At the beginning of the year I set myself three challenges and broke those down into mostly measurable goals (take a look at my New Year Resolutions for 2019).

The challenges were to Read More, Write More and Play More. It’s hard to believe we’re already over two thirds through February, so it’s about time I gave you an update.

Let’s start with the reading challenges - there were two easy to measure parts to this one. The first part is the Goodreads annual reading challenge. I set myself the unprecedented challenge of reading 16 books this year, which worked out as 1.5 books a month. So far I’m three books in and currently reading my fourth, so that’s going well!

The second reading challenge was to once again read through the whole Bible in a year. I got a little behind but I’ve now caught up again, and we’re just about to finish Numbers. It’s great to read it all again having now gotten a better idea of the whole. I’m having a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Read Scripture app we’re using this year, though - well, not quite hate, more like a love/dislike relationship.

On the plus side, the actual reading experience is really great! It’s uncluttered and it helps you to focus, but I’m also missing the notes and extra details in the YouVersion app, not to mention the community aspects of the YouVersion plans with friends feature. One of the things that really got me through last year was the fact that everyone I was reading with could see my progress, plus being prompted to respond to the text immediately after reading it was really powerful. Those things are valuable enough to me that I don’t think I’ll use this app again.

The next set of goals were about writing more, which also came in two main parts. The first challenge was to post more on this blog, at least one post a month. I started strong, 3 posts in the first 3 weeks of January, and then I stopped again. I’ve managed to add to my drafts folder, but not get another post out since the 17th January. At least with this post it means that I’ve met my minimum for January and February, so that’s got to be good, eh?

The other writing challenge was to make more of the bullet journal, but so far it’s still acting like a planner/to do list. Might need to look for some inspiration for things that I can record in it. Some days I find it hard to be bothered to write in it at all, but then I enjoy being able to look back, so I have to keep myself motivated.

So we turn to the last goal, this one is hard to measure, but it’s to “play more”. Since Christmas we’ve had a lot of fun playing with some of the games and toys we received. We’ve been to the theatre (I’ve got a draft post about that ) and the cinema, been to the beach, walked and played outside. Even when we’re busy I’m trying to remind myself to take some time to play, these moments won’t last forever and it’s easy to think about what seems important right now, but in the longterm I’ll kick myself if I waste this time away.

TL;DR: It’s 6 weeks in and I’m still keeping my resolutions.

Photo credit: Courtney Dirks on Visualhunt / CC BY