I was recently chatting with a colleague about how the impending New Year and its associated resolutions is both a great opportunity as well as a bit of a joke. Most resolutions set are unrealistic or hard to measure and therefore aren’t achieved.

At Mish we’re pretty big about SMART goals so I’ve decided to add some public accountability to specific personal goals of reading more meaningfully as well as writing more often (the article Stop Trying to Sound Smart When You’re Writing was a bit of catalyst to making an effort on the latter in 2017).

What am I going to read?

Don’t expect Dystopian Novel reports because virtually all books I’ve starting lining up center around personal/professional development and new ventures or entrepreneurship.

How did I start compiling my list and how will I track it?

I have a running list of ‘to reads’ I keep on my Trello board. So I’ve used that to drop a card/checklist of around 20 books so far. (If you want to be super nosy, I’ve attached a screenshot of this list… and the list is very fluid so please feel free to hit me up with feedback on these and others).

I’m using Goodreads 2017 Book Challenge and Trello to track each book and this site to post write-ups.

So, what’s the actual goal?

I’ve set a goal of 26 books in 2017. Each book will be back-ended by a post on my feedback from the book. I’m thinking:

• Why I chose Book “X”
• What I’m expecting (done prior to)
• What I got (overall comparison to what I was thinking I’d read)
• Highlights or major takeaways
• Who I would recommend it to and why it’s relevant

Here’s a first pass at some books for the challenge (note, I have read two of them before but they’re those type of books — can you guess which ones?) 👇