Reflection on 2023 (goals)

I don’t typically make resolutions every year, but I do make goals. Every year I reflect back on my previous year’s goals and see how that was successful. And then I make goals for the next year. Almost every year, I fail at some of those goals and I’m successful in others. I realize that I’ll never hit every goal especially since most are very ambitious, but even if I come in at 50/50, I’ve had a successful year.

Of course, 2023 was the first year since writing this blog that I didn’t make any goals. I had just gotten married last December and I left for my honeymoon in mid-December. I was a bit burnt out from life and work, that I just really wanted to disappear and not think about anything.

I’ll get back on track this year and I hope to put together a new set of goals for 2024. In the meantime, I wanted to reflect back on 2023 despite not having any official goals, and think about the successes that the year brought.

Learning Mandarin - this was a goal of mine since 2021 and I finally started it in 2023. I took a weekly night class for a couple of months. And I have been practicing on Duolingo every day. My Mandarin isn’t great. But I am proud of myself for giving it a shot and continuing to learn.

Managing work stress and work-life balance - as has been the case the last few years, it’s been a bit up and down in this area. I am proud of myself for how I’ve handled the last year of work however. It hasn’t been easy being a small startup as we’ve gone through a lot. But I have largely not let it affect my personal life too much and that’s something to be proud of. I also took multiple vacations and was able to unwind.

Starting my marriage off right and setting my future family up for success - I am unsure what really defines a success here, but my guess is that we’ve had a successful first year of marriage. After making things official last year, I have shifted my attention a bit to setting my future family up for success. A lot of this is mainly financial as I want to be sure that my family will always be set-up and taken care of. My savings and investment plan for the year has gone well and I hope to continue that going into next year.

Enjoying life - I was fortunate to travel to Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Croatia during the year. I know it will likely be harder to travel when I have a family. I’ve realized now is the time to be selfish and I have been dead set on taking advantage of that for as long as possible. I’m happy with the way I’ve been enjoying life.