In the last couple of years my reading has picked up significantly. I love it. I always read a lot during my childhood and I am really happy to have re-discovered this hobby. So for the first time I am attempting to write down some reading goals. I’ve never done it but got some inspiration from Lecy. So let’s see of this would work for me as well.

In the previous years I have mainly read free novels I could find on amazon for my kindle. So I figured I will give myself a budget in the beginning of the year to spend on reading otherwise I will again reach for free novels instead of books I really want to read. My hope is that I will end up with a mixture of books I discover and books I am interested because of recommendations. Also this way I could sign up for a monthly membership when I know I have a lot of reading time coming up. I need those tiny tricks to cheat myself into investing. Also last year I went ahead and bought the books I wanted to read right at the beginning of January.

I want to read 40 books in 2019. This is manageable as I read 50 last year. But I want to read a few more “complicated ones” which take more time for me. Ok, let’s see if I can sum up some books I want to read. Everything else is up to my mood.

Fiction Books

• Jade City, Fonda Lee – I love fantasy and this seems to be a good one.
• Strange the Dreamer, Laini Taylor – and here is another fantasy one with great reviews. Done in January 2019
• Finishing the All Roads Lead Home, L.L. Ward series – I read the first one and really enjoyed it and just realized there are three more.
• Book or author that won a Pulitzer Prize – thinking about The Unconsoled or The Burried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro
• Ice Genisis, Kevin Tinto – I really enjoyed the first book in the series so I am looking forward to see how this unfolds.
• A Place called Freedom, Ken Follet – I haven’t read a book from him that disappointed and this one was on sale recently (0,99€) so of course I got it.

Non-Fiction & Guidance Books

• Non-violent communication: A language of life, Marshall A. Rosenberg – I’ve started this one in 2018 but didn’t get done. This is something I need to work through so I will continue and hopefully finish.
• The Creative Habit: Learn stand use it for Life, Twyla Tharp – other book I am working on far too long. For some reason it’s not really captivating but everyone references to it. So this year I’ll give it another try.
• A Brief History of Time, Stephan Hawkins – I asked for this one for Christmas. I know this will be a tough read so I got the illustrated version. But I also believe my mind will expand.
• Born a Crime, Trevor Noah – I like him and his humor but I really interested in his story. In my teens I read a lot about South Africa and apartheid.
• The Girl in the Letter, Emily Gunnis – read someones review and it ended up on my TBR list Done in February 2019
• When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi – I am interested but I am not sure if I am up to it. I know I will be very emotional here.
• The Bible – never read it whole and my goal is for the coming years to read other religious books like the Koran, Thora or Pali-Kanon. Because it doesn’t hurt knowing more about things that are different. Jeannette posted a worksheet to help with this reading goal.

German Books

I set out last year to read more in my native tongue. I find it hard to do as usually those books are not as engaging for me. However I realized it is good to read German every once in a while. And some authors who neither write in English nor German I can easily read in the German translation.

• Momo, Michael Ende – I’ve read this book but I believe I was too young back then and there will be lots of wisdom hidden within.
• One Book by Jules Verne – probably “Überwinterung im Eis“
• A Classic – I think it’s going to be Dracula, Bram Stoker which has been on my reading list way too long. It’s my only piece I own of my late father in law so it’s emotional.
• Blackout – Morgen ist es zu spät, Marc Elsberg – this one sounds really intriguing. All Europe without power after a hacker attack.

Well this is 19 books so far. All other ones I just pick up as I go to achieve my reading goal of 40 books. I will also aim to finish some of those series I started in the past years. I’m off to a good start as I just finished my first book in 2019. If you are curious which one that was, come check it out on Goodreads.

Now if you have any recommendations on how to handle an annual reading list or books I would enjoy, feel free to leave a comment.
Until then happy reading,

Tobia

I love writing this annual post. Setting goals and intentions is something I look forward to all through the December hustle.

2018 my goal was to BEAUTIFY life in four main areas: relationships, business, home and me. I did pretty good and achieved some good things in all areas while there is room for improvement in all areas as well. While I loved this word it was not as strong and present as the previous one. But it was always in the back of my mind nudging me.

Of course I planned to choose another word for 2019. It didn’t come to me as easily and don’t feel the tingling I’ve felt for previous words. For 2019 TRUST will be my companion.

After many years of struggle I am currently happy and content with how life is unfolding. I don’t want much to change but there are always things to tweak. So I will trust that I will continue on this path. I will trust that good things continue coming my way. I will trust that heartaches will have a reason to be in life. I will trust that being kind to people, caring and helping will one day come back to me. In German the word “trust” translates to “trauen” and has another layer which can be roughly translated to “daring” in English. So I embark on this too. I will dare to tip my toes in new adventures. I will dare to try new things.

I have hard time coming up with an approachable list of goals one can cross off. I’ve again set four areas as this seems to work for me. Here is my attempt:

People & Relationships

• trusting that kind gestures will come back
  
  • be kinder to stressed people like at the cashier, the call center agent, the mail man, etc.
  • writing cards to friends & family throughout the year
• trusting that people don’t want to hurt me or intend to exploit me
• trusting that I will make time to see friends, connect with old ones and maybe make a new one

Life

• trusting that I will provide time to enjoy my hobbies
  • read 40 books (I’ll have a separate post in the works here)
  • craft more, blog more, create more
  • start another 100 day project (already having two ideas)
• trusting that tough situations are here for a reason and we come out stronger
• trusting that I will have interesting & challenging work projects coming my way

Dreams

• trusting in new endeavours
  • seeing if the photography love can be professionalized a bit more
• trusting in developing new skills
  • learning about image retouching
  • discover more options Lightroom and use it’s potential
  • dabble in video making

Body & Mind

• trusting my body that it knows what it needs
• trusting this year will be the year I establish a yoga routine
• trusting I will continue to grow as a human
• trusting I will again be able to spend 4 Spa Days with myself

I am sure I will add more things to the list during the year but for now I believe it is a good guideline. I wonder, do you pick a word to guide you through the year? Anyone ever had TRUST? Or what is yours.
Happy New Year

Tobia

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Good morning,

another year is in front of us – so pure, so innocent, so promising. All the possibilities, all the wonders, all the adventures. A blank slate. What will it be? I have a few ideas…

But as always I like to check in and see how my resolutions turned out from 2017. You might remember that I had a word “become” and oriented my goals on that and only took a different approach for personal and business.

The more personal focused one was to “become more lighthearted” and was a bit tougher to achieve for me. I only went to the spa twice, I didn’t meet my friends as often as I’d liked and didn’t manage to write cards as I used back in 2014. One goal I didn’t tackle is my craft lab aka home office. But overall most of the times I felt more lightsome and lighthearted than in the past years. So think I can say this part of the word served me well.

As for the career part it was “become venturous”. And boy did this one fly. I started freelancing in March and business picked up really fast. I didn’t get to have a slow month to set up slowly and get settled in. I took a project across country and travel back and forth. So I say I am way out of my comfort zone here. And it feels good. I could not have though for a better word. My Dawanda shop and this blog fell a bit short though. However I managed to finish my photo class and ended that one with my first exhibition.

This was my strongest word yet and it served me very well. I had a really hard time finding a word for 2018 even though I started really early on Susannah’s email course and pondered all contenders for a day. And then it just snug up on me when I had my coffee: BEAUTIFY. I want to spread beauty through acting kind and giving back to the people who have supported me in the last years. The years that were not easy for me and that were a struggle. I want to make life, my relationships and my new business beautiful.

I came up with some tackle-able goals to achieve that.

1. Beautify Relationships

• listening first and more before trying to say something
• meet some friends I haven’t seen for so long
• write a birthday card to every person
• take some time to comment on blogs every week

2. Beautify Life

• have a real vacation with hubby
• laugh more and continue to be lighthearted
• look for daily beauty – I am going to continue the gratitude journal and I am thinking about another 100dayproject probably some image or sketch related one
• continue to create and learn and be amazed

3. Beautify Home

• transform the craft lab into a working space and not a weird undefined in-between dwelling
• declutter more more more, maybe do one of those 30 day declutter challenges?! Any suggestions?
• make some apartment updates (new bed, some changes in the living room), etc.

4. Beautify Me

• include more nature and outdoor activities and move more e.g. increase steps
• treat myself to a spa day quarterly
• reminding myself that beauty comes from within and that anger and negativity shows
• living healthier

I am sure I will find many more small tasks & goals to fit under the big topics. And I like that because it makes it so approachable. And easier to actually get one step closer to the main goal. Maybe I check in with a monthly update once in a while because that really helped back in 2015.

But now lets get 2018 started – to a year of to BEAUTIFY!

Cheers,

Tobia

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