Well! I’ve written and rewritten this opening paragraph about six times now, the vibe was off every single time – usually in these posts, I check my progress against the goals I set myself this time last year. I say ‘goals’, but they’re more sort of general guidelines; I don’t like to be too strict with myself because I have a bad habit of rebelling against my own authority, so I just like to set some vague goalposts to aim for. Usually at this point, I heave a sigh and tell myself not to be too hard on myself, and that I’ll do better next year. But if you’ve been following me on social media, it won’t be any surprise to you that this year, for a change, I’ve absolutely smashed it, and I’m proud of that fact. It was hard work, and for once I truly do deserve to feel the satisfaction of having achieved something. Before we get into that, though, let’s travel back to my post in January 2023, and see the goals (I have to use that word) I set for myself this year:
For next year, I’m going to aim to read 15 books, watch 30 films, and continue on my path towards conversational Welsh and beyond, with a sprinkling of Korean on top. I’ll most likely do Polyglot NaNoWriMo again too, because let’s face it, I’m a sucker for a challenge.
So that’s pretty clear, all in all. Read 15 books, watch 30 films, keep learning Welsh and Korean, and take part in Polyglot NaNoWriMo. So let’s measure my progress against those, shall we?
Firstly, let’s start with books. So this year I made the shift away from Goodreads to The StoryGraph, because the data they provide (the graphs, if you can believe that) is just so much more interesting than Goodreads could provide, plus it felt good to no longer be supporting an arm of the Bezos empire, however futile that may be. I’ve struggled in the past few years to hit my target of 15, even with a monthly book club that I run at work, which should guarantee at least 12. This year, I found myself reading more than ever to enrich my data – make my graphs more interesting, trying different genres to move the numbers around, and… I mean, it’s been effective. I don’t mean that I’ve been reading solely for that reason, it was more that I had the motivation in the moments where I would normally sit and scroll endlessly through my phone to pick up a book instead, and once you’ve started a good book, it’s kind of a slippery slope. In the end, I managed to more than double my target, and read 34 books in 2023. That’s absolutely unheard of for me, and I couldn’t be more proud. I’m hoping this continues into the new year, so I’ve set myself a tentative target of 20 for this year. I don’t want to suddenly jump up to 35 in case last year was a complete fluke, but I remain quietly confident!
Films were the fly in the ointment this year, unfortunately. I only managed 27, falling short of the target of 30. But – and it’s a big but – I did manage to get to the cinema more this year than I’ve managed for about a decade, and given how well I’ve done with my other goals, I’m cutting myself this bit of slack. And sure I could have stayed home on New Year’s Eve and watched three films on my own for the sake of this goal but honestly, I’m not about that life. I’d rather give it a good go and fall short than miss out on living my actual life for the sake of it. So in the interest of fairness, I’m going to drop my target down to 25 for next year – once I can hit it, then I can work on bringing it back up again. It’s all about finding a realistic level. And the films you can see to the left here are just a short selection, but blimey, what a year this was for cinema? We had the Barbenheimer phenomenon, Asteroid City (which I loved, and kind of got me into the whole Wes Anderson thing), Saltburn (which made me walk around with a face like I’d just taken a haddock to the nose for about three days afterwards) and of course, I’d be remiss to not even comment on the return of Chicken Run, which I love unashamedly. If the next year is anything like this one, I’m sure I won’t have any trouble at all reaching the lofty heights of 25 films. I thoroughly enjoy going to the cinema, so I’m especially glad I’ll be doing that more.
As for my language-related goals, well, I’m going to tie those into the fourth one – because, as you may have read last month, for the first time ever this year, I completed Polyglot NaNoWriMo! Please, hold your applause. But yeah, I only bloody went and did it – 200 words every day in November, to end up with a 6,000 short story at the end of the month. All in a language that isn’t your mother tongue – in my case, Welsh. I actually ended up continuing where I left off from my story in 2022, because I really liked the characters and the little world I’d created for them. I thought it really had legs, and I wanted to see where they could take me. I’m going to be editing it to make sure it actually makes sense, but after that, who knows? Maybe I’ll post some of it here, or maybe I’ll put it in a drawer and never look at it again. The point is, I actually did it – and it was a huge learning curve. I learned Welsh words I never thought I’d need, and I even made up a few that I couldn’t find in dictionaries. Maybe I won’t remember all of them, but it’s definitely helped me on my journey towards being a fully-fledged siaradwr Cymraeg.
Well then, now that I’ve blown a symphony through my own trumpet, now it’s time to set myself some goals for this year. They’ll be much the same as those for 2023, I’d say. I’d like to read more than 20 books, watch more than 25 films, continue plugging away at both Welsh and Korean (to a lesser extent, that much has become obvious) and have a bash at doing Polyglot NaNoWriMo again. Simple as that. I hope I’m sitting here with the same smug feeling of accomplishment this time next year (it’s made the hangover much more bearable).
But what about you guys? Did you set yourself any goals for this year, and if so, how have you done? It’s really not about the completing any sort of challenge like this, it’s the taking part, and the actually doing it. Even if you’ve read or written one more page, watched one more film, listened to one more podcast than you would have done otherwise, that’s a win in my book. If you’d like to get in touch, you’re more than welcome to leave a comment here, or I can alternatively be found on both Instagram and Threads (as @sprakskatan) and Mastodon (as @sprakskatan@toot.wales). All that remains is to wish you all the best for the coming year – good health and the time to enjoy it. Take care of yourselves, see you next month.
— J.
den språkliga skatan 