The new year has begun, and currently it is filled to bursting with the promises of new beginnings and opportunities. Baby bunnies are abundant and I have hyped myself up for all of the grand projects I intend to do.

For a long time I struggled with New Year’s resolutions, but I’ve discovered the last few years what I needed to make resolutions work for me.

1. They needed to be visible, literally. I have a white board in my office that is dedicated to my goals and tracking those goals. They’re in a place where I see them every day and written so that I can see my progress and interact with it at least once a month.
2. Measurability. Goals like “read more” are good ideas, but they don’t give you a way to track your progress. I prefer to break the year down into quarters or months per goal. So reading goals look more like a number of books with the forgiveness to include things like comics or magazines.
3. They need to be things I already want to do. I prefer to make most of my goals fun things I would already be doing, like writing short stories, so that I don’t hesitate to start. Plus seeing progress on fun goals is encouraging and makes me more confident to work on harder goals like building my business.

The last thing is to be kind and forgive yourself for the goals you don’t reach. Applaud yourself for the progress you made and recognize that 50% completion is better than nothing at all. Make some goals easy, but also challenge yourself so that you do see growth from one year to the next.

Despite my rocky ending to the year, some financial struggles and a late start to the breeding season, I really am still very proud of what I accomplished over those 12 months. Looking back on what I did do, makes it easier to accept where things fell short and acknowledge which parts were in my control and what I can fix going forward.

So…what were my goals for 2023?

1. I opened an online shop (paperandrabbits.etsy.com)
2. I read 4/4 books (counting all the web comics I read as 1 book)
3. I made 100 ATCs (being generous with myself and including collages and journal cards even though I originally intended it to be all drawings)
4. I made 77/100 books (not counting any of the tiny books)
5. I wrote 42/50 short stories (a couple of them even being for contests)

It’s not perfect, but it certainly gives me the confidence to approach 2024 with optimism. Here are the goals I have for this year:

1. Write 50 short stories. I got really close last time. And as a tangent, I hope to not miss making any of my weekly blog posts this year, even during my busy season.
2. Make 30 batches of handmade paper. I made 18 batches in 2023 and ended up making a bunch of books with drawing paper instead of handmade papers. I would prefer to make the majority of my books with handmade papers so adding this goal should help with that.
3. Make 100 books. Again, I got close last year and I think I can do it.
4. Make a rabbit fur cape. I think I will finally have enough pelts to do this project…as long as I put in the effort and get them all tanned.
5. Participate in 4 new events. I have spent the last couple of years focusing mainly on my one big event and I know I need to get out there more. These could be other renaissance festivals, farmers markets, craft shows or art shows. I just want to make sure I’m putting in the effort for the sake of my business.

I won’t be making goals for the rabbits, because the moment I do they will do the exact opposite. My only hope is to continue to provide for them as they provide for me. We’ve reached a point where they are comfortably providing us with 90% of our household meat. The only meat we bought in 2024 was the pork we use to go in our ground meat (about 15-20% pork) and a couple of special occasions [hot dogs for a cook out, etc].

My goals for tanning pelts are for primarily for personal projects. I have no intention of producing anything for sale for a while as I am still developing my craft with tanning. My first goal is a fur cape for myself, and then possibly a blanket or something equally simple if I have more pelts finished.

I hope the handful of people reading this have exciting goals for this year, and I hope we all have the luck and determination to reach our goals. I believe in you and I know you can do it. I hope this rambling was somewhere in the realm of informative or helpful.