At brunch on New Year's Day, one of my friends asked everyone what their goals were for 2018. At the time, I admittedly hadn't given too much thought to it. In the past, so many of my yearly goals focused around races I wanted to run or PRs I wanted to set.



Though my hip has been doing better lately, I'm still not in a place where I can be setting major running goals. So when it was my turn, I didn't really have a good answer.

But over this first week of 2018, I've been thinking about things I'd like to accomplish outside the running sphere -- things that I think will make me a happier, healthier person.

Here's the list of things big and small that I came up with.

1. Take a daily vitamin. I suck at this, but I know it's something I need to do since I'm routinely vitamin D deficient. I'm not beneath buying Flintstone vitamins if that's what it takes to convince myself to take them.

2. Strength train at least once a week (and make sure to do my PT exercises).

3. Find a workout schedule that leaves my hip happy. I'd like to be able to slowly start rebuilding my running and see how my hip responds, but I also want to have a good mix of workout options in that routine. I think that's going to help prevent future injuries.

4. Read more books. In 2017, I read 57 books. In 2018, I'd like to try to read at least 60.

5. Write regularly. Whether that's here on this blog or on other writing projects, I want to make sure I am being more intentional in my writing this year. Last year I was very ho hum about it and would go really hot and cold on writing. This year I want to make sure I'm setting aside at least two hours per week for writing.

6. See new places. Day trips to new cities. Visits to our national parks. Long weekends. Adventures overseas. I want to see more of the world this year.

7. Set aside time to decompress each week. I like having a full social calendar, but I've noticed that the older I get, the more time I need to recharge before the start of a new week. I want to make sure I'm leaving time for this and not having every minute of every day packed from when I wake up until my head hits the pillow.

8. Make quality sleep a priority. Sometimes I'm good about this, sometimes I'm not. But I'd really like to focus on making sure I'm sleeping enough so I can be a high functioning human.

So those are my goals. Nothing too crazy and over the top, but what I think and hope is a realistic set of things to work on.

What about you? What are you hoping to accomplish in 2018?