2014 was a good year for me. I started a new job that I love, I attended poetry workshops and conferences and festivals. I wrote, I ran, I drank wine, I traveled.

In 2014 I wrote over 100 poems. The exact number is hard to pinpoint because I have poems tucked inside journals, on my computer, scrawled on random bits of paper. I quit counting when I hit triple digits, knowing it was a very good year for writing.

In 2014 I ran 791 miles which is by far the lowest mileage year I’ve had in seven years. I know this has nothing to do with writing but running is my meditation and my zen. Running is when I stop thinking and just move. Running allows me to write better, I’m certain of it. I also did yoga over 100 times (my studio is about a mile from my house and I go 2-3 times a week), and lifted weights a bunch (no clue how often).

In 2014 I read 117 books. My goal was to read 100 books in 2014 and I blew it out of the water. As I’ve said dozens of times, I’m an avid reader and I happen to also read ridiculously fast – I often say I average a book a week but given I read 117 books this year it would seem I average a little over two books a week. Damn. Is it weird to be impressed with myself? I believe in order to be a good writer, you have to read a lot. As Stephen King stated in his book On Writing, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” As I previously said, I want to keep good sentences in my ears. Reading helps me do that.

In 2014 I visited three new countries (Colombia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh) and visited three new states (Washington, Louisiana, and Colorado).

For 2015 I’ve made the following resolutions. Or if you don’t like the word “resolutions” since it carries a slightly negative connotation for many people, I’ve set the following goals for 2015:

Keep poetry alive in my life. This means writing as much as I’m able, reading poetry books often, attending workshops and festivals. I’ve already gotten started on this goal by registering for a poetry workshop I’m super excited about – more details soon.

Stop tracking my mileage. This one may seem strange but I’m a Type A kind of person which means for over seven years I’ve meticulously tracked my mileage and workouts. I can look back through my records and tell you how many miles I ran a year ago or two years ago. I can tell you the distance, the pace, the route. And while running is still an extremely important part of my life, I don’t foresee any races in my immediate future – this is for a couple of reasons. One, I travel frequently for my job and am sometimes in cities or countries where running anything over five miles just isn’t feasible. Two, I’m still dealing with IT band issues – this is something that’s been going on for the last two years and prevents me from cranking up my mileage the way I once did. Three, and perhaps most important, is I run for the pure love of it. Yes, there is a physical and mental reward for logging all those miles but really, I love the way it makes me feel. So it doesn’t matter if I’m running five miles or running ten miles, I want to focus on the love of running, not the distance or pace that I ran.

Those are my goals for 2015, what are yours?