Last Chance to Make Those 2023 New Year's Resolutions a Reality!

Back in January of this year, I posted my 2023 New Year's Resolutions.  Now that we are over a full week into November, it's probably now-or-never in terms of working on completing any resolutions that are yet finished!  Let's see where I'm at and if I can do better over the last seven or so weeks of the year.

1.  The Want List

My stated goal is to have my want list consist of no more than 40 different sets at the end of 2023 (I started the year with 47 sets on my want list).  As it stands at the moment, I have exactly 40 sets on my want list.  Even better, a few of those sets are actually going to be complete soon - I'm simply waiting on the last few cards to arrive in a couple of those cases.  With no more major set releases in 2023 that I'm envisioning collecting, I see no reason why this resolution won't be met!  

2.  The Great Reorganization

This resolution had four subgoals:

• Finish uploading my Barry Larkin Collection into TCDB through 2022.  Once I (finally) get caught up, the long-running goal will be to complete the previous year's worth of Larkin cards during the following year.
• Clear off my card table, even if only for a day.
• Clear off my TV stand (it's also full of cards and it's been driving me nuts for awhile now)
• Get my card collection to fit within my four stacked bookshelves.  

For the first one, I've updated my TCDB collection and want list through 2021.  The card companies issued a few sets under the 2022 banner in 2023, so I decided to hold off on doing any more 2022 updating until I was confident there was no more previous year set release nonsense happening.  

The second goal is actually as close to be complete at the moment as it has been in years.  I could probably cheat and simply move what little remains on the table over to my TV stand...because that third goal is nowhere near complete.  The TV stand is a wreck.  

Finally, my actual card collection does fit on my available bookshelves but I still have some overflow in terms of unwanted cards (i.e. trade bait).  I've been trading like a mad man on TCDB though so I'm fairly confident I'll get the entire collection of cards under control sooner than later!  

3.  Reading

My goal is to read five books in 2023.  To date, I've only found time to read through two books so obviously I'm way behind here.  I do have a couple of books sitting within arm's reach of me though that I'd like to read soon...but whether that happens before the calendar flips over to 2024 is anyone's guess.

4.  Video Games

The goal here was to actually finish a couple of different video games.  While I guess I can't say that I have been successful on that front, I have played a fair bit of Fortnite with my siblings scattered across the country so that's something.  I've also played through most of MarioKart for the Switch, so that's something as well.  

5.  Disc Golf

This was another goal that had sub-goals:

• Throw over 300 feet consistently off the tee pad
• Throw a round of par (or better) on the course I play the most
• Play on at least two new-to-me courses this year

I did work on my form a fair bit this year and I can now throw over 300 feet on a good drive.  That being said, I won't say that I do it consistently quite yet.  I think my best round on the course I play the most was +1 this summer, close but not quite par.  Finally, I failed on the two new-to-me courses this year.  Honestly, I got out to play disc golf less often in 2023 than I did in either of the previous two years.  Not for a lack of wanting to play, I simply was too busy this year I guess!

6.  My LEGO Blog

The goal here was to publish at least 36 posts in 2023 over on my LEGO-centric blog.  As it stands now, I'm at 14 posts for the year so it's not looking good.  

7.  Specific Goals for the Blog:

Another bulleted list:

1. Get my Discord channel up and running (including running most group breaks over on Discord)
2. Figure out streaming to Discord
3. Do voting for blog of the year, card of the year, set of the year, again (ideally starting in November)
4. Do another round of Not-So-Secret Santa (I've got some awesome returns from that to show off soon)!
5. Get the blog more noticed
6. Grow my Discord channel to at least 75 people
7. Figure out Patreon and get at least 2 people as Patrons

Of the above goals, I did #'s 1, 4, 5, and 6.  I won't do 7 this year and 2 isn't necessary either.  That leaves #3 as the one thing I should do that I haven't yet (and one that I'll definitely start working on ASAP)!

8.  Trading

My goal for trading was to make a total of 50 trades in 2023.  I've nearly tripled that total instead, so this particular resolution is easily completed!

That was it for my 2023 resolutions.  Obviously, I haven't completed everything but I have made solid progress on a number of my goals for the year.  As it stands now, I would give myself the following grades:

A
D+

D-

C-

C-

D-

B+

Not the world's greatest report card, is it?!  Maybe I can still raise my grades up a bit before the year is over!