Thanks for all the kind messages in the last post ❤ Wishing you all a Happy New Year! Let’s hope we all have a good one!
To kick off the new year, I wanted to talk about something I’m going to be doing differently: I won’t be doing any resolutions. Which, considering the fact I didn’t feel like recapping my 2021 resolutions, makes sense.
The thing is, I gave up on my reading resolutions very early in the year. A lot happened and I didn’t bother checking in with them- I just let my mood-reading-freak-flag fly high. So naturally when it came to doing a wrap up… it seemed a bit pointless. Sure, I could randomly tick off and cross off goals, yet if it was all unconscious and arbitrary, why bother? Which got me thinking about my goal setting in future.
The thing is, I’m a naturally goal-oriented person. I love setting myself a target and then running at it full pelt. However, I do think that setting goals when it comes to reading can put a bit of a dampener on things. I end up thinking too much in terms of what I’m achieving and less about what I’m enjoying right now. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m happiest being a mood reader. And reading is ultimately a hobby for me that *I don’t want added pressure from*. If I want to read something right now, I will. I don’t want to ruin that by thinking about what I (supposedly) ought to be reading.
Which also makes me think about how *boring* my resolutions posts were becoming. Because I try to accommodate my mood-reading ways, I tend to play it safe and try to stick to things I’d like to read anyway. That in turn becomes really samey (and doubtless really dull to read). My posts (including the one I scrapped) were pretty much falling into a formula of “I set these really easy goals and then I did them- woohoo!” And that seems daft to write about, considering how all the things I’m excited about were often left of field! I much prefer revealing all the lovely bookish surprises in stats and other wrap ups.
Ultimately, I can’t predict what’s going to happen… and that includes not knowing whether I’ll want to return to resolutions in the future. Right now, I’m going to let the goals go and just read whatever I fancy. Have a cool 2022!
Are any of you trying something new? How do you feel about resolutions? Let me know in the comments and Happy New Year! ❤
the orang-utan librarian 