1- Make over 240 posts for the year.
Currently with this post I am exactly halfway in this amount of posts. Starting off the year strong I believed this was going to be easier than I thought. Then in April I hit a brick wall, and the amount of posts have been slowing down to an average of 16 a month. Using that as my average for the remainder of the year I will come around 24 posts short. I won't be devastated if this goal isn't met. More than anything I'd just like to have ideas flowing like they did earlier in the year.
5/10
2- Finish 10 sets or subsets of baseball cards.
Currently I am very proud of where I am running with this goal. Last year the goal was five sets, and I came up short. This year I set the bar higher, and have already accomplished what took me the entire year in 2013. While I am just short of being halfway through ten sets I can proudly say that thanks to lots of trading the count currently stands at four. Those four sets are 2013 Opening Day, 2010 Upper Deck ballparks cards, 2013 Topps Chasing the Dream subset, and 2013 Gypsy Queen Collisions. Adding into the excitement I have is that the final cards for my 2013 Topps series 1, and series 2 cards are on the way. I will admit that getting the final four will be a tough road, but I'm excited about taking on this challenge.
4/10
3- Add Rosario, and Trout nectar to the collection
As a reminder on what this goal is about. I am looking to add ten special items into the Rosario, and Trout collections. When I set this goal I was very realistic in the fact that the greatest odds are most if not all the items would be for Rosario. Any shots at Trout items would be if I somehow pulled something from a pack. If that day came I think I'd go get a lottery ticket, and hope to keep my luck going. The best news is I started the year off with a bang by adding the Trout SLU pictured above. From there I added a Rosario Futures patch at the card show in Beaverton. From there two more Rosario items a 2013 Gypsy Queen patch, and a 2014 Museum patch with an auto from e-bay made their way into the collection. Being honest I highly doubt this goal gets accomplished as I have others I'm more focused on. Despite that if an item does make it my direction I'll be more than happy to welcome it.
4/10
4- Complete 52 trades of baseball cards.
9- Continue to improve my writing
There are what I would call the top five goals I'd like to accomplish. Sending out 52 trades is one of those goals. When it comes to doing this I have a tendency to send out a group of anywhere from 3-6 batches of cards. Then a month or so will go by without anything going out. This is followed by another of those 3-6 mailings. I'm not going to say this trend will be changing any time soon. What I will say is that I want to try, and keep this going if that is what it takes to keep me trading. The good news, and bad news at the same time is that I have done 23 trades which is three behind the halfway goal. I'm not kicking myself, but patting myself on the back for this. Doubling last years goal was another stretch goal, and so being this far along is a great thing. Even if I do come up short here I believe that I will have sent more out in 2014 than I did in 2013, and that is a win if you ask me.
4/10
5- Add 40 cards into the Rosario, and Trout collections
When I set this goal earlier in the year I was honest in believing that most these cards would be of Mike Trout. So far that has been exactly what has happened as the count currently stands at 16 Trout cards, and 6 Rosario. Keeping this trend throughout the year will put me right around where I expected with around 30 Trout cards, and 10 Rosario. Both players have gotten a fair amount of new stuff that has appeared in the latest sets that I have barely gotten started on. Just working on those will get me pretty close to achieving this goal.
5/10
6- Continue to improve my artwork for the artelopes
I believe that I have been doing an awesome job at this goal. This year the artelopes have been seeing designs that use the entire front of the envelope. While there have been some moments of artwork that are still lacking. I'm pretty proud of the designs that I've come up with this year. What is next in the evolution of the artelope? I have an idea for a design that will be getting sent out to the University of Miami for football schedules. If I like the look, and can use it on other things then it might get more uses every once and awhile.
8/10
7- Show more blogging love
Another of the top five goals that were set for myself. As a reminder the goal is to comment atleast 52 times on other blogs posts. I want to let other bloggers know I appreciate their work, and show it by commenting. Starting off strong as the year started somewhere along the way I started slowing down, and have barely commented. Currently the count stands at 21, and needs to be improved upon. This is a goal that I need to get back into full swing like when the year started. Look for me to try, and make this happen for the remainder of 2014.
4/10
8- Get all three of my hobbies organized
Until Sunday I was starting to drop the ball on this goal. Looking into the current hobby room which is a total mess I had no motivation. Then on Sunday I thought that I needed to get things back to where they were at the minimum. That was accomplished, and then some when I got all the cards from Saturday's show, and earlier additions put into their respective places. All the business cards I've gotten lately were put into their pages. Then finishing things off was putting almost all the 2014 pocket schedules into their pages. The only thing stopping me from completing the schedules, and having it be totally up to date were pages. Saturday morning I thought to myself I should see if I needed any pages as the only card shop I can find the ones I need is within a mile of Mall 205. Unfortunately I didn't listen, and need those pages before I can get my entire schedule collection organized. Another setback has been getting the new hobby room completed. We have a vacation coming up, and once it's over maybe I can get back the groove I was feeling before the April event. If that happens I believe I can get all three collections in order for the first time ever.
5/10
9- Continue to improve my writing
This is a constant goal that I have always going on. Honestly I believe this is something all bloggers are working on, and I am no different. At times I feel things have been great, and other times needing work. One of the things I've done a couple times this year that I've struggled with is half posts. A few times I've started a post, and been unable to finish it that same day. When I get back to work on the post the next day or later in the week. My train of thought is lost, and the post kind of goes south. I need to work on either completing a post all in one day, or being able to run with what was started at a later date.
5/10
10- Double the amount of blogs listed on my blog list
This is a pretty simple, and self explanatory goal. Starting the year off there were 23 blogs listed under the my blog list. Currently there are 38 blogs on the list, which is a pretty good gain. Doing the count that means I've added 15 new blogs, and need to go with 8 more. One of the things that has helped more than anything with me accomplishing this goal was a change of attitude. Early in the year I decided rather than just going to 'Sports Card Blogroll', and reading the posts of interest from there. I would add blogs here, and start by reading the ones here first. After this I would go to the blogroll, and see if there was anything interesting I might have missed. So far it has been going great, and honestly has made reading blogs even more enjoyable as I'm a bit more organized now using this method. The eight number should be going down in the near future as I noticed a blog not on the list that needs to be corrected. If you have a blog that I might be missing too I'd love to hear from you, and fix the problem.
6/10
Looking at where I rated myself so far with all these goals I believe I am right where I should be. While some won't make huge steps of improvement over the remainder of the year. There are a few I am hopeful for, and will be trying to refocus myself on. If I can add 30 more points to finish the year at a very strong 80 I will be thrilled. Last year I started strong, and fell apart in the final 6 months ending with a total of 68. My goals this year I believe are tougher to accomplish, and have still been getting knocked down. The goals that carried over were turned up a notch, and made even more challenging. That was a good thing as I have either accomplished what was done last year or am real close to accomplishing it.
50/100
These are all great goals. The writing one, in particular, is interesting to me. I have to finish up posts on the same day I start them or else I have no chance of ever completing it. I'm more likely to mail in the end of the post in the interest of getting it done than I am to stop and go away from it.
ReplyDeleteThat's my big problem. I'll finish it the next day or two later, but end up mailing it in. Need to either finish them up that say day like most, or get better at not mailing it in.
DeleteLooks like you are pretty much on target although that's a heck of a list.
ReplyDeleteMy only two goals matched two of yours, 'organize my collection' and 'improve my writing'. I seem to be failing miserably at both. The there are still six months left!