2025 Goals Versus 2024 Goals

I never did a roundup at the end of last year about how I did at achieving my goals. It just seemed too much work at the time. But I’m ready now, so here are the most important goals I had last year with little commentary blurbs. The new goals list, down below, for this year has some items that were unfinished from last year.

2024 goals

  • $300 in monthly Patreon support—this would mean doubling my current support

    • I’m still working towards this goal. I’m leaving all of social media this year (more on that later), so it may be very challenging to get more people interested in my art this year without that. I’m going to have to get creative about self-promotion and marketing. Last year I earned almost $2K through Patreon. I am so thankful to all my supporters. Their support pays website fees & my student loan, buys supplies, and other little things and artist and business owner has to pay for.

  • Buy a house—if you know someone selling a fixer-upper farmhouse on some land…

    • We bought a house in July! I never thought we’d be able to buy a house, but with a little financial help from Grandma, we found a sweet little 100-year-old house in small town America. It was a little bumpy at first, but we’ve found a good groove.

  • Finish 4-6 more pages of Wild Dogs—two weeks off is already on the books!

    • I was able to get three more pages done.

  • Put together a pitch packet for Wild Dogs & shop it to graphic novel agents

    • This is still in the works. I need to hit ten completed pages before I start submissions.

  • Get the American Cider Association Pommelier certification

    • I’m still studying and drinking to get my palate in shape. It got bumped to this year’s goals list.

  • Read 25 (or more!) books

    • I read 39 books! My five-star books of the year were: The Marlow Murder Club, Bell Weather, Good Omens, Stone Blind, N0S4A2, and American Gods. But I would also highly suggest: The Artist’s Way, Deephaven, The Library of the Dead, Tom Lake, Ink Blood Sister Scribe, The Alchemist, and Lilith.

  • Book club The Artist’s Way

    • This was an amazing experience. I should have written a review right after I did it. I’ll write a blog post looking back at it one year later.

2025 goals

  • Daily meditation

  • Daily sketching

  • $300/month Patreon support

  • Monthly blog posts

  • Get the American Cider Association Pommelier certification

  • Pay off debts (Max & I are starting our journey to being debt-free)

  • Get a graphic novel agent

  • Wild Dogs gets picked up by a publisher

  • Run three 5K races (I ran two last year, one the year previous)

  • Read (at least!) 50 books

Changing Habits & Achieving Goals

My word of the year for 2024: Discipline

Mostly, this means actually finishing the projects I start (or have already started and stalled out or given up on) as well as holding myself to the standards and goals I’ve set forth. A big part of this means striving for integrity—if I say I’ll do something, I do it. This is following on the heels of some of my overarching themes from the previous years: momentum, consistency, persistent. I like having a yearly word. It’s kind of like throwing your own year-long themed party.

Read More