Like I mentioned last year, I’m not into year’s resolutions but I believe in both long-term and short-term personal goals. Like most people, I find the planning much easier than the action required for any level of success.
My 2018 Year In Review
Without going into too much detail, I will admit my 2018 levels of success was mediocre at best. Here’s that post if you’re interested.
Here’s a quick outline of last year’s goals and how I felt I did:
- JANUARY 2018 – Weight loss and better health with the Paleo diet: Fail: While I am eating better, for the most part, I failed when it comes to actual weight loss and overall health. I lost about 35 pounds during the first six months and since then I’ve managed to gain 20 pounds back. On top of that, I “feel” bigger and more out of shape than a year ago.
- FEBRUARY 2018 – Unplugging and getting organized Win: I spend far less time on social media and did very well getting organized in several aspects of our daily lives.
- MARCH 2018 – Getting a handle on our finances. Fail: I’m as broke as ever. I’m sitting pretty much in the same spot as I was every year for the last decade. Huge fail and unacceptable. I will say, however, my investments and retirement outlook are looking much better.
- APRIL 2018 – Our backyard garden. Win: Actually, I consider our garden as a huge win but I spent WAY more than a month on it. In fact, the garden and “homestead” goals took up most of my focus all the way through to the end of July and well into August, kicking hiking and blogging to the curb.
- MAY 2018 – Happy to be hiking again. Fail: I just wasn’t feeling it. See April.
- JUNE 2018 – Homesteading like a boss. – Win: See April.
- JULY 2018 – A blogging superhero again. Fail: I just wasn’t feeling this either. See April.
- AUGUST 2018 – Harvest, canning and prepping. Win: I hit it a little late but we did well finishing up the season and preserving a ton of food.
- SEPTEMBER 2018 – Vacation. Finally. Win: We did enjoy a nice vacation with our two youngest grandsons that live in Ohio.
- OCTOBER 2018 – Win: Home improvement and projects. Win: While I will NEVER be able to complete the list my wife and I have made, we did knock a dent in much of it.
- NOVEMBER 2018 – Reading, learning and planning. Win: The easiest of my goals are here in the last two months.
- DECEMBER 2018 – Family time, reflection and evaluation. Win: Too easy, since most of our free time is almost required holiday/family time. If anything, we overdid it. Between the costs associated with the holidays and the stress of family overload, I was so happy to see 2018 come to an end so we could get back to living our normal lives again. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice and I enjoyed it, it just seemed to go on far too long.
Different Format For 2019 Goals
I did find it somewhat helpful to break my goals, as formatted on last year’s blog post on goals, into monthly actions. Similar to the years before that, the 30-day challenges were one of the most powerful forms of an action taking strategy I’ve tried. At least when it came to looking at what I was supposed to be focused on during any particular month.
The problem with that monthly format is certain actions need to be continuous throughout the year, others can be knocked out in a weekend and a couple of my goals took several months to accomplish.
I’m sure that lent to some of the fails from last year. That, along with a little change in priorities. For example, When I found myself in the middle of the gardening and homesteading tasks, hiking and blogging didn’t seem as exciting or as important anymore. My priorities changed.
This year I think I’ll create continuous lists rather than blocks. More on this in my next blog post on getting organized to our 2019 goals.
Brian D. Hawkins is a late-blooming thought leader in his mind. So please don't disturb his happy thoughts. It's all he has.
Brian D. Hawkins has been a blogger for over twenty years, having written thousands of public articles on dozens of websites. He currently blogs for NextStepSurvival.com and his personal blog at TheOpinionBlog.com.
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