routine, whatever it is!

Break phone habit. Night, morning routine

I'd like to play better at my sport of choice, pickleball. This sounds ridiculous but it is important to me to continue improving in the sport I enjoy so much. The social aspect, as well as the athletic aspect, is important to me also. It is a challenge for me to meet new people and socialize with them.

Getting are estate in order and providing our children with all information on our real estate, investments, general banking, credit cards, any loans, lists of art and other valued "stuff" in our home, cabin and trailer, lists of friends, neighbors, doctors, medical records, insurance, automobiles +, last wishes for withdrawing medical care, and subsequent cremation, burial or similar. Letters to each child and remaining close relatives, care of any dog, where to find pictures of our lives that have been reviewed for our children to keep and any other activities that would make a surviving spou9se or our children ready to handle these matters -

Learn how to accept and adapt to whatever it is that is causing neuropathy-like symptoms in my legs.

earning $3k or more per week with my health and wellness business working on launching a wellness event in Greenwich area growing my business

This was the hardest one to answer this year, as I feel like so much of what I want revolves around being softer to myself. I also don't want to come back next year disappointed that I haven't done something. So Noah - buy yourself a nice speaker and remember to listen to music on it.

I'll return to my goal from last year of finding a larger space for me and my partner. We did a really amazing job in moving in together in my place. And, we started the process of looking for a larger space (spoke with a real estate agent about what it would take, talked to a mortgage broker, looked at a few places) and then we got derailed by the death of our dog. I'd like to return to this, again with the realistic expectations that it could still take longer than a year.

Wow, year in year out I want a different financial picture. Well, I think I'm on the way. The no debt picture may not happen by next year (will still have a bond and a car payment), but there definitely is a shift, and hopefully by this time next year, the change for "a change" may be quite significant. Adjusting the idea or thought about it all has been significant.

To have a more clearly defined portfolio, and a better sense of how I can portfolio career. For better work-life balance, and financial security!

A book deal. Is this the same in every question I've written here for the last 10 years? I see my answer to last years question and it feels distant; that passion is there of course but I feel so dulled by the events of this year that I feel pessimistic. Maybe, if this book doesn't sell it is time to do something different. I'll separate from my agent and hopefully find a new one, or maybe I'll self publish. I'm really not interested in marketing instead of writing, but I will need something different, if, 3 books in, this is the same result.

To get my own vintage business going/ to have more clients as a freelance linguist.

Please God let me bring our emergency savings back up. I'm not asking for excess, though it would be helpful. I just NEED for us to be safe again. This has been the scariest year of my life financially - with 3 kids, a new house, and surprise layoff. I just need to know we'll be okay.

To be more comfortable in who I am, grateful for what I have achieved and to feel secure in myself.

I’m hopeful that I’ll have a partner or have experienced a partner. I’ve always been a hopeless romantic and I feel like I’ve missed a lot of the romantic milestones people my age have experienced. I also just want someone to share my life with.

I want to have my shit really together with investing and retirement planning, and start socking big chunks of money away into investments that will grow for me.

Do a better job of tackling needed tasks (like decluttering, activities to improve my physical anf mental health) and balancing those activities with those that bring me joy

I would like to learn a new language. It is important for me as I feel it would show respect for the people of that country. It would also facilitate a lot of things in my life. Most importantly it would open a whole new world to a new culture, thinking, logic and mentality.

I'd like to have a draft of my management book ready by the end of next Summer. This is important because I want to start using and adapting that information in my teachings.

Ha, the answers are always the same. But judging by what I wrote last year? The confidence - I have or at least FEEL more confidence that before. I am awesome, and I don't tell myself that enough. And does it matter that I am musically talented, have a skillset that NO ONE else has nor monetizes like I do, and am a nice person to boot? Even if I didn't have all those perks, I would still be awesome. And I need to remind myself of that. I shouldn't need to feel useful in order to feel validated. And I'll just say, b/c of how "awesome" I am, I'm just too busy and will never have a clean house, lol.

I want to figure out my life. I am tired of being scared of harassment and everything I faced the past few years and I want to feel confident in a career path (and not scared of people harassing me for pursuing it).

I want to be an RVP. I want to lost 50+ pounds. More belief in myself. RVP - 110% contract. Better than my current 60% and I deserve it and am good enough. Lose weight - want to feel healthy - I want to be able to run, jump, dance. I want to feel great and look awesome I want to wear the waiting clothes for me in my closet. More belief in myself - as I have more in more I just love myself more, enjoy life more, help others more.

I just want to hold the course. I hope next year I am as well as I am this year. I don't want to risk wanting to add anything when things are finally going well. This year I have reached a plateau I would be happy to ride for a while.

I'd like to have a full year of independent tax practice, teaching, and tax solutions under my belt, with a growing book of happy returning clients. This is important to me because it's a way I can do something difficult that makes a difference in the world without throwing out my back.

In one year I would like to have better work life balance. I think that this will require either significant shifts to my current job (which may be possible but feel unlikely) or having the courage and opportunity to move into a new one. It also will mean a I've built consistent and sustainable plan for eating well and exercising, and building in earlier sleep for full nights of rest. It is important to me because each day I get older I understand more how powerfully brief life is, how valuable each day is. My wholeness as a human is non-negotiable, and yet I consistently allow it to be compromised. I am a better mother and wife and friend when I am whole, but most importantly I am most truly myself.

Ha ha, okay, for the third year in a row, I will say Clean My Office! It will benefit not only my own life, but my entire home's life. This year, I have been at the company long enough to earn an additional week of vacation time. So I'm going to make a Staycation in November, and spend as much of it as it takes to get this room back into a happy, livable and workable space. I'm feeling optimistic about it this year, instead of shameful.

I would like to be stronger. More core strength (and less back pain); more muscle mass; able to ride a bike again!

Peace of mind, so that I can make it through the rest of my life without constant angst and anger, which I know is truly unhealthy.

I think be more in contact with those I care about, and take my son to more places, really spend time with him doing things that he would like but that I would also like. Be less afraid of being out and about with him due to tantrums or worries about getting back home on time for nothing important.

I'd like to be almost complete with the Harvard Business School CLIMB credential. I am confident that I will learn many important skills to further my career, give me confidence in business environments, and be very proud of setting this goal and staying focused to achieve it.

By this time next year I would like to not have financial problems anymore. This remain important because it would allow me the freedom to do things I want to do, with my family and friends, whenever I want. There will be less stress about food, clothing, and housing. While things have been better than last year, I remain in debt 💸 and continue to be unable to truly afford to live the lifestyle we live.

I have a list of things I want to (need to?) accomplish in 5785: Starting my own business, becoming better in social situations, building a group of friends, learning to dance tango, getting better at - and participating in more - singing, settle my living situation, settle my (newly free) financial situation. But there’s one thing that stands out this year - as it does every year. Become comfortable in my own body. Normally I say “losing weight” (I’m really fat). But that’s just part of it. Weight makes me physically uncomfortable just going about daily tasks. I want to be more comfortable. I want to fit moderately well in seats in theaters and on airplanes. I want to stop avoiding situations (business or social) where I don’t show up as fully myself because I fear people will discount me because of my weight. Yes, I need to lose weight to do all of that. Also, it will make me healthier and probably give me more years in my life. But more importantly, it will give me more life in my years. So I need to address food and exercise. I need to address my deepest fears of self-worthlessness. I need to address my fear of how others perceive me. I want to say that once I do all if that, the obstacles to being fully me will be gone and I can become the person I was meant to be. But I know that in reality, smashing the obstacles now and just showing up as the whole person I was meant to be starting right now will lead to many of the outcomes I want.

By this time next year, I want to be settled in and good at my job again. Since the Pactiv Evergreen acquisition, I have been bounced around from one job to another, never having enough time to establish routines or connections. It is my hope that a) I am still employed with Pactiv Evergreen, b) I am still in this Territory Sales Manager position and c) I’ve established good relationships with many customers, built up their trust in me and I am effectively growing my territory. It’s important to me to be good at my job, to be a valuable employee and to earn my paycheck. These are all things that I feel I have been lacking. I’d just like the opportunity to be stable for a while.

A declutterred home. 1. To have people over frequently 2. To have calm and order for greater peace of mind 3. To help evaluate whether to stay and fix up the house or whether to move.

I would love to feel more comfortable with myself and doing my best, even if my best doesn’t give me the immediate results that I want. I have felt down on myself because I feel like my best isn’t good enough, but I am working with my therapist and through myself to try to be comfortable and at peace with doing my best. I also really want a girlfriend. I had a girlfriend for two months, and it was an awesome experience for me. I know I would be an awesome boyfriend, and I want to have so much fun with my girlfriend. I hope she sees this message at this point in 2025 and that we smile. I also think it would be cool to run a marathon but I have time. The main thing is being comfortable doing my best and to decrease my anxiety that I feel in the mornings and just in general if I make mistakes and if I feel inadequate.

If I'm still whitewater rafting, then I want to be competent to row class three rivers. It's for my wife, so we have something to do together. She's the water baby. I'm only doing this for her. I'd like to be retired. I'm back to work after taking four months off. It's OK but my heart isn't in my work. I have a great position with the potential to make a huge, struggling project succeed. I'm struggling to wrap my head around all there is to do. This job might be for someone with a more flexible mind.

I would like a personal savings account with minimum four digits.

I'd like to step fully into the role of being a "Climate Educator". I think it's a significant contribution I can make to a cause I am passionate about.

I’d like to regain some balance again, but that will likely depend on the Presidential election.

I want to really know reiki, and be able to use it. This is important to me because this will make every one happy, so in the end, bring Mashiach.

Still want to connect with my oldest son. Still a work in progress. I’m afraid I will get used to him not being a part of my life.

i would like to have the courage to be happy. and to find myself, i dont know who i am anymore. and to choose better but dont be stuck by fear of choosing

I’d like to be integrated enough into our new community in Israel to be able to spend the HHDs with those we consider friends. Yes, we are making Aliyah, hopefully right after Pesach

I am delighted that I may have made some progress towards last year’s goal. My vestibular therapist is currently testing out a new protocol on myself and three or four other patients. We are off to a rocky start with my symptoms, but the study results sound promising and that Glen is already using it with other patients is good for my soul as I deeply want to save others from some of this torture. We can do better. Last year: I’d like to have found a way to help other people with vestibular disorders and/or help make some small difference in improving our medical system. One way to accomplish this, might be through the Mount Sinai clinical trial if I am accepted. Hopefully, with an added benefit to my own health. I’m working on making my goal from last year more tangible: I would like to feel like I am contributing meaningfully to the world. For good or bad, I define myself through how I am contributing. I hope I will find a way to feel fulfillment in this area again.

I want to feel a sense of direction in my career. The move into PM has been positive, yet I am sorely lacking much of the overall experience needed to make a full assessment on how much I enjoy the role. I am also yet to discover an industry or project role that is fully the right fit for me. By this time next year I would like to have experience in a new role, on a different project and potentially in a different sector entirely.

I'm hoping for us to publicly launch the community safety campaign report!! This has been such an important part of my work in the world over the last 3-5 years and I'm excited about the potential it offers for more strategic organizing in our movements.

I would like a lover and a new car, and perhaps a solid salaried job or amazing opportunities to travel and work. In other words; write a book, fix the truck, go to a couple of M&Y, take another cruise, eat good, play music, kiss much and enjoy my blessed wonderful weird life.

I've not expressed outside of my head and heart until now... I want to write. Poetry. Essays. Liturgy. I feel like its been in me, dormant and of late its been rising. By this time next year, I want to write. I want to write.

To investigate ways that I can improve my mobility so I can participate in the activities I love. I want to be able to dance again, take my grandchildren to the park and go on adventures wherever I want.

Transition to being a dad of two, and a family of four! Find what new balance this will mean for all of us.

I’d like to be able to do 1 pull-up. It’s important for me to feel as though I am getting stronger and successfully doing a pullup would prove to me that I have in fact gotten stronger.

More print making! Because I've invested a lot into it and have so little to show so far. Also it's so fun.

Graduating with my MSW degree, and finding a job as a school social worker (SSW). This is important because all I've ever wanted to do is be a social worker; even as a nurse I spent more time connecting with people then treating wounds.... and I feel like teens are such as misunderstood bunch, I would love nothing more to be the kind of SSW I needed in high school

I would like to have an additional friend in my area. For now, I just have the one. She's great, but I know that I need more as well.

I'd like to achieve peace. I'd like to just feel chill about everything, health, money, relationships, career. Just to be at a very relaxed, calm nervous system state.

I would like to have finished my doctoral project by this time next year. This is important to me because it represents a milestone in my professional life as a doctor of nursing practice candidate and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner student. It's a tangible achievement towards my idea of Tikkun Olam.

I'd like to really start getting rid of my stored belongings - Let them go to where they can be of use, instead of taking up space that others can make use of. Dishes, clothes, even tools: Go! Clear Out! God, it makes me nauseous and even sad to think of getting rid of them. I'm hoping to find a Therapist to help me thru this. Wishing for a CBT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/

I wanna have straight A's so i can get my free dozen of Krispy Kreme DONUTS. ik they would be plain donuts but like a donut is a donut. and i would have straight A's so that's nice too!!

I want a baby

By next year, I want to be in a new job. Reflecting on my past answers, I’ve been wanting a new job for a long time, so I’m feeling more urgency around it. Last year I offered myself some flexibility about the goals, and just wanted some clarity. Well I have clarity now. I’ve had my baby and now it’s time for the job change. More and more I am open to something different but regardless it needs to be flexible and at least semi remote. And it needs to pay well! Life is expensive.

To have mastered Not-About-Me-Quit Taking-It-Personally. Important to my sense of self and wellbeing.

Next year, I would like to be more settled in my mind. I would like to have achieved my weight goal for this December and the 10 more lbs. and be maintaining. I would like to feel more peace in my environment on a regular basis. I would want more peace in the world at large--but if that's not possible, I would like to be more peaceful inside myself anyways. I want to feel that the future is not something to be feared and not to feel fear about my age. I do not want to acquire any more serious health problems. I want to age gracefully. I want to accept my current age and feel blessed. I want to be grateful, not fearful or resentful, in the present.

By next year, I would like to achieve continued good health, and lower weight, and still playing music. But in addition I would like to learn something new!! Maybe playing the ukelele.

I want to start writing regularly again, and more specifically I want to be in the middle of writing my book and also regularly writing for personal reasons. This matters to me because when I got dizzy in 2020, I had to stop my regular writing eventually. It was so physically and mentally hard. Since I got my dizziness under control in 2022, I’ve recovered most aspects of my life, but not writing. It’s the last frontier. It’s also really important to me, has always been such a part of my life, and it makes me sad that I am not doing it now.

I'd love to have a better handle on my hormonal health. It will improve my other health outcomes tremendously.

I want my musical, The Trees, circulating, a new full-length play drafted, but those are just a continuance of my work as a writer. It is important to me to express myself in this medium because it moves me so, because I think theater saves all the baby freaks and queers.

Some semblance of better balance, better self care, less ADHD overwhelm and excellence as a family man and in business.

I’m listing four things that lead to number five: House organized Creative space to work Time with grandkids (and mom) Healthy habits - exercise and eating Create the life I want.

I still maintain my primary goal is greater closeness and intimacy with Karen (as facilitated by better communication). I also believe this year has shown some incremental improvement! Piano tutorials and voice lessons are still a fail, however.

I would like to extend my "voice" to the public domain, either by writing and publishing or by being the facilitator for important and relevant conversations about things that bring people common understanding and support. It is important to me because 1. it helps me frame my own experiences and 2. it makes sense out of struggles and endeavors that seemed too difficult at the time. The chance to provide support and understanding to others is a chance to provide it to oneself. People can be amazingly generous and vulnerable when a community is created.

I’d like to have set up my private practice in therapy. I’ll have qualified, I’m so close. I just need the last few hours, last few criteria. Then I can go forward and be a therapist.

New job! I need my next growth edge.

I achieved my fiber crafts goal last year, so this year, I will focus on a different hobby. By this time next year, I want to have made at least three songs on the little portable music device I bought. It's called an M8, and it kind of looks like an old Game Boy pocket, but it has everything you need to make any kind of song you want. The whole reason I got it was to make music away from my laptop and enjoy music-making anywhere.

I really would like to be in a relationship by this time next year - is that so bad? It's not about being afraid to be alone. It's more about knowing that I want a partnership, and I want to be vulnerable enough and open enough to be in that kind of committed partnership a year from now.

Last year I aspired to have a more consistant writing and photography practice. This year I've participated in a weekly photo challenge (52 Frames), made more prints, won first place in a community photo contest, and now I started a newsletter on substack after taking a seminar on how and why to do so. I would like to really develop that substack writing and let it all start leading me to publishing again. And I would like to find more ways to use my photography together with my writing and spiritual leadership.

I would like to paint the interior of my new home, plant a garden, begin to build a couple of ADU's to house my son and possible myself in order to have an income from the rental of my house. As I am way over retirement age, and I do not have an on-going source of income except my own work , which, I am happy to say, I enjoy, I need to look forward to the next 10 or more years with some confidence that I can have a roof over my head and food in my tummy! And, of course, to pay for any health care needs that come up.

I'd like to move overseas. It's scary, but it's something I want to do with my life. I don't want to die never having done it because it was never a good time to do it.

I'd like to find true love, because I want to be loved again and it's been twenty years since anyone loved me.

I would like to have better security around retirement. I feel dubious about the paperwork from Wavey. Some of the stocks in the Roth IRA are from evil sources but if I think like Hannah Arendt, everything we touch is tainted by evil. The banality of evil. If I signed the paperwork then I will have some savings for when I retire. I have a retirement plan through the District/state but I have no other extra savings. I’m 57. I don’t want to be impoverished in retirement. I also don’t want to perpetuate the suffering of others but I do anyhow just by living. Especially in the US.

Every year I say I want to have a regular exercise and meditation practice. I feel so much better emotionally and physically when I do. But every year I don’t do it. I still would like to achieve it, but my undisciplined self just doesn’t cooperate.

Complete satisfaction with my relationship with food. No more lines. Complete peace

Sadly I never did take up water colours (last year). I still want to do this! But also I am working to help my youngest daughter navigate a difficult time- she has an eating disorder and suffers from depression and suicidal thoughts. I hope that by next year I will have helped her work through a lot of these issues.

STRENGTH Strength in mind, body, and spirit. I will continue to work on my physical strength by going to exercise class, joining a gym, and starting a lifting program. I hope to do a pull up!! I will consider therapy. I've been educating myself about trauma, read several books including Maybe you Should Talk to Someone as well as The in Between about death and dying and Pete Walker 's work on cptsd. Coming to an understanding of my automatic behaviors and reactions. Strengthening my spirit means connecting closer to god listening to that inner voice, becoming fearless, becoming a servant again without the residue of resentment i have been holding at home and at my job. All these things are important because they make me a stronger more content person who enjoys good health which is THE most important valuable thing i have right now in my life. This won't be done in a year...it's ongoing. If I had to pick one concrete thing to achieve (besides a pull up) it would be...sing at church, write a communication blog, redo the stairwell!!! Tick off the projects that I ...wait, that's totally more than one thing!!

I would like to have directed my film. This is something I’ve always wanted to do, ever since I was a kid. I’ve done it once, but that never felt like “my” movie. This one does. This is my dream, and something I want to do within this year.

I'd like to be a part of my community's response to the crisis of unhoused individual and families, and I'd like to see concrete projects in progress--housing, resources such as mental health services, assistance with folks getting IDs (lost IDs are a HUGE barrier to getting a job, renting an apartment, etc.). I'd like to help my community to step up.

I would like to not be overcommitted. I want to be more present to my life outside of doing and to my relationships.

I want to become a part-time stand-up comedian. It's been my dream for soooo long. I love making people laugh, I love being on stage. People tell me I'm funny. I'm starting the stand-up school in January. Wish me luck! I just want to finally understand if I'm cut out for this or if I should focus on another career.

Same as last year; I'd like to be in a romantic relationship and would like to be retired. I'd also like to FINALLY get some renovations done in my condo. And I want a clutter free living space.

Learn full V'ahavta! It's a basic prayer you're supposed to say twice a day but I even shy away at shul because it's so long, people go so fast, and I just don't know it. Perhaps I can find a tune or buy a kids' print out of morning/night Shema... however I do it, I want to be comfortable reading it (or bonus points if I can memorize it) by next RH. It's so important to share the love and oneness of Hashem!!

I'm so happy when I read last year's answer because now my Dimero D levels are normal and my white blood cell count is also going lower and lower. I do get out of town, go in nature, see friends often, feel happier at work, feel more confident, relaxed and in control even if not 100% yet. So I'm definitely doing better! The one thing I really miss and see I wrote last year as well is going to yoga classes in person. I actually checked my chouchou teacher's page last week and was telling myself that I think that by the end of the year I will feel able and confident enough to go, at least to try even if I know it will be challenging. I think doing this will unblock many things for me, like creating a routine where I will be moving my body on a regular basis in a controlled setting (ie lots of effort but lots of reward), expose myself to others in a safe space which will open the idea to my brain to, who knows, go back to the office or find a hybrid job? Plus I miss my yoga body from when I was going to this class 3 times a week, it was the most balanced, fit, skinny, strong, mentally healthy and happy that I ever was. So being back at it would be amazing. I'd also like to have a good sleep score as a norm and to feel 100% at ease in my body, go swim in the sea and go to spas with P, wear shorts and dresses and skirts and tank tops, take pictures, selfies, love what I see in the mirror. By this time next year, I'll be in love with myself again.

I want to improve in my self discipline and time management. My therapist says that I tend to choose attachment over authenticity. And I agree! I do this with anytime, and I guess it’s a form of people pleasing. I find myself doing this still, in smaller ways than before, but i want to keep working on this: I want to choose authenticity in the moment above attachment. I want to choose me first! I want to be able to trust me fully and know that I can count on me to always take care of me without choosing someone above me. This is important because I want self actualization and I can o my get that when I choose me!

I think I might actually be able to finish reading my list of books to read after Finals. I'm only four books away now. One of these is "Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler, which I've downloaded on my Kindle but I'm not sure if I should read. Fran is certainly against it. I found it for free online, so there's none of the moral issue of paying for it. But there's a familiar stubborn part of me that wants to read it anyway to experience it for myself. I'm not afraid that it's going to turn me into a Nazi or anything, or make me anti-Semitic. But I probably will get bogged down with it and it would slow my reading speed and motivation. Perhaps it could be a toilet book. How appropriate. There was obviously a reason why I wanted to read it 20 years ago. Probably just because it's one of those notorious books that not many people have read but lots of people have an opinion about. I'm also drawn towards that kind of disgust. I want a visceral feeling. But I'm also just curious what it's like. I've definitely read a bit less this year. I had six weeks before the general election when I was listening to a lot of podcasts. I'm also not reading that much in bed at the moment. And I follow a couple of Substacks, which usually means I've got articles to read over breakfast and lunch instead of reading my book. It's important for me to read this list of books that I created 20 years ago because I'm a completist and it motivates me to get through something like this. I think I'll also find it tremendously satisfying to cross off the last title. I'll also feel liberated to read what I want (instead of what my 21-year-old self wanted to read). I've got a whole bookcase of books on my backlog - some of which I rescued from Gregory's library the day after he died. Over the last couple of years I've been prioritizing my list of books to read after Finals over these other books, more recent acquisitions. I think I've written about this here for the last 2 or 3 years, since I've been reading regularly again. It's obviously important to me. And it will be all the more rewarding because it's been a struggle. But I'm glad that it has finally motivated me to read more. My next challenge might be to read through my backlog of books, and then the list of books I want to read on Goodreads. These lists of books I'll never finish, though, because when you read books, they suggest more books; and when you talk about books with people, they suggest more books; and Fran and I both love treating ourselves to books when we're on holiday; and people give me books for birthdays and at Christmas. What did someone call it? A library of longing? "My library is an archive of longings" (Susan Sontag).

I’d like to be more at peace with myself and everything that’s in my life. While I won’t stop striving to do good things for my family, friends and the larger world, I hope to show more self-compassion and strop driving myself so hard to do everything for everyone always. As this is a life pattern, I know it will be challenging to ‘let go’ but I’m becoming clearer that ‘baby steps’ are very good (vs leaps and bounds I’ve always sought). I’d like to not just cognitively understand this but to grasp it in my viscera. Having read ‘Be Here Now’ when Ram Dass first wrote it and having been an advocate of that for everyone I mentor, may this be the year, I give it to myself.

I want to fall in love. I used to be ambivalent over having a Jewish or non-Jewish partner. And I put school and work first, to make something of myself before making a commitment to someone. But after 10/7 I discovered that to be truly me and live freely, I couldn’t choose to build a life with a non-Jew anymore, not unless they chose to convert. I want to live a Jewish life, to have a Jewish husband, to raise Jewish children and grandchildren. I want to add my letter to the scroll of the Jewish people, story and history. And I want to do it with someone who will love every part of me and understand what it means to live a Jewish life in the world we live in.

Clear up my energy field. This means getting rid of stuff. Never realized how hard it was. I had a tube of aloe Vera gel in medicine cabinet and thought well it’s only 1/2 used…then remembered it was Issac’s from 21 years ago. I actually stood over the trash can and meditated on it before I released it. Also got rid of the bag of 1 socks. It’s important bc it makes room for new ideas and ways to flourish. Finally got rid of Deborah and Michael. It was really interesting that how toxic and time consuming they were.

I'd like to feel satisfied and content with my life exactly the way it is. That is the true path to happiness. Also maybe feel more secure in my sense of family.

I want to have planted a nicer garden in the front of the house. Maybe even in the back. I keep thinking about it, admiring other people's yards, but I just never take the time and/or invest the money. It would make me happy, though!

I want to think a bit more before I speak. Words are so powerful, I want to make sure I'm using them to lift and heal, not hurt.

Financial independence. Today I'm really frustrated by my debt. My husband is about to retire and I won't have his help any more. I've got to get it done before this time next year. No excuses.

Well, this time next year I'll be a month away from being married, so hopefully everything will be ready for that! But more importantly, I'm really forward for finishing my conversion and becoming Jewish. It's been a really long, winding process to come to the decision to take this step, and it's great to be in the process, but it does feel a little strange to be in the middle of the step. Everything I learn while converting has only made me more confident in my decision and in my faith, so I'm really excited overall to be Jewish.

I'd like to move out of my mom's house. I'm not sure this is the best goal for me to have. I have a good job, a good relationship with my parents, I spend very little time at home anyway. I don't like the fact that I live with my parents, though, and it makes me feel unsettled. Maybe I should be hoping to achieve the goal of feeling comfortable with the fact that I live at home instead of wanting to move out. Really, I want to feel settled, to feel like I really live somewhere and like where I live, to have a place and a community I can come back to. I'm just not sure if I need to find that or if I already have that and need to accept it.

Be settled near family in my forever home and/or be with my Christian, God fearing husband. Draw closer to God and find a home church. Lose weight and get healthier.

I would love to have learned the whole shim sham shimmy and be able to do it (at least somwhat) competently.

Completing my knitting and needlepoint projects. It's important because two or three of them are gifts for people I love. I know I'll have a sense of achievement when I complete tasks and can move on to other projects. Also I find that knitting is great for my arthritic fingers. They feel better . My level of organization of paperwork and the home office has brought satisfaction. Reading a lot has been interesting and educational.

I want my book to be published! I want tom be promoting it and telling the story of my family. I'd like to be better kapwing and sorting the website, and canva. I'd like to still be doing Daf Yomi and learning Hebrew.

By this time next year I'd like to have made some progress on the IVF journey. Hopefully I'll have frozen some eggs to be able to use soon after. Mama's getting old!

I want to be significantly more fluent in Hebrew. I want to be able to pray in Hebrew and understand what I'm saying in real time.

I'd like to own and be settled in my own house, probably with a roommate I can cherish. I've had so much upheaval in my life and housing situation recently and to be settled with no prospect of unwanted changes would be such a relief. It would give me a strong foundation from which to do good things in the world.

Do I want to collect my stories into a book? Maybe. I'd STILL like to get Colin's book put together. I want us to have a plan for getting out of here in the Winter. I want to have given Kiwi the best life possible. I want us both to be in really good physical shape so we can live our lives fully and robustly. Mostly, I want to have cleared out a lot of the clutter in our lives - house, mind, thoughts - in that order!

By next year, I would like to go to therapy regularly. Right now, I feel like I do not have time, but I believe in the power of therapy and know it would benefit me so much. I hope that by this time next year, I will have organized my time and invested in myself so that I am able to see a therapist.

The revised draft of my book, currently titled reconstructing Kate. I’ve felt drawn to this/these topic/s for a long time, and feel there is much to gain through the exploration and revision of my thoughts and observations here. I’d like to publish it eventually, but completing it to a point of submission is the goal I have control over.

I would really like to have a regular fitness routine in place and I’d like to be back down to a healthy BMI. I want my clothes to fit.

I’d like to have helped the Federation make its first impact investments out of the new impact investing fund. It represents an attitude and policy shift for our community and it is something I can contribute to and be proud of.

I'd like to feel settled and good in my new (rented) home that I am moving into in December, and also to have a plan for what's next in my home journey (even if it is to stay put there). As I write this, I am sitting in the spacious living room of the home Joe and I shared. I am moving into a small sweet home, half the size, closer to town. I want to make that home a reflection of my self, of who I am, alone. In joy, in gratitude, in listening to my heart. Moving is another layer in the grief journey. Necessary, but still, walking away from the known old life, into the new emerging one. I hope to make my new home a welcoming container for my heart, my art, and maybe even new love, somehow. I feel it is important that it be a true reflection of my self.

By this time next year, I would like to achieve a deeper understanding of my Jewish heritage through study and community engagement. This is important to me because it helps me connect with my roots and strengthens my identity, allowing me to share my culture with others more confidently. In addition, I want to continue to learn how to be a more effective advocate for the Jewish community. This is important to me because I want to empower others and contribute to positive change in our society, especially in the face of rising antisemitism.

Building my list, publishing, launches - it just has to happen finally! Renovation orc move to more joyful light spaces. More travel, fitness, fitness travel! I did get and enjoy a gravel bike and better road bike this past year - fabulous 😍

How many years in a row can I answer this question the same way?

I’d like to have found a new job — one in which I can contribute, make a difference, and continue to learn and grow. I’d like to feel secure with the salary and benefits, knowing that I’m still supporting my family. I’d like to feel less anxious that the bottom is going to drop away and then what? I’d like not to feel this worry but to believe or feel that I’m settled ideally until I retire.

Consistency. In loving my self, others and where my life is at any stage. I think this year rocked me so much by not going how I thought it would. I don't want to be rocked by my own expectations or aspirations. Goal are simply aspirations not a road map. Obviously I would like the means and vision to climb out of debt and build back our security better and I want the consistency to be ok even if that doesn't happen how I see it.

Better mobility capability and less pain. More positive outlook on our current and future life experiences.

By this time next year I hope to have the medications I need sorted out so there are no more, 'let's try this' or 'let's try that.' This will allow me to concentrate on living the best life that I can with my issues.

I'd like to get a Creative Circle going based on The Artist's Way. I tried really hard to get that going this summer with the Passion group but it just didn't work out. I'm aiming to get it going with the TOMS group this winter possibly, although I haven't mentioned it to anyone yet! I feel like this is a missing piece in my artistic life and could really open up some blocked places for me that I can't get around on my own. I see that last year I also wrote about getting certification and I'm still feeling like I wish I would move on that. What will it take to figure that out? Maybe the Creative Circle will help. I do think I want to move more into the role of being a counselor, advisor, mentor. I also am suddenly feeling like . . . I want to direct? Shows? Like maybe not choreograph but actually direct? Or both! So let's do that? Yes!!!

I would like to improve my ability to filter or block out negativity around me. There is so much around, especially out on the road - so much impatience and road rage. It's one thing to be vigilant, and another to become angry due to the energy of the people around me. This also includes how I interact with my wife and other people who carry around a lot of anger and bitterness within themselves. She has a right to her feelings, and I am often the only one she feels safe expressing them to. I want to be able to listen and give her that space while maintaining my own equilibrium. I already have a tendency to expect the worst in situations, which is part of what I would like to tone down. The negativities all around me and that I generate within myself can sometimes prevent me from appreciating all of the wonderful things about my life. More importantly, succumbing to that negativity prevents me from living in the moment and truly experiencing joy. I wish to exist in a joyous space.

By this time next year I would love to have reached well over one thousand followers on IG, and more importantly, have the website producing enough income that Sarah can make a living wage. It's a huge goal- but we have to start somewhere!

More mindful/more aware = more life

Alright, forget the writing goal this year. By this time next year, I want to have a solid method for keeping my cool as a mom and keeping my stress at a manageable level.

Continue to pay down debt according to our plan, so I can quit teaching part-time, not teach at all in a couple more years. I am 71 now.

By October 2024 I would like be fully and comfortably supporting my family on my income. I know that will be a reality almost no matter what but I want it to be a comfortable transition. This is important to me because it’s the best move for my family and it’s the best environment to raise a little one

My Masters in Jewish Education Leadership. For myself. For my children. For my community. For the Jewish world.

Fake normality better or die. The underlying problems can’t be fixed (which is part of the problem).

I want to start feeling like I'm in the best shape of my life, not necassarily for aesthetic reasons but more so athletically. I want to feel like I can run better and faster because physically I am just stronger. It's a goal I have every year, but this year, I'm really giving importance and taking specific steps to achieve them.

More love for myself through self care

RETIRE! While a firm date has not been set - the month of September has been identified. I realized that once I set that date, I became tired. And yet, in my last year of working, I have been given a department that is challenging to say the least - one last hill to climb. I am worried about how I will fill my time - maybe a 3 week vacation instead of a 2. I am worried that I will have enough money to thrive - I should. But I do look forward to no longer having to have a day filled with meetings and tasks that no longer excite me.

It really pains me to write the same thing this year as last year. The job search experience has been extremely humbling and depressing, and it makes me feel like I wasted my life acquiring all of the wrong skills. Either that or I just don’t know how to sell myself well. I want to secure something full time with benefits and retirement, preferably something I like but I’d settle for something I can do well. I need it not only to help support my family and eventually purchase a home, but also for my sanity as I feel unchallenged at the moment other than financially.

...achieve. So not something that happens by chance. I would like to finish more art projects. I want to improve my abilities, to show people things I have made. And I feel more powerful when I create things.

By this time next year I would like Cora to be potty trained fully, completely, and truly. I would like to have $1000 in savings. I would like to lose 20 pounds. I would like to finish reading academy and pass my ESL test. I guess that’s it.

I want my life to be calm.

wow i haven't thought about my own life or goals in ages. perhaps my goal should just be to think about myself and take some more time for myself... but honestly it doesn't seem likely what with a new baby coming in december, and tj's hard and irregular work schedule. so ill just put it off again for another year... or 5 :(

Get a great job that I am very good at where I am liked and doing something worth my master's degree. I want to at least have communication with Patience. I want to lose weight and maybe have a guy friend

I would like to have our personal debt paid down. 2 credit cards; 1 car loan and a good chunk of my student loan. I think this is possible, we would have to pinch and save a little but wouldn’t go without. The way the economy is going I’m worried and want to make sure we are financially secure.

I would like to deadlift 200lbs. I was able to do this much prior to starting some medications in 2022, and have been struggling since. However, after going off those meds I was making good progress until an injury. I think if I take better care of myself this will be a reflection of progress.

I’d like to have figured out how we can travel to Iceland (or somewhere that involves a plane flight), including wheelchair, accessible lodging and transportation, and our son. I think it’s important not just because I’d like to be able to go see him, and also not just because I don’t want the joint air traveling part of our lives to be over yet (I know there will be a time when it will be less attractive or not necessary (i.e., if Son ever moved back to the States) but I’m not ready for that yet.). It is important because it would signal a return to a more normal way of doing things. We have regained much of our former flexibility and independence, but this would be a big symbolic step in reopening our world.

I'd like to achieve mental stability - and maintain it - by this time next year. I think it will be important in both supporting myself, my husband, and any child I might want to have in the future. I think I've achieved it with my spiritual practice, medications, and mindfulness; I just need to maintain it. Luckily my medications are all safe to take during pregnancy if I decide to reproduce next year.

If Harris wins: a better savings. A more grounded foundation in existing in this society. A healthier body. Maybe even some therapy. If Asshole wins: Dad and I living in a nice place together, from selling the house, and I have a job that can support the both of us. The asshole will cut off the ways Dad earns his money:the VA and Social Security. We'll have to sell the house and hope that it can keep us afloat.

Year after year I repeat myself. I want to lose weight and receive the benefits of better health outcomes, more energy and positive feelings.

I am going to lose 70lbs by next year. I want to be much stronger too. This will be my year of weight loss and strength training success, yes! My injuries that I had to deal with over the past year are now healed so I can move forward with my fitness goals. I need to prove to myself that I can be disciplined enough to lose that weight and to gain strength and confidence.

Surprise, surprise, I did not accomplish last year's goal. All I have accomplished is reading a somewhat absurd amount of books. Let's just accomplish that again, since it's easy. Perhaps a good goal is to revisit literary classics and reground myself in the canonical literature that I should know best.

Find my old, spiritual, happy self again. Things started going bad for me in 2011, when at the age of 62, I became homeless. I've never been the same since. I don't trust anyone, not even Gd. And although I now have a place to live, the circumstances are terribly depressing and psychologically damaging. There is no one younger than 62 living here, and I've watched my neighbors die, one by one. It has had a horrible effect on me. My shul has a new rabbi who I can't stand and can't trust, and I've never felt welcomed there, so with the new rabbi my decision to find a new shul has become primary. My shul of choice is too far away, and since my rabbi died and my cantor retired, it's not really my shul anymore, anyway, despite the few friends that remain. There are plenty of souls near me, but the thought of shul-shopping is exhausting. But I'm hoping that if I can find the right shul, I'll find my old self too. The question is, how do I muster up the strength to make the effort??

I’d like to be mentally stable and confident within myself. I just started therapy and in a year I would like to see that I’m doing better, that I’m healed and that I’m able to handle myself on the good and on the bad days.

Get into a consistent exercise routine, because it's good for me, and I like how I feel after doing it, I just don't make the time for it.

I will have spent six months in Israel, and having tried extended stays in 2 or 3 locations in Israel, I will have decided whether to make aliya.

To be happier and feel better with myself. To believe that I have a purpose. That people want me around them and I am loved. Hopefully by next year I'll be better and be with better people around me and stick to them.

We did get the sunroom in 2023! I've been using it non-stop since then. Can't wait to see how far into the winter I can use it. So far, it's been a very warm September, and October has been good as well. We also redid the front walkway leading to the house and the landscaping. A huge improvement! I was thinking this might be the end of major renovations, but looks like we'll need to replace the gutters next year, or sooner. In terms of what I'd like to accomplish by this time next year, I'm not sure. Perhaps I will have a goal related to joining the CJE (Chicago Jewish Elderly) and Am Yisrael Boards of Directors. Travel is NOT a goal, although I have my reservations for Israel in February. I don't really mind not having a goal at this point in my life.

I hope I will have successfully completed my training as a birth doula. This year I've chosen to concentrate on the birth/incarnation process because I think it will enhance my experience as an end-of life doula. I have a feeling (or is it an intuition?), that I need to be close to both doors that we pass during our lifetime on this planet, to be able to accompany people in their last stretch.

Finish all my classes at Concordia. Have approval from the ethics committee to start interview with individuals for my thesis research. Be on the path to writing and finishing my thesis.

I want to get into grad school and know where I'm going- that has been the biggest driver of things for me for the past few years- one of the only things in my plan that has not been negotiable. Even though the type of grad school has changed, I know its whats next for me and sometimes it feels comforting to return to that. I won't say that I want to know what I want to do because that's not particularly helpful at this point. I hope I've come into myself and am more confident in what I want to seek what makes me feel good- and I do this every year but every year it is something new. I'd like to get in better shape and run longer and faster- I know it definitely takes a lot of patience and I feel willing to put in the effort, its just a matter of really getting out there and finding it in myself to push. Hawk helps me, but I think the same push that makes me give the run my all is the same puch that gets me out of bed when I'm tired and get off of social media and do healthier things that in the long term make me feel better. (and getting past his injury)

I'd like to still be here. I think I will but you never know. I'd like to have traveled some more. I enjoy traveling although I am much slower and less able than I was in the past.

I am improving my heatlh and my general staminia and livilth and my general stamina.

By this time next year, I'd like to have begun the podcast I'm working on now and possibly have people following it and feel like the work I'm doing might make even a modest difference in how people see the news and spend their time online.

Naming an achievement is hard. I’m always seeking clarity and journaling/writing allows me to explore my thoughts. I’d love to define this next venture - Project something-or-another. And to develop some micro-goals toward the bigger vision. It’s important because it gives me direction - and keeps me focused on what really matters, creating an impact in the world - and the legacy I wish to leave behind.

I'd like to stop bouncing off the surface or skating on the periphery of things that are important to me. It will require bravery on my part, and a certain doggedness. Bravery, because I often fold or disappear in the face of push-back. Doggedness, because giving up is easier than moving forward in the face of difficulty. I can exercise courage and diligence, but what is harder, is wisdom. It's important because I've been stalled out for too long. Life is short, and opportunity is not forever. I'd like the last chapters of my life to be experienced "eyes open", instead of a resigned sleepwalk to the end.

Be less lazy, and be there for our son.

a few things I most want: - a thriving and resilient self. - work that stimulates my mind and does good in the world. - a home where I and the people I love feel safe and peaceful. - a husband and partner to do life with while laughing together every day (shared admiration and adoration, mutual prioritization of our relationship). - a farm with living waters, sunny meadows, walk-about forest, and lots of animals. - to grow a family that can end generational traumas and begin healthy patterns for us, our children, and generations of grands. - a 50th wedding anniversary. - to whistle REALLY LOUD!

I would like to have a cruise ship headliner agent. I feel that cruise ship performing will expand my income potential beyond audiobooks, futureproofing as best I can. I also miss traveling and performing.

And once again, same as the previous FOUR years: "some sense of agency over my own life via employment or freelance/independent work." "...equating earning my own money with self-agency. It's the Anthem of the Homemaker, isn't it? Without our own income, we are beholden to the wage earner in the family, whether explicitly or implicitly. This creates a power imbalance, whether acknowledged or not. I don't want to be the junior partner anymore."

A position and action on the Israel/Palestine conflict--donate money or protest or write a letter

I just made a bunch of little notes of twelve things I want to learn about this year. Each month I will choose one and spend the month learning about it. This month, the first, I picked out the note that suggested I learn about the countries of Africa, so that I can recognize the names, locations and maybe even some history. Big job!

I’d like to feel accomplished and settled enough into my new job that I am not questioning daily whether I should look for other work.

Finding my role in the progressive Jewish community for Tikun Olam. Right now I feel like I am floundering.

I want to have sorted out the issues I currently have with my knees. I think they are all flexibility and strength related, so will continue my two exercises programs that address each of these issues. I would like to walk one of the heritage trails in Japan in 2026 but won‘t be able to do it if my knee mobility doesn’t improve.

We are still trying to figure out whether we need to move to a place that is simpler to maintain. We are not very good at figuring things out together, it is usually one or the other of us who makes a decision, but I really want this to be a decision that we make together. Not sure how that is going to work.

I would like to have my drivers license. I think that it is important to have, and as E is getting older it will make getting to interesting places much easier (as well as school and normal stuff).

I would like to have more balance. Less social media, more outside exercise. steady/stable volunteer work, more structured/reliable activities and daily routines. It is important for me to feel grounded in my life.

Being on a new team at work. Mine is made up of horrible people with limited professional integrity. It weighs me down and puts a dampener on my new job, which I am very excited about (I love the work). I have done work with this company before and know it isn't a systemic problem, it's just the people on this particular team. I've gotten tentative permission to move teams in April, and hopefully the next work experience will be more positive.

I just want to get the house to a more functional place. fix and paint the cracked plaster, replace the carpet in the game room. Find sideboards, shelves and hall tables that make sense for the space. Hang up art and photos. Be able to use my office and craft room and game room for their intended purposes.

I would like to have three exercise practices in my rotation. I don’t have a weight loss number, I just need to be doing some physical work for my health.

I would like to have routine and constancy----in my self care, in my work. And in having routine, allow for spontaneity in my social world without anxiety. I would like to feel settled and not questioning my every day. This feels important because without it, I spend much of my life in my head, in my worries. And this internal world spills out into my external world and how I relate to others and to the world around me. I fear that I am deepening the unhealthy, dire outlook mental grooves with this practice.

My first thought is being on a committed career path. My next thought would be to have built something semi-useful (outside of work) with my tech skills. At the moment I'm thinking of an app that integrates my CV with any given job ad to write a cover letter for that ad. Up until a few months ago it was 'roster bot' website. I sort of gave up on that a bit when I became intimidated by the prospect of figuring out a user-permission system with invites. As I write this I'm realizing I maybe just need to lean into the challenge of it. But, on the other hand, maybe I should start with something that doesn't need to be that secure to be useful. The last thing I've thought of, and this is probably more important, is that I'd like to have at least one more good friend and have maintained and nurtured my existing friendships.

I would like to leyn the torah readings for the next high holidays, because it would be an indication that I began to prepare for the chagim in a decent amount of time and that I wasn't scrabbling three days before to get everything learnt!

I want to have built a thriving online community.

Identify three concrete actions/activities I intend to embark that put my values in action. (And plus one for any of those are already being implemented.)

I'd like to lose 15 pounds, again. And I'd like to be a little more organized.

I’d like to have decided on the big questions: move to Spain or stay in the US? Retire or keep working? And then taken steps to make them happen.

Save more money. Retire early and be more comfortable financially.

Help take back the House and put a woman in charge. Why is it important? Saving democracy and helping more people in need.

Easy. I want to be 20 lbs lighter. I don’t like how I look. I think weighing less will be easier on my knees. I haven’t been happy with my body for a long time and I’m tired of thinking about how I weigh too much.

I would like to continue with decluttering things. I know my time is limited, and there are things I do not need or want any longer. This also can include some relationships -- including the one I have with social media. I believe the negativity I see is robbing me of both time and mental health/happiness.

I want to have helped Asher heal, to really get him to a place where he is solid and stable and that he is in college and where he needs to be and thriving. I want him to be able to navigate stress, temptation, friendship, feelings and his mental health with the tools and support he needs and also a sense of autonomy. I want to be able to look back on this time at Montare and Newport Academy as being life changing for him and that I am able to help be a support through it and not add to his stress but be a calm rock of love and confidant.

I DID achieve my last year's goal of obtaining a decent semi-unstressful job! YEAH My goal by this time next year is THAT I'M STILL EMPLOYED and making decent comission, or a raise, or just to still be employed (unless Bill WINS the PCH)!

I really want to open my own tutoring business. Just me and the writer.

I would like to develop one or two new meaningful relationships. It is important to me to have people in my life who I care deeply about and who care deeply about me. In the past two years, people who I have felt close to have died. Having meaningful, loving connections is important for my growth and my well being.

Lose 40-50 pounds so that my knees feel better and I can walk more.

Well, I hit last year's goal of having a new job and being in a new phase of my life. Did not acquire a boyfriend, but not for a genuine lack of trying. Next steps are to move out and get a boyfriend, and maybe not in that order.

I will no longer be president! Four years is a long time, especially this past year without a VP and not knowing if there would be a next president, if the organization was going to wither away, and feeling responsible for the future of our local Jewish community. I am looking forward to the title "Immediate Past President" although I have no idea how much less of my time will be devoted to the organization. I just know it will be less than these past three years. I'm thrilled that I reached last year's goal. My new Kindle was very helpful.

I want that city book done. I think it matters and I want to move on to other writing.

Pay off all my credit card debt. It would allow me to save money.

Reducing my phone use to 2 hours or less per day. I want to get my 7 years back with my daughter. I want to get my life back spent doing things that matter not spending time on useless things.

I want to establish a consistent painting and fiber art practice. Not producing finished work necessarily, but doing something small every day to learn and explore.

I’d like to be in alignment with my goals. I know that this involves liberation for Palestine and working towards that. It’s important to me that my values are aligned to where I end up.

I would like to have successfully delivered my youth interpretive naturalist training. Success would be to not only have the workshop go well, but to have connected participants with meaningful opportunities (sharing their interest in nature with the public and/or contributing to citizen science efforts) and to have connected myself, as well, more solidly with organizations doing this kind of work in the community.

Still have a democracy.

I don’t know, I feel paralyzed in time. I am not ok.

I want to be part of enabling amazing science to happen with real data from Rubin Observatory. It's going to be turning on so soon and we have so much to finish!! And the satellite problem is only getting more severe by the week. I am excited for all the random things I've worked on over the past 8+ years to actually come to fruition (and of course make even more work for all of us). In other news, we still don't have cats. That's still an "eventually" goal but it doesn't have a particular timetable attached to it.

I'd like to not be in charge of anything. This may sound silly, but I have been rolling through serious burnout for years now, in large part because of having too many responsibilities - PTA roles, advocacy roles - outside of my day job and my family. I need to let go of those roles 0r find a "power middle" so that I am not always dragging and so that I have time to care for myself and my well-being.

I want to be less tired. I don't know how I'm going to get there, but I'm tired of being fucking tired all the time.

Just one? I want a better job. Everything else I could put here would require stable income and/or a job that better aligns with my lifestyle or at least doesn’t hinder it as much.

I don't like setting goals that are timebound. The only thing in this life I have ever wanted to achieve is to be happy, and that is a goal I strive for daily.

I continue to seek balance. I’m feeling more on top of things after 2+ years of caretaking for my husband post brain surgery. He’s wheelchair bound and tube fed. My mother-in-law, who has dementia, moved in 6 months ago. It’s a lot, but thanks to my supportive family and wonderful friends I am carving out a satisfying life. It is the ultimate privilege to have the time and energy to give my loved ones the support they need. And, carving out time to have fun is important for us all.

I would like to be at a place where I have reached a "goal weight" and where I am maintaining it. I hope that the healthy habits I'm learning in Noom will be ones I will use for the rest of my life and that I won't fall back into old habits once I stop tracking my food every day. I would also like to be pain free in my hip and have no other pains popping up in my body.

I’d like to be in better physical shape this time next year- doing regular exercise on a regular basis. Feeling stronger.

I’d like to have worked through the Alanon Steps with a sponsor. This feels like important work that will help me continue to build and nurture healthy relationships. Starting with myself, first. I’m excited to see how God will illuminate this path and surprise me along the way.

I want to bike trek the Great Allegheny Passage and Chesapeake and Ohio trails from Pittsburgh at least to Leesburg VA. I have come to love my bike treks, I have not done the GAP yet, and this would be a longer trek, so a bigger challenge than the last few. It will be fun!

I’d like to have a healthy, joyful romance. It’s important to me because I’ve never had that, and, because of my identity, I’ve been wrongly and cruelly taught all my life that I’m not worthy of it.

I did finish the two piano pieces I was working on, and was relatively satisfied. I am now working intensely on Chopin’s Nocturne in D flat M. This is quite a reach and one of his hardest pieces. My teacher advised me to drop everything else, which was a hard choice and included the Rachmaninov and The Schumann. The piece is ridiculously difficult and I have no illlusions about any level of expertise. But the thing is- it is so stunningly beautiful that I cannot not attempt to learn as much as I can, as well as I can. I am not allowed to practice hands separate, thus it is an arduous and intense journey. Hard to explain how one can love something so much and work so hard at it, fully knowing that mastery is not the goal. Music is pretty much what saves me.

By this time next year, one thing I’d really like to achieve is getting my health back on track. I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress in my life over the past year—I’ve been at my job for over a year, I adopted Luna, and I switched therapists. I feel more mature and capable in many areas, which is great! But my health has taken a bit of a backseat. I was really fit in 2020-2021, but since then, I’ve regained the weight, and I want to change that. Getting back to a place where I feel good physically is important to me. It’s not just about losing weight—it’s about feeling healthy and strong again. I’m excited to see where I can be a year from now, especially with Luna by my side, helping me stay active with our daily walks. This is something I’m ready to focus on, and I’m optimistic about what the next year will bring

More free time for myself, less people pleasing and filling up our weekends. It's important for my own mental health and to spend more time with Borgi and the boys.

I want to have landed a job - but not any job - a job that aligns with my life goals -work flexibility and location independent so I can spend time with my loved ones across the globe. I want to go back to saving money and hopefully, investing it for my older self. I want to have found my people in Australia, feel a bit more at home and not be just 'surviving', but thriving. I want to have a routine that makes me excited to wake up the next day - and also have reasons to look forward to the weekend:) I also want to have visited new incredible places and forged great memories with my partner and I want our relationship to be even more solid and that we are more committed to each other, with more defined plans for our future.

I want to do some form of active physical exercise at least 5 days a week. Walking a minimum of 6,500 steps is my goal. If the weather isn't conducive, I can walk indoors, although that is far less enjoyable. Keeping fit will enrich my life in every way, which will, in turn, help Stan and our family.

I hope I can work through my personality disorder that's destroying my marriage and killing me

I’d like to have taken one step toward a more radically values-lived life for our family: New job/career for me (not primarily digital), new home (extremely close to friends or deep in Brookland to center school/dance/restaurants there).

Well, I'll have led services. It's not necessarily something I want to achieve, but I'm on course to achieve it, so it'll be a massive fail if I haven't. Professionally, I'd like to have got the directly agglutinating version of BirmaD6 tested out by whatever company it was, and be well on the way to making a stable cell line, and have given a WIP talk about it. This is important because it's a project that I have really pushed because I think it has merit in it. I'd ideally like to be proved correct! But I'd also like to demonstrate that I'm capable of some decent development work. Even if someone else planned it all out for me...

I'd like to remain physically healthy. I'd like to have traveled more than in previous years.

I would like to live in a world of people that know and accept that I have bipolar disorder. I accept the risk, and the losses, that will come from being more open about it, and from not accepting relationships that aren't supportive.

I would like to be significantly involved in writing my book.

I'd like to take the time to be more intent about my writing of poetry. I tend to write when an idea hits me and is easy to flesh out. If an idea hits me and doesn't go anywhere I give up. This is important because writing poetry is my therapy. It's my way to connect to my inner life. I think I should give it more time and importance.

Clear scan for the rest of my life! Eat healthier, stay proactive like I have been taking vitamins eating right, be soulful and enjoy life to the fullest, let go of bad energy, focus on good things happening! Strive to let go of the past and learn. Make more friendships that shall last. Keep losing weight more twenty pounds and keeping it off for the rest of my life. Be more with family. Let go of anger, resentment, guilt. Be at peace inside and out!

I can never answer just one thing of course. I am struck by what I hoped for last year having been determinedly carved into being from the rock bottom I had been building back from. So this time next year I want to aspire to the next stages of all, and I have everything I need to work, wish and care them into being. Make this house I have managed to buy My home. Support my beautiful boys through A levels and university life and build our ‘new normal’ family life throughout the year, chagim and all. Be a good friend, family, colleague and person. Do 1% more like the rabbi of chabad manchester asked. Maybe Shabbat candles? Secure our family home via the success of my purposeful work, to give us another few years for real life stability to me and the boys. Amen

I want to host at least three somethings! It's important, because I keep putting it on my list, but I don't do it! I know it has to be SMART: Specific - Two dinners and a lunch. at least. Meaningful - I feel better when I do it! If I could pull off RH lunch, I could certainly do this! Action-oriented - It's making a list: food, clean, food, people, clean. Relevant - If I want a wider group of friends, I have to do something about it! Time-bound - I have a year, but I think that's too long a time-frame. SO: I give myself until November 10th. Maybe an election night dinner??

I would like to be able to do more things for myself with the extra retirement days and get into a proper routine of exercise and te take painting. This will get me into better physical and mental health

I would like to complete 100 hours of hospice volunteering to complete the foundations of contemplative care.

By this time next year I would like to be in a different home with a washer and dryer 😊

I would like to have a full time job by this time next year. I’ve enjoyed the flexibility of consulting, but would love the stability of full time employment.

I'd like to be writing regularly again.

I have to achieve an even more healthy status. Hitting 80 my clock is running down so weight and heart condition must improve. Frustrating that I came short as this was last year's priority as well. Darn.

Yet again, I wish to clear out my office of all unnecessary papers and odds and ends and set up my desk so it functions ergonomically - or move the whole thing downstairs so we can separate Ilan and William.

I want to finish the story of A Single Puffy White Cloud in a Clear Blue Sky and have it out there in the world. It is important to me to restore my confidence in my writing, and get those narratives out there because they preserve and share culture and perspective that are rapidly being eroded and sqelched.

By this time next year, I will have completed a Distinguished Honors Thesis about the mental health outcomes of college students when they utilize services and seek help. This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart over last three plus years, and I look forward to seeing my personal experience and passion come to fruition in a way that can supplement my larger idea for a book called "Dear Anxious Student: How To Thrive Through The College Transition". I realize that my topic has slightly changed since last year's iteration. We decided to brought in the scope with a project beyond just liberal art schools. We came across a gold mine of data from the healthy minds study out of the university of Michigan, I have more data than I know what to do with!

By this time next year, I’d like to have organized and decorated every room in my house to my taste and satisfaction, and for each room to be serving its intended purpose: my master bedroom a peaceful refuge, my studio a working artist space, my library a welcoming space for guests as well as for reading, my kitchen arranged with everything where it is needed. I am enjoying the process as I work on this.

I would like to have settled into writing, or drawing, or crocheting, or something once I finish up sorting through my house.

I want my family to have a confirmed set of financial goals and be actively working toward them, tracking them on a regular cadence. This is important so we stop making money for money's sake, and instead focus on being present in what we enjoy.

I truly want to have better physical health and vitality, including more dancing, hiking, and yoga, along with mental and emotional calm, clarity, and joy. I want to enjoy my midlife years and set myself up well for a vibrant old age!

I am usually an intentional person, but the coming year feels blank -- not meaningless, but more like I am supposed to respond to events, than to plan them. To be responsive is a stance and a healthy one, given that I have an elderly mother whose decline is consistent. I am curious what/where/who I will be this time next year.

I'd like to improve my exercise habits so that I can consistently have the energy I need to do everything I love.

I want to come out of my caregiver gig knowing that I did the best I could under sometimes seriously stressful conditions, such as preparing loved one for an hurricane evacuation with relative. I WILL be a better person because of this mitzvah.

I hope will have completed remodeling my home and have a party to show it off. The right living space is so important after years of not being able to afford the beauty that I want. I had only make shift stuff before, and a party is imortant because I live alone but want others to enjoy the beauty too! Interstingly, I said the same thing last year and although it is not yet complete, I have made significant progress. Who knew it would take more than a year Lol!

I think it's okay not to achieve anything. I am giving myself permission not to grow and not to achieve anything. Living is enough. If I achieve something, then great, if not, O well. Getting through this pandemic in one piece and getting through this life spiritually whole is enough for me! I consider those two things achievements and anything else is a bonus.

Same as last year. More realistic to say start construction of the adu. And to add start the orchard with fiscal sponsor. These things are important to me for creating housing and beauty and community.

In all honestly, I'm keeping my personal aspirations small this year, as I don't have a lot of bandwidth. And I kind of don't know what to do with/for myself in my free time to be honest. I'm feeling very fulfilled by my children and this stage of motherhood. I'm happy and stable in my marriage and my other most important relationships. But I suppose the biggest thing for me this year (at least at this point) is getting back into a workout routine. My body has been through the wringer this year with the strains of pregnancy (including gestational diabetes; being pregnant while taking care of a toddler), giving birth, breastfeeding/pumping for a time, and spraining my ankle and foot. Not to mention the limited sleep. So, I need to get my body strong again so it can handle the demands of every day life and feel good. I want to workout for my longevity too, and for the mental benefits. I'm feeling really ready, and hope I can do this in a schedule that works for me and my family.

I would like to lose weight by this time next year. I feel more confident and more healthy and just generally happier when my weight is down. I feel embarrassed that this is important to me, but this is my honest response and I would just like to be a bit slimmer and more toned and fitting into a smaller clothing size by next year.

I'd like to not be bingeing and purging by this time next year, I'd like to have stopped that behavior and be really focusing on taking care of myself. It's important because I won't be harming myself in that way anymore. I want to be at peace with who and how I am. It's important because I'll be able to show up authentically in my life.

Have routines for my kids for eruv Shabbat and on Shabbat so that they are engaging positively in the traditions. Also, have routines for myself for Torah learning and exersize.

I would like to achieve a greater sense of wellness in my soul. By that, I mean a better handle on my anxiety and a better sense of who I am in Christ and the value He has placed on me.

Hard to read my answer to this from last year. I am hopefully W and I will be in a better position financially. I frequently feel like I'm slowly going into debt all year long, which I pay off using my bonus, and then I slide into debt again. I paid off my car, and am still making slow but steady progress on my school loans. I don't think I'm looking for anything radically different, just more of the same. Deepening my relationship with my spouse, my friends, and myself. Spending time with my creative self, and not just rotting away as I watch tv. I do want to continue to be kinder to myself, to have space for mistakes and being imperfect. I'd like to have made a decision about a kid. It would change our lives so much, and I already really like my life. So maybe we don't need to do this after all. Just hanging onto W feels like such a win, just growing that relationship and having fun with them... such a win.

Plan a unique event at/in association with the J to engage the larger area community and demonstrate our commitment to the betterment of humanity and our planet. The western world has been spoonfed a grotesquely warped perception of who we are and what we stand for, and the most hateful cynics are crafting a narrative and culture of hate and violence when all we want is love and light.

It's my hope that I'll be settled in a new job, well on my way to being qualified to use the title of Paralegal. This is important to me because my current job situation is causing me too much negative stress, and I am looking forward to a new job in which I can make important contributions and help people.

I’d like to give myself more love and acceptance. I think I wouldn’t feel so lonely and sad if I could remember to send love to myself. Maybe develop some patience for my daughter in law. Right now I’m super sick of walking on egg shells and being afraid to break any - apparently shes SO fragile. But won’t get any help either.

Land a more flexible position so I can do more of the things I love, like travel.

I want to sell my scarves and visit South Korea. My kid said he wishes I can “fail fast” (if my interest for this current endeavor wanes, I can move on to my next project), and he’s right. I’ve been trying to launch Jaagi Fashion for a year and have no product yet, so maybe I need to be more honest about my goals for this project. What I really want is to be unencumbered and travel. So why am I reluctant to admit that? Yes, traveling and visiting friends and family is what I really want to do in the next year.

I'd like to feel happier, more accepting of what happens in my life, and more self-confident. It's important because I don't want to continue wasting so much time feeling bad.

I would like to lose 45 lbs. I have started already and have lost just over 6 lbs. I am exercising and have changed my diet to more fresh food and less processed food. I want to be able to buy clothes in more stores.

Last year's didn't work. So this year - be a much better bird photographer. It's my happy place, and makes me calm

Besides on the verge of completing my last semester or two of school, I would really like to see Erin and I living together. I have started talking to her about it and I think she's open enough to it, but I haven't started discussing when. By January of 2025, I want us to begin looking for places together. Doesn't mean we have to finish it in January, I just want us to start. This is important to me because she is important to me. I want to marry her, have kids with her, and live a life with her. I want to be able to see her on a mostly daily basis and living together would be a great next step in our relationship.

To find more peace with mom’s memory. We had a complex relationship and I wish I could find peace at this time.

Lose weight. I'm really at a point of risking my health and well-being as I get older and get no less fat. I have lots to live for and so much still to see . . . I'd like 30 more years at least. I need to get this under control.

I'd like to still be alive. 👁

Peace in the Middle East so all the senseless fighting and bloodshed stops and so we can start to sleep easier in our beds

setting on a firm retirement target date - it will be farther out than I want, but so it goes

Creating a new and most large series of works for the Notabaert museum. Having a great opening there. Getting some press about it. A career high for sure. Hoping it works out.

A new job. It is beyond time. It won't fix everything but I think it will reorient some things usefully.

Same as last year. I am taking an unpaid leave of absence in spring quarter so I am technically only 75% at work this year. I also have a plan in place to develop someone to succeed me as faculty lead for the course. Still trying to hold my work more lightly -- be prepared but don't over-prepare and trust that even when things are not perfect I am still enough.

Become stronger and more motivated to join in activities to help the community, with genuine joy and happiness in my heart.

Figured out my ADHD situation so I can move on with my life.

Similar to last year - I'd like to successfully work through Knowledge of Higher Worlds with Sagamba. He too is a person devoted to the betterment of Human Kind and he is also serious about learning more through Anthroposophy. I would be gratified to make a contribution and to his life and again be an active part of Kimberton Hills and the Anthroposophical Community in genera. But also importantly is to support Martha through love and through the Waldorf 2nd Grade Curriculum. And if I could contribute to Naomi's happiness and capabilities and independence, I'd be thrilled.

I would like to have written at leat 1/2 of my book. This is important to me because I have been thinking about this for a long time but not actually following through. It's like I don't' believe in myself and I give up. Writing this book will help me shape my ideas and voice into something I can share with others.

I'd like to move my career forward (and make more $). It took me so long to find a career path I feel passionately about, and it's hard not to slow down when you have a kid. But working toward electrification is actually so much more important with a kid. It matters so much more that I spend my days making his future better. Plus, raising a kid in NYC is so expensive and it would be nice to have a bit more.

I don’t actually have any specific goals for what I would like to achieve next year. I’m hoping to take each day as it comes, living my life as fully as I can with more self-compassion and kindness. As an achievement oriented person, being ok with not having a goal is an achievement in and of itself.

By this time next year I’d like to have completed my dietetic internship and become a Registered Dietitian. This is the culmination of what I’ve been working towards the last 5+ years and will be the start of my career.

Wow, that's quite a question. I definitely like to be committed to the gym regularly, and a year from now feel like I have really achieved something by doing that. I'd also like to feel like I have conquered a few demons - - once I'm particularly struggling with now - - and be at a place with peace about them. Both of these are really important to me because I want to feel healthy and strong spiritually, emotionally and physically. I want to be at peace. I'm tired of fighting s***

I would like to have all my Jewish-related materials well-organized and available. I collected so many pieces that are mingled together without any organization. Many have been totally forgotten. It's important to me to be able to retrieve items when desired.

At 80, it’s more about “retain” than “achieve.” I’d like to retain my health, my wits and, please god, what’s left of my vision. I’d like to retain my darling husband, my precious kids and grandkids, my general good spirits as I continue to navigate this phase of my life.

I’d like to be gainfully employed, a steady and reliable job, with enough money to live on, benefits, 401k match, and some paid time off. This has been so elusive since the pandemic started. Every boss I’ve encountered for five years wants to pay too little and overwork us with minimal staff, while expecting us to be hyped up and proud. And I hear the same story from everyone. Ridiculous. Wouldn’t it be nice to feel a sense of gratefulness and generosity from the company that makes money off you? I’m getting older and would actually like a comfortable retirement to not be a pipe dream.

Personally, I would like to have a successful year of volunteering and good health (exercise and diet). This is important to me because I believe in a healthy mind, body, and spirit. Globally, I wish for peace in the Middle East.

I’d like to find a home for my memoir - a publisher I feel excited about. Publication that opens doors, new connections, and possibilities of various kinds.

Lose weight. It affects everything I do. Back, standing for long periods, playing with grandchildren, walking medium distances, sitting for long periods - all hurt. I go to the gym religiously but not enough to make up for poor eating habits. I’m addicted to sugar as much as an addict is addicted to heroin. Soon as I swear off sugar I will lose weight. Must be around for Sandi and the family.

It's a dangerous question, assuming so much, tempting painful irony . . . and a total set up for self shaming! If I wanted to set myself up for ZERO disappointment or embarrassment, I'd say: "I'd like to watch way more TV!" or "I don't feel like I've spent enough time sitting on my couch." or "I'd love to see more things fall apart on my house." or "I'd like to waste more money on things I think I need but don't really." Okay. I'd like to focus on a little more frugality. I could do this by shopping more mindfully (and actually going to grocery outlet, winco, and costco!), not eating out as much, ending my amazon addiction, taking a little hiatus on ticket purchases as well as "flight travel," insisting on thrift 100% for clothes . . . and keeping a bit of a budget spreadsheet to observe my spending. This seems like a good goal that doesn't touch the touchy topics of health and wellness. I'd seriously love it if I could say in a year that I've made headway on the PHYSICAL PAIN but I don't want to set up myself up again . . . oh, but I'm doing that right now, aren't I?

I would like to get better sleep. I would like to find more peace. I would like to learn to paint. I am keeping it so simple. I just want to find something to do to give me more peace.

This may sound weird, but I just want to achieve contentment with my existence. For so long I've held myself to a high standard and not been able to be satisfied with just being. I know it is important to have goals, but I want my baseline to be happiness that I'm alive, surrounded by people who I love and love me, and experiencing the beautiful world that is.

At this moment all I want is health and peace.

A new apartment. I hope to move from Forest Hills to an apartment I can afford and with friendly neighbors. I had an issue with my landlord and super who ignored my request to fix a leak in my ceiling that started leaking again last fall. It was getting progressively worse, pieces of the ceiling were falling off and when it rained the water was filling up cups, no longer just leaking. I called 311, they told me to make a service request and I did, this was January 7, 2024 . The repair was done the next day and an inspector from the HPD came a week later to inspect the ceiling. He said the ceiling needs painting that it has a primer. When I called Wally to tell him he was a little nasty and the HPD officer heard him and was upset at his response. The solution is to move.

I'd love to have a job that doesn't make me want to die. low bar. hard to achieve.

Please please God may I be pregnant

I'd like to stay in a state of awareness to what I am doing, reading, thinking - and hold on to those thoughts. I'm losing short term memory and I'm trying to fight it. I want to continue to grow all my life.

Make my. children happy to be..

I’d like to be traveling again. Smaller chunks, like 3 months at a time so I don’t run out of medication. At 30 years old, right before my 31st birthday, I hope I’m on my way to Australia (ideally Tasmania) or somewhere else lovely. I hope I have a long-term plan as it relates to a career that’s good for my well-being if not my wallet, and that I’m either still dating L or seeing women who make my heart sing. What I wanted to do last year- sign a 12-month lease (done), be writing more (not doing), be training for some kind of job like ESL teaching- I’ve been volunteering in class at Literacy Source for 6+ months, I’m tutoring for the first time starting this quarter, and I’m taking an online TEFL certification that I have until January or February to complete.

Divorce. I want the divorce done and the financials sorted. This still overhanging me is a constant stressor

I'd love more financial stability. We are slowly paying off debt, so I know that will come, but it always feels more pressing and urgent in the moment. I would like to be more financially stable and earning more money. I did receive a raise a few weeks ago and I'm officially earning more than I ever have in the past, but I'm still feeling the pinch from some poor planning and financial decisions.

I hope I will know the next step. Just the next step.

More writing. More creativity. And TRAVEL. Not to go to a family event - although those are always fun - but just to experience a different place and people.

Have a clearer direction for planning my retirement, including dates

I would like to have progressed a lot in WA, and feel like I am living a creative life. A life that is primarily creative and secondarily staying afloat.

I would like to successfully launch my youngest into college and find happiness and fulfillment as an empty-nester.

By this time next year, I want to be happy I my new life, settled in a new place, grounded, ready to find a new direction.

Okay, this is easy. I want to start implementing more weight training into my routine. I do cardio, I walk, I do yoga, I meditate, but I've never been able to successfully implement a strength training program. This is what I will work towards in 2025. I need to find a good platform. Should I just use Peloton? YouTube? Nourish Move Love? Sadie Active App that Mel uses? Posters that Darren has? Follow him for inspo? I know it doesn't have to be perfect or an expensive program. It just needs to get done. I'll be on the lookout for how to start.

I like to have a better position at work or new job entirely. Because I want to move out be more independent.

I would like to see an improvement in my health. I'm starting a new medicine in Nov., that has a lot of promise. It's very important to me so I can do more things again.

Being professed as a lay Franciscan if so deemed. The community is helpful for mutual support and guidance, needed given solitude more than ever.

I need to finish a draft of my novel and figure out whether it is worth trying to publish. I spent years doing research on the historical background and finally decided that the material is best suited for fiction... but I don't know if I am a gifted enough fiction writer to do it justice. I have lots of hang-ups writing fiction because I studied literature and compare myself constantly to other writers, thinking that my style is not sufficiently deep or interesting or fresh. But I need to get this story on paper, and then do a more honest and complete evaluation, probably engaging an agent or reader. I notice that I gave the same answer last year... not a good sign! I also want to plan another major trip -- my trip to China this year was so fulfilling and mind-expanding that I feel I need to continue on this path of discovery. Finally I need to address my heath issues to ensure that I will be able to travel and write!

I want to produce a successful Festival of Freedom Song and Movement on June 14. Joining the voices and bodies of of multiple generations in a celebration of Our Freedom will be the culmination of my life

I would like to be making some of my own clothes and to be able to make patterns for myself. It gets me being creative, learning a complicated skill, proving that I’m capable. It also means that I can satisfy my own design desires and wear something unique.

Better weight and fitness. It’s important because I’m going to be 60 and as I get older I think it becomes more important to help my health to be optimal.

I would like to finish knitting the sweater I started almost a year ago!

I want to be able to fully walk and to return to my lap swimming, running, E-Gym, yoga classes and free weights. It is important to me because sports are my life's passion and bring me joy. It is imperative that I re-learn to walk first.

By this time next year, I would like to achieve financial stability. This is important to me because it represents more than just being able to cover my expenses—it's about creating a foundation for long-term security and flexibility in my life. Financial stability would allow me to take calculated risks, whether it's pursuing further career opportunities or investing in personal growth. It would also alleviate the stress of day-to-day financial worries, giving me more mental space to focus on meaningful relationships, personal development, and future planning. Ultimately, financial stability would empower me to live with more intention and make decisions based on my values rather than immediate financial concerns.

A sense of direction for my career (currently feeling very unmotivated & scattered). I'm ready for a VIP upgrade of my self-employment. Hopefully it will come before then, because a year from now is a long time!

I'd like to learn enough Hebrew to gain a basic understanding of the prayers and Torah. It's important to me because I want to get deeper into the thinking of the prophets' and God's minds.

I want to feel that I have completely embraced the reality of aging.

A positive bank balance. So much stress from financial issues!!!!!

And another duplicate Amazingly, the list from last year pretty much remains the same: Close out the storage facility in Brockton. It would relieve my family of doing if I end up with an early demise. It would also save a chunk of change. Other than that: run a 5K in 30 minutes (got it down under 31 minutes this year) and a 10K in 60 minutes (not even close this year). Run a half (actually run rather than walk) - wait until next year. Add another forty (rather than four dozen - and I'll run more than 50 in 2023) MA communities to my "run a race" list. Although now I have to act as the "personal representative" for my brother's estate, so settle those affairs, sell the house and car, and work out the disposition of everything else

The same as every year: Focus my activism. Keep on dancing. Travel. And for this year especially, celebrate a country that chose democracy over demagoguery. Why? Because these first ones give my life meaning and connection. And the ones for this year - because connection and meaning won't be enough if the whole country is suffering and in particular if the lives of my lesbian friends and immigrant friends and Jewish and Muslim friends are destroyed by the selfish ones who chose a liar and criminal because they believed the right wing media.

I'd like to make significant progress on a book and also on health/exercise. In both cases that requires making the time and having the discipline to use the time effectively. Just saying that hopefully helps me toward reminding myself to do these things

Living in a better property, seeing someone who is worthy of my company. I need to achieve goals.

I would really like to have sold my mom's house and moved her into something smaller.

I want to be more stable financially and create a buffer. This way I will hopefully be able to buy that new laptop and phone and travel more.

I will have a fulltime thriving, prosperous coaching practice. I will have completed three motivational speaking gigs. I will have completed 5 group workshops and facilitated one retreat. I will have schedule 3 group workshops in the future. I will have written a draft of my memoir and shared it to friends to read for feedback and an editor for the same. I'm ready to step into my wholeness as a coach, writer and motivational speaker.

I'd like to pick up my wood carving again. I didn't do it for a long time because I couldn't figure out how to get my tools sharp enough. I miss sitting outside and watching a figure emerge from the wood.

On the eve of my 38th birthday, I want to improve my relationship to money. I no longer want to be broke—not that I ever want to be broke. Still. I’m getting older. I know my financial responsibilities. I also want to enjoy myself on trips and different experiences. In order to do what I need and what I want, I need to rear in my poor money habits.

I'd like to feel resolved with uncluttering my home. I finally asked for help (yay) and got it. I want to continue this so that my home feels comfortable to me and to lessen the amount of "death cleaning" my family will need to do when the time comes.

I will have a working studio space and set hours in which I will be working. In addition I will have several galleries showing my work and I am bravely putting out feelers for more venues in which to display.

A clearer image of what I desire in the future - as in when I can stop working full time and focus on art - to locate a type of intentional creative community to be a part of. I am starting to imagine what I want; a small place, easy to care for, very simple, sidewalks to walk to a main street and throughout the town, near the ocean. I want to be connected to a community. I have never imagined these things before. I have only thought about the present, and survival, as I've moved a lot and changed jobs and never moved up a ladder to make a "career income" or had long term life goals. I've prioritized my relationships with men, and then my child. I have accomplished things and had a very interesting life. But as my parents age and I start to view my time as shortening I want to be more intentional.

Better health and more flexibility. I feel like I have lost some of my flexibility lately. This is important to me because better health and flexibility mean better quality of life for me.

I'd like to declutter my life. It's important to me to be able to find what is significant.

Apart from gearing up to apply for sex therapy certification this time next year, thus finishing supervision hours, I want to find another valuable-feeling outlet for my time. I presently feel excited by the potential to do house projects and develop handy skills, so I would love to see some results from such labor. It feels important to be utilizing time for both rest as well as things that excite me or bring me joy. In completing the sex therapy coursework this year, I recognized a consistent change in mood by having a goal-oriented outlet.

I would like to continue to lose weight and get healthier, being my healthy weight by this time next year. I would feel so much better being the right size and have so much more flexibility, energy, and ease, especially with my granddaughter. I want to get my lap space back while she will still want to and be small enough to sit on it!

I want to be pregnant. Children are our future, and I can't wait to be a parent!

One thing I would like to achieve by this time next year for one I would still like to be alive and in good health, I can do this by staying on top of my health and making all my dr. appointments. This is important to me because on the 5th of Oct. was my birthday and I just turned 49 yrs old now granted 50 isn't old but i have lived more life than i have left. With that being said my mortality comes into question a lot more now which is kind of frightening. Another thing I would like to have accomplished is to be a little more financially free maybe to take more trips with the wife, again I think this is important for the fact I need to have goals I want to reach, always keep moving in a positive direction. Just really hard to do when the price is always going up and money in the bank always going down. But, staying positive and having goals is something I'm good at so I have my fingers crossed and lets see if I can make this happen.

I would like to finally put a positive end to my wife’s situation at her job. It is important to me because I do not like seeing her suffer.

A new sense of self. I'm currently wondering who I am now---I've done so much and been so many people, so what does it all mean? Who am I to just myself? Who am I without justification or validation? The world is erasing, demeaning, and making invisible women like me---people who are older and childless. It's demoralizing, not the empowered place I thought I'd be.

I want to change some things about my gender presentation - particularly my voice. I hope that by this time next year I'm misgendered much less frequently. I hope we have also made some decisions regarding next steps with our housing situation that feel good to us. I'd like to be getting regular exercise, hopefully by dancing. I'd still like to work on my posture and stand a little taller.

I would like to have gone on another bike tour.

One thing? It's complex. My husband will retire in a little over a year. We're not in a bad place, vis a vis retirement, but we have debt, and taxes. I would like to be in a financial position to help with these things and bring in more freelande money, which will alleviate his stress and allow for a more comfortable retirement, one that will allow for dinner parties and road trips and hiking and buying books; the things we look forward to having more time to do.

I want to be able to look at my bank account without fear or shame. I think the best way to achieve this is not by being restrictive, but by acknowledging this as a goal and shifting my energy aware from the things that brought me joy the past two years - going out all the time, fancy food, traveling a lot, big concerts - to getting joy from working on this goal. It's already happening!

I'd like to be singing, which feels impossible. Weird that something so central to who I am is so hard for me to do... or maybe not so weird. I'm a bit unrecognizable to myself, so it all fits together. And I was always best at singing for strangers. Same old Anne. But it's a new decade. We'll see.

...just one thing, eh? Dovetailing off my last response, what I hope for most of all right now as I sit here on this rainy day catching up with these reflection questions (and admittedly procrastinating on my job search) is that by this time next year, I will be well into a new meaningful, fulfilling, and hopefully well enough paying career path. I want to move on with my professional life so I can also move on in a positive direction with my personal life. Countless times over the past year or two I have said to myself, "...so things could certainly be a hell of a lot worse...but when will they get BETTER? Remember better? When will the pendulum finally swing the other way?" So...yeah. Not a concrete, tangible goal, I know...but a vitally important one nonetheless.

I’d like to have finished my second novel.

When I started this master’s program, I didn’t know if I truly was ready to move into admin. Now that I’m into the home stretch, I’m feeling that pull more and more. I know this is naive, but I want to stay at my school. It’s where I feel supported, respected, and valued, and I want to continue to support the culture of the school and keep giving back. I’ll see what my options are at the end of the year, but this is my home.

I want to get my third book of poems published. As the first two will be completed before the end of the year. I still need to go through my poems from the fall to see what will make the book.

I think finding stuff that Danna and I can do together in NYC on the weekends on a regular basis is important and my biggest priority. I also would like to be swimming at least 5x week

I want to have my art journey work be financially thriving. Using my energy to workin healing and art is essential to my joy. I want to be working on my second book as well.

Working for myself by being myself. It is important because I want to help heal the world by healing myself.

I’d like to commit to a regular writing practice. It’s important to me because I have a lot of material I want to write about and if I don’t write it, I will lose it. I used to do this but I stopped—don’t remember why or how this came about—and I want to revive it.

I want to move somewhere where I can be appreciated. Somewhere I can be alone without the hassle here.

I would like to have a more robust and consistent career and business schedule. It may be tricky with being a present father but I need to understand how to be a worker for our future success.

I’m hoping to have my dissertation proposal defended and my dissertation defended by next year, which will lead to a full time job in academia or somewhere else. I have a lot of work to do!

I’d like to recover my sense of stability, both physically and emotionally. The complications of lymphedema have robbed me of too much energy and emotional ‘time’. I need to reign in leisure buying- a way of treating myself ‘just because…’.

I'm hoping this might be the year to have an art show. I wish I could figure out a way to get back to Israel to visit my family...Also, I hope I might have found a new new synagogue position -- a year-round one, not just High Holy Days.

Will this be the year I learn to relax and bring balance so i can spend time with brad and the pets? Read? Play Games? Make new friends? see more old friends? Will i walk and exercise? eat better (more fruit and veg less red meat) Doubtful but one can hope

By this time next year, I would like to walk a half marathon. Although I have run many and ran an entire marathon, I am switching up my exercise routine and want to conquer this goal!

My business! The most exciting and interesting thing to me!!! I want to have settled into a healthy work style, feeling less drained and not horrible everyday. I want my body to feel slightly better, my mind to be active and sharper, and my spirit to be more connected to humanity. I am truly looking forward to this journey.

By this time next year, I'd like to be debt free. It's important to me to achieve this so I can have a better quality of life for myself and my daughter.

I'd like to have an addition completed on our house. Chicken coop. Gardens in. Kids settled for the next phase in their lives. Fairly pedestrian wants but important all the same.

I would like to learn how to let go of resentment. Period.

I’d like to lose 10 to 20 lbs and get in better physical shape. I like to have read 100 books by end of 2024.

Get a passport and plan a trip.

I would like to make an album. I think it is important to me because for a change, I have things I would like to write, out of my own anguish and sorrow from current circumstances, illness, mortality, life, society and community-these subjects are at the forefront of my mind. I would like to do this because I have no other way of expressing myself and I dropped out of my musical career altogether, I have finally gotten to a point where I have no ambition left and would like to create something purely to purge myself of these complex feelings.

Don't know - honestly merge my love for Israel and my empathy for the Palestinians, so they no longer live on parallel planes in my being. It is important because Peace comes from within - peace starts at home, in me.

I would like to lose rather a significant amount of weight and improve my overall health. It is important that I live as long and as well as possible because certain people need me in their lives.

I would like to be a better version of myself a year from now. I realize this sounds like a cliche, but I am striving for a growth mindset in my life. I want to be a better communicator, more well read, stronger mentally and physically, and someone who is there for friends and family. A strong leader in my community, and a valued colleague at work. This is a tall order, and a bit vague, but working toward all these goals (if something this broad can be considered goals) will be a great accomplishment.

This is hard because I did not accomplish mine from last year. But maybe I am too focused on "accomplishing." I would like to care less about work. I not only am putting a lot of worth into it, I am drowning myself in it. We are not saving lives; this is not the end all be all. This a job, a career, but it is not everything. I'd like to internalize this more, and yet I'm not sure how exactly without something drastically shifting in my personal life.

I’d like to lose 30 lbs and not be obese. It’s important to take care of myself and show myself respect

By this time next year, I would like my life to be right-sized. It's important to me because I deserve to live my life thoughtfully and I deserve to have the energy, attention, and focus for my priorities without being overextended into "more."

Healthier relationship with food. As I get older and continue to have medical problems I need to stay active and eat better or my quality of life will decrease.

Travel more. Learn more Hebrew and German and practice my French. Make art. Get more involved in the temple. Make a new friend. Continue to work out. I want to continue to learn and grow and improve in the things that I care about and enjoy.

I've been falling down each year on this 1, unfortunately. But I will try again. I hope to lose at least 10 lbs to help my health. That is a doable try!

Getting back to church more regularly and my midweek group More trips, and seeing more of my town

I am valued at work by my colleagues, stakeholders and leadership

I seek to fully embody the Peace that passeth understanding because it’s what the grasping world so desperately longs for in this moment. It shall be my most monumental human achievement. How shall I and a majority of humans comprehensively manifest this Peace? Will You join me in the seeking? If so, thank You! You are awesome!

Stop twitching my face to adjust my glasses and draw better.

Saying no to people and things i do not like