2013 - A New Year

Wow. The first week of 2013 has already come and gone.  I've made it a goal this year to try to get back to blogging. The blog hasn't really worked for me recently.  Nine posts in 2012 is concrete proof.  I attribute the lack of posting to several factors but the big one is that I had shifted the blog toward posting around races and active events.  In some ways this cornered me into only posting when I had completed a race or something I felt worthy of posting.  I created this blog as an outlet to write and share fun things I'm passionate about, but also as a medium to stay connected with friends and family.  I  lost focus as to why I was writing in the first place.  I became too focused on pageviews and likes and realized I wasn't writing for myself but for other people.  I have to confess, for a long time this wasn't isolated only to blogging.

I try to always look at things with a positive light.  Maybe time away from writing the blog has given me clarity as to why I'm writing and the direction I want to take the blog in...at least that's how I feel now.  Unfortunately,  I chose not to write about some specific things that I really wanted to because it felt like work and I was disinterested.  Perhaps I'll write about them sometime this year or perhaps I won't...that's kind of the beauty of blogging

Maybe it's the engineer in me, but when thinking about things I want to accomplish in 2013 I wound up creating S.M.A.R.T. goals:

• Run 1300 miles for 2013
• In terms of attainable, I ran over 1000 miles in 2012 compared to ~600 in 2011.  My goal for 2012 was 1200.  I fell short but the goal drove me to achieve more then I thought I could.
• Redesign the blog by June 1st
• Modify the color scheme,  incorporate new plug-ins, create or work with a designer to make a custom template.
• Blog 24 times this year
• This one is pretty self explanatory.  I'm tired of the look and want to change up the blog to something more original..more me.
• Post more about cooking, design, photography, gadgets, school, etc. 
• Create a series on the blog and have at least 6 posts relating to it.  I've never done a series (like Friday review or Tuesday tasting) that I think it will force me to be creative.

I don't think any of the above are easy, but all of them are attainable.  I'm looking forward to writing about our recent week at the beach and goal races for 2013 in the month of January!