2026 Goals!

With my goals for 2025 revisited and appraised, it’s time to move forward with this next year. 2026 is just around the corner, and I have a lot to make up for.

While I did a decent job keeping up with certain goals, I fell short on most of the others. And that’s okay. Goals are not requirements, they’re aspirations. And sometimes, aspirations aren’t always achievable in just a year.

With that in mind, here’s a list of extremely achievable goals.

• Finish drafting “Phantom Janitor” – One of my biggest priorities, aside from the anthology I am working on and my Fenris editing, is to completely rewrite and re-release my debut novel. As I said, I haven’t had a lot of time this year, but I am hoping to change that this coming year. That being said, if this goal is too lofty, I do have an alternate goal here.
  • 50k Words: Since I am sixteen thousand words deep on the manuscript, an alternate goal for this can be a word count of 50k words. If I don’t finish it, I can at least set myself another goal that I can use to measure success.
• Finish three short stories! – I have some stories in mind that I want/need to get finished at some point, and these next twelve months would be the perfect time to get that done! In fact, here are some specific ones I’d love to finish!
  • Seeing Spots – I am in the midst of a third draft for this story! And I love it so much. I just want and need this story to be ready.
  • Summer’s End – This is a two-parter! Part One is as done as I can afford to get it, with a steamy cold open. Part two gave me a bit of a snag. But I do want to get back to it.
  • A Fucked Up Deer story – So, the “The Deer is Messed Up” anthology call hasn’t come back up, but I have this fun idea of a home-invasion story where a group of crooks breaks into the home of a beloved tv baker for a big payout. I have it started. It may not be finished this year.
  • Chad’s Origin Story – This is the story I am working on for RHO IOTA PHI. This is all I will say about this. It should be done soon.
• Learn how to make pie crust from scratch – This was a goal this year, it’s a goal this year. This lil chee needs to learn how to do a good pie crust from scratch!
• Read Twelve Books. – Maybe giving myself a number of books will help me stick to reading through my TBR pile. One book per month of the year should be good, and I can keep track of/review the titles on here.
• Move out of my parents’ house. – I have a good feeling that this year will at least bring about solid plans. There’s something cooking with possible roommates, and a location. I just have to hang tight.
• Bench 100lbs by the end of the year – Upper body strength has always been a long term goal of mine when it comes to the gym and going. I am not trying to be like a body builder, but I do want to get better with my physique and health.
• Learn to make one new dish a month! – Nothing is better than being in the kitchen. And sometimes, I get inspiration for new dishes to make. I want to be able to follow these inspirations more, especially in the kitchen. Hopefully I am more successful with that this year.
• Get a new job. – Let’s be honest, the corporation I work for is starting to get to me. And while it’s a wonderful place to work as far as benefits goes, it’s not been great on my mental health. It’s a lofty goal, but one I am more passively partaking in. I have jobs in mind that I want, but they’re not open at the moment. So there is that.
• Travel more. – I’d love to do more trips to see friends. Like the trip to Indiana or to the various Orlando things were so fun. I am really hoping to do that more this year, whether it’s another trip to Indiana to see Jordan, or maybe some trips to see other furries!
• Buy less coffee from chain restaurants. – I need to cut back on certain purchases, and that’s kind of hard for me to do when I buy a large mocha swirl iced coffee every single fucking day. I’m going to try and start making coffee at home, at least five out of seven days of the week.
• Do as much as I can to support other authors in their creative endeavors whether through monetary means or otherwise! – This one is just… so self-explanatory. I love doing what I can to help other writers.

And those are my goals for 2026. Hopefully, I do a lot better this year than I did last year. Hope you all enjoy what I do over the next year!

❤ – Scribbles/Vinnie