There’s only one quarter left of 2023. That feels insane! Didn’t we just ring in the new year?
It’s time to check in on the 2023 goals I set for myself this year. In this recap, I’m going to be honest about the goals I know I won’t complete this year. When I set these goals, it’s never with the intention that every single one will be completed. That’s the hope, of course, but I am quite okay with failing at my yearly goals. So, let’s get honest here!
APARTMENT
1) Move to a two-bedroom apartment – Will not complete. I decided to spend another year in my current apartment because a) my rent price did not increase and b) two-bedrooms are just so expensive and I don’t feel comfortable making my budget SO tight right now.
2) Hire movers for my move – N/A
3) Change up my entryway – Complete! I’m so happy with it.
4) Buy a new mattress and bedframe – Complete! I couldn’t be more pleased with this purchase.
5) Create a favorite books bookshelf. This will be complete in Q4, as I bought the bookshelf on Friday and it should be here sometime this week!
HEALTH
1) Go for a walk every day – I stopped tracking this in Q3, oops. In the first half of the year, my completion percentage was 52%.
2) Complete 100 Peloton workouts – (54/100) I’m way behind on this goal and will not complete it.
3) Drink at least one bottle (16 oz) of water every day – I stopped tracking this in Q3! In the first half of the year, my completion percentage was 38%. Whew.
4) Get a sleep study done – No progress made. I need to call my doc and get this done!
5) Research my options for LASIK. Complete! Not only did I do a consultation, but I scheduled the surgery. It’s October 20th!
6) Establish a better morning and nighttime routine. I think I’m doing better these days, especially now that I have a strict daily schedule I’m following.
MONEY
1) Have $3,000 saved in my CapitalOne emergency fund and $500 in my bank emergency fund by the end of the year. Slight progress made toward these goals. I will not get to $3,000 in my CapitolOne emergency fund, but I should be able to get to $2,000 and that’s better than nothing.
2) Switch to a rewards credit card. No progress made.
3) Start doing monthly budget recaps again. Ugh, no. I forgot I had changed this goal, lol.
4) Donate $50 to the following three charities every quarter: Friends of Strays, the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund, and CASA. Again, completely forgot about this goal. ARGH!
HOBBIES
1) Read 100 books. (87/100) I am 13 books ahead of schedule!
2) Complete the A-Z reading challenge. (23/26) I am down to the three toughest letters: V, X, and Z. I am struggling to find books for these letters (well, books I actually want to read).
3) Publish podcast seasons regularly throughout the year. So far, so good! We released season 3 in January/February, season 4 in March/April, season 5 in June/July, and season 6 in September/October.
4) Post to our podcast Instagram three times per week while we’re in season and twice per week when we’re not. LOL, no. I am posting twice a week at this point and that’s good enough for me.
5) Complete my blog categorization project. I’m doing one year of recategorization every month, and I got through 2009-2013 in Q1, 2014-2016 in Q2, and 2017-2019 in Q3. Only 2020 and 2021 left for Q4!
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) I have watched six movies, yay! I just need to finish up with some standup specials. I have tickets to see Taylor Tomlinson in November, so just have to find two Netflix specials to round this out!
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
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. I’m an old pro now (lol, not really).
4) Visit one new state. Complete. I visited South Carolina in early July.
5) Get a tattoo. Complete. I got this done at the end of September – yay!
6) See a Dolphins game in person. Not complete. I don’t think I’ll get to this one, womp.
7) Complete Project 365. In progress and going well!
8) Go on at least 5 first dates. I went on two first dates and one morphed into a five-month relationship, so I think I can count this as complete.
How are your 2023 goals going? Any standup specials to recommend to me?
You are doing really well with your goals! I see a lot of “completes” on there. I think not finishing some is totally fine. Setting them is what’s important and trying them is sometimes as good as meeting them. I have tried a lot of new things that maybe were not exactly what I thought I wanted but sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know and those things are not really what you needed anyway.
For your exercise goals, maybe just adjust them? Sometimes for me, if I set the bar too high, I want to just do nothing rather than scaling it down, but many times, I just need to be more realistic! Instead of running every day, maybe 3 times a week is good and the other days can be walks or a certain time limit like 30 minutes. The other thing that is important is rest days. I give myself Monday and Friday off, that way I am more likely to commit on Tuesday, since I know I just had a break and will have another on Friday.
Yeah, I need to do some thinking about my exercise goals. For the rest of the year, I’m going to focus on getting outside for a daily (ish) walk. And maybe I’ll get back to my Peloton game in the new year. I just haven’t been motivated to exercise much these past few months, and it’s very frustrating!
You’ve done so great on your goals (and reminded me I wanted to see Are You There God). I especially love all the fun stuff you have completed – it’s so healthy to have good hobbies to look forward to. I have been doing some reading on how our brain works and as we age we have to exercise it to stay healthy – reading and socializing and learning new skills is so important. Great job!
Thanks, Nicole! I really wanted to have some fun goals to complete this year and I’m already thinking about some fun options for 2024. It doesn’t have to be all super serious goals all the time!
I set 23 goals and am happy with my progress so far. A few just aren’t going to happen and that’s fine. I’m already working on my list for 2024 and that makes me excited!
One of my goals was to get laser eye surgery; soon we’ll be eye buddies! So excited for your 20 October appointment. You’re going to LOVE being able to see without glasses.
EYE BUDDIES! I can’t wait. It’s going to be life-changing, I know.
I’ve been thinking about my 2024 goals, too! I am especially looking forward to adding some fun goals to cross off my list. 🙂
Nice job! It’s good you’re flexible and not beating yourself up about the goals not completed, because things can change a lot in a year. Some goals just aren’t realistic as time goes on. I’m impressed with the ones you have completed- 100 books for the year (well, you’re GOING to complete this one) is awesome. I always set a goal of 50 and always fall short- maybe this will finally be the year!
I am really glad I’m someone who is just fine with not completing goals. I know that’s a tough one for some people, but as much as I love setting these goals every year, I know a lot can change over 12 months and it’s okay to not achieve goals I was gung-ho about earlier in the year!
Look at you go! Wow! I also like how you have switched up your goals when they’re not right for you anymore. That’s so smart and makes me think that I should reevaluate some of my own quarterly goals!
I’m with Nicole – I love how you have fun goals. I feel like my goals are always so serious – I should take a lesson from you and work on more fun!
My only X books are Xenogenesis by Octavia Butler, which is an omnibus of the trilogy Lilith’s Brood, which is EXCELLENT sci-fi, but might not be your jam. Did you ever read any of the alphabet books by Sue Grafton? Three’s one that’s just called X. Have you read Verity by Colleen Hoover? The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn? I don’t have any suggestions for Z at all! Maybe Zoya by Danielle Steele? I’ve not read it, but Steele is reliably trashy. Zami by Audre Lorde? It’s a classic!
OMG, you are a GEM, Engie! I think I might finally give Verity a try. I have heard SUCH mixed reviews that I haven’t been tempted, but I think I can power through for the challenge at least. And Zami is such a great rec that I never thought of. I’ll give that one a try, too!
And yes, add some fun goals to your 2024 list! It was really exciting to knock off these goals. 🙂
I love that so much in your fun list is complete!! And maintaining your podcast is huge!!
I don’t have much planned for the final quarter of the year. I will hit my book goal but I set the bar pretty low, I will run a 10k on Thanksgiving and I am knocking it out of the park at work.
I’m so happy we continue to maintain our podcast, especially with Bri’s schedule as busy as it is. We’re managing to sneak in recording times and she’s finding the time to edit the episodes, which is AWESOME.
Knocking it out of the park at work is a huge accomplishment. Way to go!
You’re doing great – so many goals complete! And I love that there is so much fun stuff that you were able to do. It’s so good for the soul to have fun things on your list and getting these things scheduled and done! Hooray!
In regards to the health/exercise goals, I think Kyra is right: maybe downscale your goals and try to make smaller changes. Sometimes, if we’re trying to do too many things at once, we end up doing nothing at all.
I do think downscaling on my exercise goals is what I need to do. Sometimes I forget that a habit takes TIME to build and I don’t need to log a hard workout 4-5 times a week. If I manage to do it once or twice, that’s better than nothing. And I can build on it from there. <3