This year. Man… This. Year.
It’s been a roller coaster for sure. Ups, downs, swings to the right, dips to the left, and a lot of laughing, crying, screaming and flailing to go along with it. (But I did NOT throw up… no siree!)
I was going to write a recap of my 2019 goals and how I did on them. But to be honest, they were kind of hit or miss. Part of that was inconsistency, part of that was changing my methodology, and part of it was God throwing a face palm at me that made me rethink A LOT.
So, for the methodology… I started the year reading Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt. Great book. Super inspiring. Got me setting a ton of goals for different areas of my life – physical, spiritual, intellectual, social, avocational, vocational, financial, marital and emotional.
It was a great method, and they were great goals. But there were so many.
I found myself at the end of the month looking at what I accomplished towards my goals and feeling like I dropped the ball on a lot of them. It’s hard to focus with so many goals, right?
So then I moved to monthly goals, keeping them to a maximum of three goals each month. Totally do-able, right? Yeah that’s where the inconsistency came in to play.
I didn’t keep my monthly goals front and center, so I ended up losing focus mid-month. Heck, some months didn’t even get goals assigned.
Here’s what I’m doing different in 2020. I’ve got a new planner that helps me intentionally set three big goals each month, and then put those goals in front of my face every week. Right now I’m looking at the overall year and what I want to accomplish, then break those down into how I can impact them each month. It’s a bit like OKR’s if you’re familiar with the book Measure What Matters by John Doerr.
But let’s look at 2019 anyway, shall we?
I started with a physical goal of running a 5k. That didn’t happen. But I did spend more time in the gym than I did in 2018. I just changed gyms and am hoping some extra benefits of this new one inspires me to be there more often.
Churches. OMG, churches. We visited a few. Had some ok experiences and some not so great ones. Still looking for the right one, but part of the problem is getting our rear ends out of bed on Sunday morning. Or being in town on Sunday morning! Ha!
Intellectual goal was to read at least one non-fiction book per month, rounding it up to 15 for the year. This is the goal I SLAYED this year.
I’ll finish the year with at least 40 non-fiction books read. How, you ask? Kindle has been my super power. And my library card. I found that I read more when I’m reading eBooks. Seriously, I have a paper copy and an e-copy of a few different books and the one that gets read is on the Kindle. All of my time in airports and on airplanes this year helped too.
One of my goals was to find a couple of Meetup groups to get involved in to expand my social life. I’ve gotten very involved in our local WordPress Meetup group and I’m helping organize the next WordCamp Houston. I also joined our local A Girl and A Gun chapter and go to the Girl’s Night Out event at our local range each month. So I’ll put a check mark on that goal too.
For my avocational (i.e. hobbies) goal I wanted to volunteer with a couple of charitable organizations. Y’all I tried on this one. I signed up for our local animal shelter, I did all of the online training. But when it came to actually trying to go in a do stuff, it was crickets. I might try again later, but maybe not.
I kinda, sorta started to rebuild my side business, Mesquite Fields. I did some client work this year, spoke at some events, but I’m having a bit of an identity crisis in that area and haven’t pushed it as much. That’s going to be something I try to focus on more in 2020… figuring it out.
Financially we did pretty good. We paid off several credit cards. Jack got a (temporary) job, which helped a lot. We’re hoping that becomes permanent in the new year (fingers crossed!). We were also able to cash flow some things that we would have otherwise put on credit cards.
Speaking of Jack… this year has really been focused on our relationship and coming out of a tough place stronger as a couple. We’ve been going to counseling for over a year now and have seen great progress. We still do date night, at least twice a month but sometimes each week. I’d say this one was definitely met, and definitely still has a ways to go.
Emotionally I’m overall in a much better place. Through counseling I’ve realized that I’ve been very codependent through much of my life… taking care of others more than I take care of me. I’m still working through that, what it looks like to actually express my wants and needs rather than stuff them away in favor of someone else. On a daily basis it’s easier, but there are times – events and holidays for example – where it’s harder, or I see the effects and changes more. Those times bring up emotions that I’m having to face and deal with, work through, and become stronger and more healthy. It’s hard to explain in a paragraph… we should have coffee sometime to discuss. Lol
So that’s my recap of 2019 goals. I’ll write a separate post about my goals for 2020, in light of the progress I’ve made here and the direction I want to go.
What about you? How did your 2019 goals pan out? Where did you have great wins and where did you have to pivot? I believe looking back at your successes and challenges is a great exercise that can help you move closer to where you want to be. Happy reflections!