So one of the lessons I took from my 2023 goals project was that setting 23 year-long goals was tough stuff. I just couldn’t focus on all of these things at once and so somethings never became a priority. For goals that were about establishing habits sometimes I really didn’t need to track them for a full year, just trying to change my ways with intense focus for a month would have been a better course of action. So for 2024 I decided to vary my goals between ones that would last a month, 3 months, 6 months, and the full year. I tried to come up with goals that matched the timeframe they would fall in. So without further adieu here are my goals for January 2024.
One month goal – Begin blogging
Hey that one seems to have worked! I took steps beginning early in January to get this site up and running and while it took a couple weeks longer to actually get some posts published I did get that done by the end of the month. We’ll see if I can make it a regular habit going forward to get on here and share some updates and by the end of the year I’ll have a better feel for how important this is to me going forward.
Three month goal – Prepare house for having regular visitors
Made some progress in this one so far. The main floor is generally cleaner than it was when 2024 arrived. The important thing to work on in the next few weeks is getting together with Chantelle and discussing what we feel needs to be different before we’d feel ready to have people over regularly with less advanced notice. And then figuring out how to build those things into our lives as regular habits.
Six month goals – Weight loss, disciplines, connecting with family
I knew in December that when I reached 219.9 it was going to be followed by indulging in some holiday treats and putting on some weight. That definitely happened and I’ve weighed in over 230 a few times this year already. Managed to get back down to 223.4 this morning though. My goal is to reach 200 pounds by May and then decided from there how I would like to proceed. I haven’t been under 200 pounds since early in college so I really don’t know how I would feel at that point. I’m not going to hit my end-January goal of 215 but getting to 210 by the end of February is theoretically possible or at least being much closer to my target weight than I am today.
I wanted to focus on the same disciplines I found beneficial in 2023 but wasn’t able to keep up with as much as I’d like. That’s cleaning the cat litter, doing the NYT crossword, reading a few pages of Pearls Before Swine comics, reading my Bible, and stretching. So far…. much like last year. I do the cat litter pretty much everyday and wasn’t struggling with the others until things got really rocky at work almost two weeks ago. Since then I’ve really been out of rhythm in life and haven’t been prioritizing things so well. Cat litter is still getting done thankfully but I’ve been getting distracted by the Facebook deluge instead of investing my time in these disciplines.
Haven’t connected with family much so far this year. We spent New Year’s Eve into NYD at Chantelle’s parents which was nice but that’s been about it. We’re having lunch with them tomorrow so that is a good way to get back into this habit. Hoping that having this as a goal for the first half of the year and thinking about it fairly regularly will spur some habit building.
Full year goals – Running events, MBA program
Having established running as a regular habit I want to stretch myself in 2024 to attempting some running events of increasing distance and see how I hold up and enjoy the experience. My tentative schedule…
10k (6.2 mile) trail run – April 27th
9-mile trail run (3 hour limit) – June 22nd
Half marathon trail run (13.1 miles) – August TBD
Market to Market relay (likely 10-12 miles over 3 legs) – September 28th
21-mile trail run (9 hour limit) – October 20th
Half marathon trail run (13.1 miles) – November 28th (Thanksgiving)
I have no concerns about the 10k and the 9-mile event seems pretty doable. The half marathons are a little daunting to imagine but for Market-to-Market relay in 2022 I did almost 10 miles over 3 legs and I was a much less prepared runner than I am today. The 21-mile event is the one that gives me pause but to do it in 9 hours is averaging 25 minute miles so I feel like if I want to will myself to the finish line I will.
Much like with my weight, where I don’t really know how I’ll feel about where to go next once I hit 200 pounds, I need to learn more about what I think of these kind of events before seeing where I want to go next with running. There are two 100-mile races locally each year (that’s not a typo) along with 39-mile and 50-mile events. There are more options like that if you are willing to drive a few hours regionally and then there’s the insane Cowboy 200 – Yes 200 miles along the Cowboy Trail from Norfolk to Valentine. Even with 84 hours to accomplish it that’s just beyond my comprehension. Anyways not saying my future includes any of those longer distances but I am definitely interested in the idea of pushing myself past what most people would dare attempt and I’ll learn a lot from how I enjoy the events I want to do this year.
And then obviously completing the MBA program this year so I can move forward with my career is a major goal. It’s going to be a busy 10.5 months until my hopeful graduation with only small breaks around the summer semester. My real goal here is to stay on top of my classes better than I have previously. For a couple of my fall classes where I could get away with it I never even read much of the assigned material, stuff I’m actually interested in and would like to read at some point still. So I’m hoping this semester not to fall behind so much and to keep pace with the class schedule. If I’m going to read it eventually why put it off and be scrambling to catch up?
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