Goals

2024 Goals Update – February

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As school got up and running for the Spring semester it’s been a shaky time when it comes to my goals. I’d say it’s a combination of always trying to do too much and having some days lately where I just squandered time and didn’t apply great effort. Tomorrow is another day though!

One month goals – January: Begin blogging, February – Begin scheduling routine events in my week

Wrapping up my January goal… I added an RSS feed button and a subscription option to the right side of my site! I had assumed a subscription option would be as simple as people enter email address, people get emails. Ehh… not so much. The current setup works with with a site called EmailOctopus that manages the subscription list and allows me to send out emails manually to the list. I think it’s probably a fine option but certainly more and more I feel like this website thing is a little over my head!

For my February goal I had chose trying to work some regular “events” back onto my schedule. These are things I had done in the past and found were helpful in trying to balance out my weeks.

Here’s what I’m working with…
Zoo – We have a zoo membership and don’t live/work that far from there. Ideally I’d like to get some down there most weeks for an hour to get a short break to see some animals. I did make it down this week for… about 15 minutes before going to dinner with Chantelle. I saw a fish with a shellfish in its mouth!
Sunrise – This may be the most important thing I can schedule. I like to pick one day a week to spend outside at sunrise taking it all in. The way the sky changes from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after is pretty remarkable. I enjoy just sitting there thinking about my life or walking as well. These times are great both out in nature or in city settings. This week I sat down by the Lake in Heartland of America Park, perhaps a bit chilly but a good time of reflection.
Night Hikes – This is more of a monthly thing. We haven’t gone on one since the bad one in August at Nebraska National Forest that had us hiking 1.5 miles down an abandoned grown over trail catching burrs all over our shoes and only staying remotely on track because of AllTrails on my cellphone. These are often best near a full moon when it’s easiest to see without artificial light so I’ll be looking to do one in a couple weeks.
No Screen Time – This is one of the easiest things for me to schedule but hardest to actually execute. Despite the title I’m not totally opposed to being on the computer during this time but would want to avoid social media, browsing the web, listening to podcasts, etc. Ideally there’s some non-computer things to work on during this time though. I would like to get a break an hour a day, and for a nice 4-hour stretch once a week. I got this on the schedule a few times this week but can’t say I executed it the best. I did listen to a few albums though yesterday while doing my best to avoid podcasts in the afternoon.
Chantelle Time – I see some value in trying to put a couple hours aside each week to do what my wife would like. This probably needs to be more formally communicated (i.e. Thurs night I’ll clear my schedule for whatever plans you want to make) to really work right. I also would like to spend more time each week prioritizing some things on my to do list that involve her but that’s been hard to make time for often in the past. We’ll see if I have any luck going forward.

While sitting at sunrise I found myself thinking it might be a boost to me to spend an hour a week reading a fiction book somewhere nice. I was picturing a warm sunny day in the park but theoretically this could be somewhere like a coffee shop or a library as well. I’m a bit of an entertainment snob who thinks books are probably a superior form of entertainment to movies/TV shows (and especially those terrible video games). But I don’t read much anymore and most reading I do is non-fiction. I haven’t gotten lost in a book nearly enough in the last 20 years. Making my self spend some time getting back into that habit might help balance out my productivity focus and make me a more well rounded person. Going to try to incorporate this into my weeks more going forward.

Three month goal – Prepare house for having regular visitors

Our house is generally more clean than in the past but still need to get together with Chantelle and discuss what we feel needs to be different before we’d feel ready to have people over regularly with less advanced notice. There have been some things that might have been good occasions to invite buddies over for (CFB Playoffs, Super Bowl) but I’ve had to work overnight after most of that stuff this year. I keep thinking next year I want to feel like I can invite people over without having to think twice about it.

Six month goals – Weight loss, disciplines, connecting with family

Have not made any good progress losing weight. Too much snacking around the house. My habit as of late is to do things like buy 5 pounds of chicken breast when I need 2 pounds for a recipe. Then proceed to eat half a chicken breast of the leftovers everyday when I come home from work as a snack. And a few handfuls of cheese and some crackers and maybe some pickles. I feel like this is holding me back from better exercise so it’s something I need to get serious about next week. Good thing there is some leftover breakfast casserole in the fridge and I’m sure to have leftovers from potluck tomorrow…

Have continued to struggle to find time to focus on my disciplines I found beneficial in 2023. I’ve done a good job of turning cleaning the cat littler into an easy habit everyday but less so doing the NYT crossword, reading a few pages of Pearls Before Swine comics, reading my Bible, and stretching. Still find time for Facebook videos though as a distraction…

Have been able to connect with family much more in the last couple weeks. We had a nice long lunch with Chantelle’s parents a few weeks ago and I was able to talk to my Grandma Green on the phone that week as well. Just over a week ago my mother’s aunt passed away and so there were a lot of chances to see family on that side with the funeral last week. Really enjoyed a nice dinner at my parents with my siblings and grandparents there. This is the time of year where it would be pretty easy to not see anyone again until Easter so might take some intention to keep this going.

Full year goals – Running events, MBA program

Got 3.75 mile runs in 10 times over the last 14 days. Some of them were really good – Monday I did 3.75 miles of hilly Hitchcock (with some muddy areas to slowly go around) in 51 minutes. Only would have to do that 27 times in 34 hours to complete the 100 mile race there… ha! Others were pretty poor – My 3.75 miles at totally flat Boyer Chute was nearly identical in time. Today my legs felt tired and I just didn’t feel any drive to try hard, just wasn’t interested in pushing. I tried some more motivational music and was still not going until the Rocky song (Gonna Fly Now) came on and it felt really wrong to not even try then. It wasn’t like I felt super up for it but I started focusing on my stride and the basics of what I was doing and I had my best quarter-mile of the day. A lot of my battle with running is a mental thing and about putting out a good effort even when I’m not really eager to.

I’ve been able to get my MBA assignments done on time so far this semester but haven’t gotten the reading done as early in the week as I would like. There will be some bigger assignments throughout the semester but a lot of it is 1) Do the reading 2) Post on discussion board. Ideally Mon/Tues I have the reading done so I am not scrambling to post to the discussion board at the last minute. That’s going to require having strong starts to the week and so far that’s not happened.

Couple of weeks ago… Water levels were low enough this offshoot of the Missouri River was pretty much dry other than the snow. I got to run a bit in the river bed!

Sunrise at the park!

Well thanks for reading. Hope you’re having a good February and finding some success in whatever you’re striving after this month! May you see the challenges flying at you and deftly avoid them to make the winning play like Nikola Jokic.

2024 Goals – January

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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?

2023 Goals

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Heading into 2023 I’d become convinced that I was probably being held back a bit by not ever setting goals for myself and pushing to achieve them. So for 2023 I set 23 goals for myself and tracked my results. It was… revealing. I did manage to accomplish some things I might not have done without them but I also had a lot of things I didn’t even come close to.

Positives!

The best results for 2023 were probably that I managed to exercise 300 hours and lose enough weight to reach 220 pounds. I didn’t start prioritizing exercise until late June and barely made it to 300 hours in the final days of the year. That included some golfing (I usually walk) but I didn’t count stretching I was doing for much of the year so I definitely feel good about the work I put in. It’s probably not an accident that while I was prioritizing exercise I lost 40.8 pounds after July 2nd of last year. I also was more focused on my diet, reducing how much I ate overall rather than trying to “eat healthier”. Snacking probably holds me back from losing weight quicker but it’s still been a positive direction. I had originally wanted to reach 220 by August so technically I didn’t make that goal but I did get there by the end of the year at least.

The other goal I definitely hit was spending 500 hours outside in 2023. This goal led to me intentionally spending more time outside in the spring/early summer reading and I bought a hammock that led to some great outdoor naps. As the year got on it was pretty clear I was going to make this goal easily and I hit 520 hours before December and stopped tracking it. It helped that I did a decent amount of newspaper delivery last year. I didn’t count the entire time I was out there but when you’re driving around with the windows down constantly getting out to walk up to porches there is a good chunk of that which should count as being outside!

I wanted to spend more time with our parents in 2023 and had a goal of 12 occasions with each. We definitely hit that with Chantelle’s parents and I think we fell one short with my parents. I’m not sure we really went out of our way to get together much and it would probably be nice to do more intentional getting together outside of the obvious reasons on the calendar but this was a positive year in this area.

Not the worst…

There were some goals I wasn’t able to hit but had some results in. I wanted to run a mile in 8 minutes by the end of the year and in mid-November hadn’t even gotten under 10 minutes. One great run on Thanksgiving gave me an 8:25 mile that didn’t complete the goal but wasn’t bad at all. I also had a goal of going on 36 hikes with Chantelle. Hiking was sporadic and we made it to 24. We didn’t prioritize doing this enough throughout the year so it mostly occurred when we were out of town on vacations.

I wanted to play video games with my neighbor 50 times in 2023. He’s got some mental disabilities but playing video games has been a natural way for us to connect and he really enjoys bringing his PS5 over for us to play. We logged 34 times but that fell off significantly in the fall as I got busy with work and school and I wish I’d found a way to make more time for him. Kind of a similar story with reading – I had set a goal of 24 books and hit 15 before the end of August but only made it to 19.

I have a few things I’ve wanted to get more consistent at doing daily and so I tracked how often I accomplished them – Cleaning the cat’s litter boxes, doing a crossword puzzle, reading a few pages of comics from Pearls Before Swine, reading the Bible, and stretching. There were stretches of the year I was great at this and stretches where I was terrible. I’m more convinced than a year ago that these are all important things for me to be in the habit of. Also I got to the point where I can do the NYT crossword most days without feeling like I’m lost and need to google everything. That was a highlight of the year for sure, I’ve really enjoyed the feelings doing the crossword gives me.

Negatives

There were a lot of things that I didn’t even come close to and that feels kind of depressing. I enjoy playing board games/card games so I set a goal of just 24 times and ended up with… ZERO. I wanted to start having people over to our house regularly and the only occasion we did was when Chantelle’s sister’s family was in town over the summer. I wanted to start having potlucks regularly again with our church ministry group and we did have ones in October and November but that was much later in the year than I wanted to start.

I love naps but naps (30 minutes) often become fail-naps (think like 2 hours) with the way my life is structured. I hoped to limit that to 75 fail-naps and I didn’t even come close to that. I usually sleep 4.5 hours a night so I’m often up early and am home from work by the afternoon so nap time is easy to schedule and easy to just go back to sleep when a cat is being cuddly. I also wanted to limit my social media/useless internet usage and I don’t think that went very well. I watched way too many Facebook videos in 2023. It’s like they have an algorithm serving me up content they know I’ll find irresistible.

Lessons Learned

I definitely learned that focusing on and tracking 23 goals throughout the year is… a lot. There was a decent amount of documenting I needed to do on some of my hours goals so these were constantly top of mind. On the other hand I had a goal of putting up Christmas lights, something that only needed a few hours in November, but I never did it. It was just never something that needed to be done today and so it never became a priority. I came away from this overall thinking that setting a goal and tracking your progress isn’t a bad thing but it’s really about building habits that will last. I did that with my exercise goal and in 2024 I’m not tracking my hours anymore but I don’t anticipate that will cause me to stop exercising.

The other lesson I feel like I learned is that it’s going to be pretty common to look at your goals at the end of the year and have a lot of them you didn’t hit. The point of them is to push you to strive for more and so naturally you’re going to fail to check all the boxes. Technically I only hit 2 of 23 goals but I accomplished so much more in 2023 than I did in say 2018.