I had a lot of big goals in 2021

• 2,021 hours of creative work
• Write 52 short stories
• Read 100 books
• “regular blog posts” (whatever that meant)
• Follow the Ray Bradbury reading plan (1 poem, 1 short story, and 1 essay each day for three years.)

So, how did I do? Creative Hours did not get anywhere close. 1,354 was the year total. Still, not too bad; I just have to have lower expectations in the fall with my current day job. On the other hand, I still averaged 771 words per day and wrote 323,000 words between the blog, morning pages, and various fiction things.

I wrote (drumroll here), um, 13 stories. I am keeping the goal for next year. I have ideas…

Read 100 books Sadly, here on December 29, I am sitting at 88 with no desire to spend the next three days trying to read 11 books. But, 88% is a B+. I don’t mind a B+. According to the Story Graph, I read 24,203 pages, 120% of my 20,210 goal. So, maybe I just need to step away from James Michener and read shorter books. Once I finish Hawaii.

Blogging, well, since I didn’t have a measurable goal, I really can’t evaluate, except to point out that the fall semester was not pretty.

And the Ray Bradbury Reading plan also fell by the wayside. I think what I will do this coming year is write what I am reading each night in a notebook, and then post a photo of the entry on a dedicated Instagram account, @theRayBradburyReadingPlan.

All in all, I feel like if I had to grade my year, I would give it a B. And after years of perfectionism and needing A’s, a B is good enough.