Okay, so today i'm going to be talking to you about my goals of 2020 and 2021. First part
of this video we're going to check up on what my goals of 2020 were and how i did with them
(and i have a feeling it wasn't great) and then we're going to talk about what my goals are for
2021. But before we get into the goals, a shout out to today's sponsor Skillshare.
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premium membership. I vaguely remember some of my goals of 2020 and that's about all i have for ya,
so let's watch the video. So my goal my first goal for 2020 is to make sure that i read at a minimum
two books a month that you guys are sending me and i have it split up so that i'm not
accidentally neglecting certain ones. So what i've done is i've taken all the books that you have
sent me and the ones that i'm the most excited about, that i already knew about, i already had
on my radar and now i just have a copy that i can physically read, these are in one pile and i want
to read at least one of these a month. Then i have all the books that you have sent me that
are not on my radar, that i haven't heard of before, that i didn't know about. I don't want
to neglect these. I still want to find, i still want to read these because just because they're
not popular or talked about a ton here on youtube (or at least on the channels that i follow)
it doesn't mean that i don't want to read them. I want to find these hidden gems with you. So what
i've done with these books is i've wrapped them. I bought way too much Christmas wrapping this year
so i just wrapped them all and now my goal is to read one of these as well. I've wrapped them,
i've numbered them and i have all of the numbers in a little bowl that i'm going to draw from.
So every month i will pick one book that i'm super excited about that i already know about that you
guys have sent me and one book that's not on my radar will be randomly selected for me to
read that month as well. Okay, how did i do with this goal? So i've actually done quite well with
the first part of the goal which was to read two books that my subscribers sent me a month. Well,
in 2020 you guys continued with your very generously sending me your favorite books
to the point where i had to shut down my p.o box because i was drowning in
them. I will be buried in books someday. So i'm doing great at that because almost
every book that i own has been sent to me by subscribers and i'm chipping away at that
pile very very well. So i definitely have been reading two books a month that have been sent
to me. As far as the wrapping books thing, that quickly didn't work out because, one:
so many books were being sent to me that i was, i would have had to buy more wrapping
paper in order to continue wrapping them... it was ridiculous, so i cut, i cut out the
unwrapping books each month and now i just have a bookshelf full of books that people have sent me
that i want to get to someday but aren't really high on my radar and then i have a massive stack
of books (you can't see it. It's not in the frame) of books that are on my radar that i want to read
really really soon that stack is like 40 books that i want to read really really soon. It's,
it's so... it's so intense. So i'm not doing the randomly select one book that's not on my radar
and then pick one that is on my radar. I'm not doing that because almost everything that i read
is sent to me by you guys and because i became a mood reader this year. We've talked about it a
lot. Uh... i used to be able to just pick up any book at any point in time and read it and and i
enjoyed it the amount that i enjoyed it. I didn't need to be in a certain mood for a certain book.
I'm not that way anymore. I'm very much a mood reader now so um... yeah. I don't know. I guess
i get a half point for this because i'm definitely reading books that my subscribers have sent me,
but i changed up the formula in which i'm doing it. So half point maybe. My next goal
is to read at least one self-published book a month. I, yes. I technically succeeded at this,
but not to the level that i was hoping to succeed. So i said that i wanted to,
i went, i went on about this in the video but i said that i wanted to read at least one self pub
book a month um and then i also said that DNF's do count. So technically i did succeed at this.
I actually, whenever i either DNF (did not finish) when i either quit on a self-pub book or i read
a self-help book that i know i'm not going to give a high or favorable rating to, i just don't
talk about them on my channel because my goal with reading self-pub books is that i want to,
you know, help out self-pub authors and i already know that it's difficult for self-published
authors to get their name out there and i don't really want to make it harder on them, so i won't
negatively talk about self-pub books; i just won't talk about them because i'm not going to lie,
but i also just like, i don't want to make it harder on people, especially people that it's
already hard to get their leg up. You get it. So technically i did succeed at this. I
at least tried at least one self-pub book every single month, but they didn't always make it into
the wrap ups. So in 2020 i am adjusting this rule a little bit. Not rule, this goal a little bit. In
2021 i'm adjusting this goal a little bit, but technically technically i did succeed at this.
I just was hoping to succeed a little bit better. Next goal is going to be to read at least one
non-fiction book a month. I did this! I was really intentional about this and every single month all
12 months i read at least one non-fiction book a month. Sometimes more and it's been great it's
been a great experience for me. Now my goal is just for my monthly TBR's, i only want to
talk about six to seven books a month on my TBR. Okay, i failed this. I did really well for like
two months and i only talked about five-ish books or maybe seven. I don't know. I only talked about
a few books per month that i wanted to read that month, but the problem was i had so many goals,
you know? Like, i needed to unwrap a book every month and then i needed to talk about the book
that my subscribers sent that it was that i was going to read that i was excited about and then
i need to talk about the nonfiction, i need to talk about the self-pub and it was like,
it became so much that then it was... i ended up making my TBR's ridiculously long again, but then
i turned into a mood reader and then i just took away TBR's all together. I don't even make TBR's
anymore except for just the buddy reads that we have on the Patreon server and the public server,
so i just failed. I just didn't do this. It was a fail. I forgot this was even a goal. My last goal,
this is the big one. This is the one that's going to take a lot of organization, a lot of strength,
a lot of motivation... is i plan to finish every series that i have started. What?? That was a goal
of mine? Oh, what? Okay, hang on. Hold on. Ma'am, you failed this goal. Okay, i'm looking at the and
i'll put it, i'll have it on the screen too. I'm looking at the list of books, of series that i
wanted to see through in 2020 and then promptly forgot about. I did three. I did three of them.
Wow. That's the biggest fail i think i've ever had in any goal video on my channel. That's
impressively bad. I don't even remember setting this goal. I didn't think about it the whole year.
Whoops. Well that was fun. I think i successfully did one of these, like properly did a good job on
one of these, but i maybe succeeded at three. I really haven't been keeping count. Ooh. It was
bad. All right, so that was the goals check-in of 2020. Congratulations Merph, you're a failure. Now
let's set some goals for 2021 now that we've been motivated and inspired. I have five goals that i'm
setting for myself in 2021 and most of them are really casual. The reason is because hopefully
we're gonna bring our child home in 2021. If you don't know, if you're new to the channel,
if you haven't heard me talk about it, we are in the middle of an adoption process. We um...
oof. It's it's been a journey. We started the adoption process i think in January of 2020
and it's been a year to be adopting. A lot of things have been held up because it's a lot of
waiting on government stuff and um, it's been a year of things standing still. But despite that,
our adoption process has been moving. It's been moving slowly, but it has been moving (which i'm
really really grateful for). Um there will be an adoption update soon-ish. I'm waiting for us
to get to a certain point in the adoption process to actually do the update video,
but things are moving really well lately and it's really exciting. So hopefully we get to bring our
baby home, well, she'll be a toddler. Hopefully we get to bring our child home in 2021. Hopefully
in the beginning of 2021 and i'm really excited about that! So i will not be making myself some
massive, huge goals because i have no idea what reading is gonna look like in 2021. I'm still
going to be posting videos. I love this channel and i have no desire to take a break from it, or
at least not an extended break. There might be a small gap of time... i'm gonna pre-film videos so
that i can take a maternity leave after we bring her home and there will still be some videos up,
fewer videos and then we'll just kind of play it by ear, but i'm definitely still gonna be around
because i love this channel and it's not going anywhere. But i don't know what video schedules
are gonna look like and i don't know what reading life is gonna look like. So i'm not putting any
pressure on myself. There's no "number of books i plan to read goal." I never do that because i
don't like putting pressure on my reading. I like it being an enjoyable thing. I want these goals to
be something to facilitate a more enjoyable reading experience, not a more challenging
reading experience. So no set number goals, nothing too ambitious, but here's my five goals.
I'm going to continue on with two of my goals that i had in 2020. Two that i actually succeeded at.
I still want to be reading at least one self-pub book a month and at least one nonfiction book a
month. It's really easy for me to pull from books that we're going to be able to discuss
because the whole point of this channel, the thing that i love about this channel is talking
about books with other readers; having people to discuss stories with. Naturally the stories,
the books that i'm going to be able to talk to you guys the most about are going to be books
that are traditionally published because they're more well-known and that are fiction because
there are more fiction readers out there than non-fiction, or at least in, on this platform.
In booktube there are, but i enjoy self-pub books and want to continue supporting self-pub
authors and i enjoy non-fiction books and want to continue reading nonfiction books.
So at least one of these each month i'm adjusting the goal so that DNFs don't count. So whether i
decide to talk about it on my channel or not, i want one to appear each month and my other
reading goal is going to be for every month that i am reading all three of these goals that
i'm talking: the self pub, the nonfiction, and this goal. Um, all three of these are flexible
while i'm on maternity leave after we brought our child home. If i'm not reading those months,
i get a break. That's the flexibility i get. But in the months that i'm definitely reading,
um the third goal is going to be that i read at least four different genres per month.
I read a lot of genres. I love a lot of genres. I love literary fiction, i love thrillers, horror,
science fiction, fantasy. I mean, most genres out there i get enjoyment out of. There are some
like historical fiction and mystery that i have a little bit of a harder time picking up and getting
into, but i still read them sometimes a little. Anyway, my point is each month i want to make
sure that there's variety because it's easiest for me to pick up fantasy because this is a very
popular genre on booktube, it's a genre that a lot of commenters are saying, "Read this book, read
this book." And i want to talk books with you so i tend to pick up the books you tell me to read,
but i want to make room for these other genres that i love so much as well, so making sure that
i have variety, at least four different genres in each month, i don't know if i'll continue
doing wrap ups now that i'm reviewing every book that i read. We'll play that one by ear. But at
least every month i want four genres except for the months, the maternity months. We'll see what
happens. For a yearly goal. What i'd like to see myself accomplish by the end of the year. So one
thing that i'm not completely happy with the way i've balanced is making room for books that
i'm personally really really excited about. I tend to get excited about things that other people are
excited about. So if my friends read something and they love it, i want to read it too so we can talk
about it. If you guys are regularly recommending a book, i want to read it too so we can talk about
it. And a lot of times i'll push off the books that i'm personally really really excited about to
make room for books that other people are excited about. And don't get me wrong, i love doing that
because i love chatting with people about books, but it's gotten a little bit ridiculous to the
point where Best Served Cold is a book that i said i wanted to read i think in February or March.
Didn't get to it until December. Kept planning to pick it up, kept saying i was gonna pick it up,
but then other people were excited about other things. I would pick up other things.
I like that i do this. I like that i'm so excited to chat books with people and make room for what
other people are excited about, but i need to make more room for some of the books that i'm really
excited about too and have a better balance. The way i'm facilitating that within a goal is my goal
is to read at least three books from all of the authors that made it into my favorite authors
video this year. I'll link it in the corner and down in the description. I had six authors in that
video. I want to read at least three books from every one of these authors this year, which is
a lot of books. I don't know if it's realistic and it's okay if i don't succeed at this goal.
The point is i want to try to get there. I want to make room for some of my favorite authors
that i don't read enough of. I mean, i read a lot of Sanderson but he's pretty much the only
author that i read a lot of in my favorite... i read a lot of Backman. Fine! It... it's a goal.
It's my goal. And my last goal for 2021 is i'd like to keep track of every book that i read.
I'm so bad at updating Goodreads and i think in 2021 i'll probably be switching to story graph,
but i'm sure i'll be just as bad at updating that. I'm so bad. I like,
i genuinely don't know how many books i read in 2020 because i don't update those things.
When i figure out how many books i read i'm gonna have to go through all my wrap-ups
every month of the year to figure it out because i'm not good at updating these things. I want to
do better. I don't care if i use a website or if i just use a notebook, i want to do better
about actually keeping track of the books that i'm reading. Not so i can have some number,
but just so that i can when i'm, when i'm creating a video and i'm trying to do recommendations,
i want to have a list of the books that i've read because right now i really don't have
one and i keep going on goodreads to look at the books that i've read so that i can formulate these
these recommendations videos and i'm looking at my goodreads and i'm like, that is not... there's
more books and i can't remember them all off the top of my head! So i want to do better at actually
keeping up with what i'm reading. Hi hello. Merphy from the future. That's my light. Background noise
is my husband and my son. I've thought about this for a few days now and i've decided i'm
definitely not continuing with goodreads and i'm not going to move on to storygraph, i'm just going
to do the notebook thing that i talked about. Reason being is because i really don't enjoy
ratings (video right there if you want to check it out) and i really like the idea of just keeping
track of the books that i read for myself and not having any sort of count or any sort of
statistics formulated for me. I think, i think the reason it appeals to me so much is because
not rating things online kind of gets me one step closer mentally to what i want this channel to be,
which is just be hanging out chatting books with people. And if there's no official rating anywhere
and i'm literally just putting my thoughts out there on the channel and then leaving it,
i feel like i've gotten one step closer. So i really love that idea. I know it'll be a
little bit inconvenient for anybody that wants to real quick search what i'm reading, but i'm
already bad at keeping up with goodreads so it's not that different from what's happening already
and now that i review every single book that i read on my channel you can use the search
bar on my channel to find my thoughts on books. So, that's decision i've made. A notebook. I'm
going back to a notebook and i feel really good about it. So there you go. That's the video.
Those are my goals of 2020 and how i did as well as my goals of 2021. It'll be fun to laugh at them
at the end of next year and how poorly i did at those too. I'd love to keep chatting about
this in the comments. I post videos every Tuesday through Friday. I'll see you guys again soon. Bye.