Hello there! This is where I first made myself accountable to the real live Internet by putting my goals out in public. I now write and reflect on my goal progress in posts, which you’ll see linked below.
2021:
Hi, plague year part two. Overall goals here. Q2 check-in here. End-of-year check-in here.
2020:
Another year, another set of goals. Q1 goals here. Q3 check-in here. Final mark-to-market here.
2019:
I goal-set in a blog post this time, instead of writing over this page (I couldn’t bear to lose the Joe Jonas notebook photo). Find 2019’s goals here, Q1 check-in here, Q2 check-in here, and end-of-year check-in here.
2018:
FIRST QUARTER: check ’em out here!
SECOND QUARTER: right here!
FOURTH QUARTER (missed the third—my bad!): here! bonus year-end reflections!
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I’ve set goals for myself since middle school. (I’m not sure why I started then—possibly it’s when I first realized life was unfair and fleeting and if I didn’t approach it with the very best of myself, I wouldn’t get the most of out it.)
At the beginning of every year, I’ve gotten out a now-tattered Camp Rock notebook, paused briefly to reflect on the sad state of bad boy band hair in 2007, and written down my goals for that year.
The process has evolved over time from a random list of things I wanted to accomplish (everything from “get all As” to “find a boyfriend” to “learn to be more tolerant”) to targeted initiatives along various vectors of my personhood and life. I check in on my progress every quarter and adjust my plans (and sometimes, the goals themselves) as appropriate. At the end of the year, I grade myself against them (win, fail, or half-credit) and reflect on what I learned in the process.
That process is how I ended up deciding to leave New York (which I love) and my job (which I love) in order to travel semi-long-term, rewriting my goals (at least for the near future) in a pretty major way.
I set my 2017 goals on the first Sunday in January. I lit candles, put on a Drake playlist, tucked my comforter around me, and put pen to paper. I wrote down my goals for work, for my health, for my relationships, for my finances, for my personal weaknesses. I went to bed that night, candles snuffed and Joe back in my drawer, and woke up around two a.m. with a fully lucid thought: I had the time and money to pursue my passions of writing and traveling, I needed to get out of my comfort zone; if I didn’t do both of those things now, I never would.
That night led to me to change my 2017 goals a little to include prepping for this whole adventure—read about how I thought about that here—and got me excited to think about my 2018 goals.
So here they are! The things I want to accomplish over this little sabbatical from life. It feels a little strange to post this online (not to mention that it feels like I’m cheating on Joe), but I need maximum accountability to help me make the most of this.
First, goals around getting to know the world:
1. Go experience the world. Simple enough. Explore, try new things, take advantage of my youth (in all its healthy, obligation-free glory). How? Spend a significant amount of time (at least 6 months) traveling slowly through some part of the world that I haven’t been to and that’s not much like home
2. Meet and get to know new people. Be friendly, ask questions, don’t assume I know anything about anyone. How? Travel alone, forcing my extroverted self to find connections around me, and stay in lots of different types of accommodations with lots of different people—airbnbs, hostels, Workaways, etc.
Next, goals around getting to know myself:
3. Figure out if I like writing / storytelling as much as I think I do and if I need to be in a career that is more directly tied to it. How? Write at least an hour a day, every day, on a variety of topics and in a variety of forms and see how it makes me feel
4. Create a portfolio that showcases my creativity and drive (so that by having it + a traditional resume I can tell the full story of myself). How? Design and manage this lil blog
5. Stress test my values and the things I think I want out of life. How? Write down what I think those things are now and compare them at the end of my traveling to what I think then, constantly try to see things from others’ points of view, live little experiments in the various places I find myself
And last, goals around maintaining my current world & self:
6. Maintain my relationships with my family, friends, mentors, coworkers and stay a part of their lives. How? Check in with them, write to them, share stories with them, remember birthdays and anniversaries and celebrate them, even if I’m away from home
7. Keep my “nest egg” savings for getting an apartment / car / wardrobe for if/when I want to come back and pick up life, or if something unplanned happens. How? Literally do not touch my second savings account
8. Continue my literary education. How? Read a book or two a month (at least!) and write about them—how they made me feel, what they taught me
9. Stay healthy. How? Work out 3x a week (hikes count! Kayla counts!), get health insurance, get fully vaccinated before I go and go to the doctor if I get sick
So there they are. What I’m trying to go do for the next little bit of my life.
Thanks for reading. See you in a few months for our first quarterly check-in!