I hope I’m not boring you here as we reach the halfway point of me explaining the goals I have for the new year.

But, I hope you understand, it’s kind of important for me to set up what’s going to come the rest of the year because these goals are basically what the rest of the year of writing is going to revolve around. (And, really, it’s just 12 posts out of 365.)

Some of the goals will definitely get more play than others, and I hope this one gets its share.

A lot of this feels similar to ‘365 New Things In 2013’ (link at the top of the page if you’re interested in exploring that further), but it’s not exactly the same.

That was the sole focus in 2013 - do new things. This time around it’s part of a couple of goals, the first of which is to Learn New Things.

I like feeling smarter at the end of the day than I did at the beginning of the day.

It’s not every day that I learn something new - but it would be great if it was.

So this goal is in that spirit - if I come across a word I don’t know or haven’t seen before, I’ll take the time to look it up. And then I might write about it.

There are certain things I wonder sometimes - I’ll see something and wonder why it’s there and then kind of forget about it until I come across it again. This year I’m going to make a concerted effort to get to the bottom of some of those things. And then I’ll write about it.

Or maybe I’ll make a Reel about it. Or both.

I have learned some amazing things by watching the Reels that come across my Instagram feed and I always admire how people put those together.

Maybe I’ll even take a minute to share some of my knowledge on a Reel and help someone else learn something new. (But maybe that belongs in the write-up of another one of my goals that we’ll get to in the second half of breaking them down.)

This may seem obvious to you - maybe you’re someone who always looks up a word they haven’t come across before.

But that’s not me. I don’t always click the link. I don’t always dig down to that next level.

Hopefully this year, I do that a little more.