APARTMENT (3/5 complete)
1) Move to a two-bedroom apartment – Not complete. I ended up staying in my one-bedroom apartment for at least another year because my rent didn’t increase this year.
2) Hire movers for my move – N/A
3) Change up my entryway – Complete!
4) Buy a new mattress and bedframe – Complete!
5) Create a favorite books bookshelf. Complete!
HEALTH (1/5 complete)
1) Go for a walk every day – Not complete. My percentage was pretty pitiful.
2) Complete 100 Peloton workouts – I only managed around 60ish Peloton workouts this year. Another pitiful attempt.
3) Drink at least one bottle (16 oz) of water every day – Not complete. Your girl was struggling in this category.
4) Get a sleep study done – Not complete. I never made an appointment with my PCP to get a referral.
5) Research my options for LASIK. Complete! And I went ahead with the surgery, too! I have new eyeballs!
6) Establish a better morning and nighttime routine. Not complete. This is definitely something I want to focus on in 2024. (Of course, I said this in 2023, so…)
MONEY (0/4 complete)
1) Have $3,000 saved in my CapitalOne emergency fund and $500 in my bank emergency fund by the end of the year. Not complete.
2) Switch to a rewards credit card. Not complete.
3) Start doing monthly budget recaps again. Not complete.
4) Donate $50 to the following three charities every quarter: Friends of Strays, the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund, and CASA. Not complete.
HOBBIES (5/7 complete)
1) Read 100 books. (116/100) Crushed this goal.
2) Complete the A-Z reading challenge. (26/26) Complete! Huge thank you to Engie for helping me find books for some of the harder letters like V and Z.
3) Publish podcast seasons regularly throughout the year. Complete! We released season 3 in January/February, season 4 in March/April, season 5 in June/July, season 6 in September/October, and season 7 in November/December.
4) Post to our podcast Instagram three times per week while we’re in season and twice per week when we’re not. Not complete. A big podcast goal for me in 2024!
5) Complete my blog categorization project. Complete! I am finished with this massive project. It took me two years!
6) Host a silent reading night. Complete. I did not host a silent reading night, but I did start attending Silent Book Club.
7) Watch 6 movies and 6 standup specials. (9/12) Not complete. I watched six movies but fell short with just three stand-up specials. (Bri and I were supposed to see Taylor Tomlinson in November but the show got postponed to April since she fell ill.)
MOVIES
- Glass Onion ★★★☆☆
- Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret ★★★★★
- The Little Mermaid ★★★★★
- Clue ★★★★☆
- Barbie ★★★★★
- Red, White, and Royal Blue ★★★★☆
STAND-UPS
- Jim Gaffigan (live) ★★★★☆
- Michelle Wolf: Joke Show ★★★★☆
- John Mulaney: Baby J ★★★★★
FUN STUFF (7/8 complete)
1) Go tubing at Rainbow Springs. Complete! I went in August with my mom and stepdad and had the best time.
2) Take a knife skills class. Complete! It was so much fun!
3) Learn how to French braid. Complete.
4) Visit one new state. Complete. I visited South Carolina in early July and Tennessee in December.
5) Get a tattoo. Complete. I got this done at the end of September – yay!
6) See a Dolphins game in person. Not complete.
7) Complete Project 365. Complete!
8) Go on at least 5 first dates. Complete! I went on three first dates and one of those first dates morphed into a five-month relationship, so I’m counting this as complete.
Alright, so what did we learn from my 2023 goals? I love completing home, hobbies, and fun goals. I do not love completing health and money goals! Or maybe it’s easier for me to complete the more exciting goals and I need a new strategy for completing the goals that require a little more from me. I’ve been thinking about moving from monthly goals to quarterly goals in 2024, and that might be a good place to put these health/money goals so I can break them into something more manageable for me—and I can reassess at the end of each quarter how the goal has worked for me and what may need to be changed.
In any event, in 2023, I completed 16 of 29 goals, or 55%. That’s an F average in school but let’s take the optimist’s lens with this percentage—I completed more than half of the goals I set for myself this year! I never set my yearly goals with the intention that I’ll complete all of them, so I’m happy with what I accomplished this year. Lots of fun goals achieved and I’m excited to set more fun goals in 2024.
How did you do with your 2023 goals, if you set them?