Closing out 2021 and goals for 2022
I’ve been publishing personal goals every new year since 2020. It’s been a fun experiment. I believe that forcing myself to write goals down publicly helps keep me accountable.
Before we get to 2022, I want to review my 2021 goals and judge myself based on them. I put together 4 personal goals for myself in 2021 and it was a mixed bag.
Find work life balance - Half the year was a bit of a struggle for me. I burnt out hard in the summer, but started to find work/life balance towards the end of the year. I give myself a C for figuring it out eventually.
Drink less - Another mixed bag. Post-vaccination world was a lot of fun. The summer was a bit of a blur as I was constantly traveling for work and social events that involved a lot of drinking. I slowed things down in the fall and winter months though which I was proud of myself for. Still, I have work to do here and give myself another C.
Learn Mandarin - complete fail as I never started and instead switched to Spanish Duolingo due to my upcoming month in Mexico. I never got fluent. This was a bit of a stretch goal but I did start learning a new language in 2021 so I give myself a F+.
Practice gratitude - this was probably my biggest win of the year. Coming out of the pandemic post-vaccination was a great way to practice gratitude. There were a lot of things we took for granted and 2021 was a great way to take a step back and realize how lucky I am. Solid B.
For 2022, I’m going to give myself 3 achievable personal goals that I wanted to work on this year. They’re different but they have a common theme on helping me become a better person.
Drink less. Back in my goal list for 2022 is to drink less. I’m getting older and my body isn’t reacting well to alcohol anymore. I have more responsibilities as time goes on and sleep is much more valuable nowadays. Drinking less and saying no more often to social events is the healthier choice that will help me become more productive and focused.
Read a book a month. I have realized that I have become more and more addicted to my phone as time goes on which means less reading. Discord, Slack, Twitter, etc. have all become a distraction and often do not lead to productive gains. I love reading so consciously putting my phone away and taking time to read before bed or over the weekend should be an achievable goal.
Maximize my time. I am continually taking more responsibilities both in work and personal life. This is going going to continue to increase as I get older. I realize that I need to focus much more on maximizing my time spent during activities. When I’m working on something, I want to be 100% focused. If I’m socializing, I want to be 100% present. If I am relaxing, I want to be 100% there. I have been bouncing around too often and distractions have gotten the best of me recently. I won’t be perfect, but this is a big goal I want to focus on in 2022.
Here’s to my 2022 goal recap being much better than my 2021 recap.