Merry Christmas Eve, my friends! I have a fairly full day planned, starting with picking up all of the food we need for our Christmas Day celebration and ending with dinner at a fancy steakhouse with my mom and stepdad. (I’m also definitely finding time for a nap in between it all!) I hope you and yours have a blessed Christmas!
I wanted to kick off my slew of “Best of 2018” posts today by recapping the goals I set a year ago. I love to set yearly goals because it’s fun to have something to strive for throughout the year, even if I never accomplish most of them. There are some goals on here that I really wish I could have completed, but this year was a tough one for me and I’m just happy I emerged from it with my sanity (mostly) intact.
In any event, here’s how I did on my 2018 goals:
1) Lose 30 lbs.
Not complete. I may have even gained 30 lbs from the beginning of the year. It was a hard year and emotional eating is my coping mechanism, so weight loss was not at the forefront of my mind. It is what it is. I don’t feel good about it, but I’ve also decided not to worry about it.
2) Complete the Whole30.
Not complete. I’m not quite sure what I was thinking when I made this goal – maybe I wanted to be the kind of person who can commit to an eating challenge like this – but restrictive eating plans are not for me. Many people rave about the Whole30 and I’m so glad it works for them, but it’s just not for me. And that’s okay!
3) Cut out soda completely.
Not complete. Ahahaha. No. I love Dr. Pepper way too much to give it up completely. I definitely need to drink less of it, but I’m not concerned with completely giving it up anymore.
4) Buy a new couch.
Complete! It arrived in early November and is everything I could have hoped for.
5) Complete a yearly shopping ban where I don’t buy any new clothes.
Not complete. Oy vey. I forgot about this goal. I followed the shopping ban for the first quarter of the year, but then completely fell apart during the second quarter, and quickly realized that strict shopping bans like this aren’t good for me. I’m more of a moderator than an abstainer, you could say. All-or-nothing challenges just do not suit me!
6) Stop using plastic bags at the grocery store, Target, etc.
Complete-ish? I have cut way down on the amount of plastic bags I’m using, but I haven’t completely cut out using plastic bags.
7) Read 100 books, including four classics.
Complete! I may end up with 135 books read this year when all is said and done, which is the most books I’ve read ever. Woop! I also read four classics: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (★★★★★), 1984 (★★★☆☆), Persuasion (★☆☆☆☆), and The Catcher in the Rye (★★☆☆☆).
8) Give up all dating apps for the entire year.
Complete-ish. I will be honest here and say I added the apps back to my phone over the summer and chatted with a few people here and there, but none of those conversations led to any dates. And, really, I only used the apps for 1-2 months out of the whole year, so I’m considering this goal complete.
9) Try something new once a month.
Not complete. I’m sure I did some new things throughout the year, ha, but I didn’t keep track of them. I’m not confident I did twelve new things throughout all of 2018, so I can’t in good faith consider this goal complete.
10) Start therapy.
Complete! I am in therapy now and it’s going well.
11) Finish my novel.
Not complete. This is my number-one goal for 2019.
12) Figure out what my Enneagram type is.
Complete! I am a Nine with a One wing, and even wrote a blog post about what all of that means. I highly recommend reading the book The Road Back to You to type yourself because it has really been eye-opening in discovering myself.
13) Travel to one new state.
Not complete. My only big vacation this year was a seven-day cruise where I visited two new countries (Belize and Honduras).
14) Exercise at least three times a week.
Complete… up until October. The last quarter of the year, I completely fell off any sort of healthy living lifestyle. First, I was spending every evening and many hours on the weekend visiting Pops while he was in the hospital, and then, grieving his unexpected death. Healthy living just hasn’t been at the forefront of my mind these past few months.
15) Create a wedding album for my mom and stepdad.
Complete! I did this over the summer and they were so pleased and happy with the results.
So, out of the fifteen goals I set, I completed (or nearly completed) 6.5 of them. That’s not a great percentage, ha, but it’s better than zero, right? But even so, I don’t consider my yearly goals to be a failure. I have way too much fun setting my yearly goals and trying to achieve them that I can’t be mad at myself for not accomplishing everything on the list. And yes, I am most definitely planning on setting goals for 2019, and I’ll be unveiling them sometime next week!
Do you set yearly goals?
I think you made excellent progress! And 2019 is going to be GREAT!
Love the transparency you have in sharing these and also the goals you attained! Way to go! Also – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is my favorite book. <3
I think with your yearly goal setting you learn things about yourself – like the fact that you are not an abstainer and that things like Whole30 are not a good fit for you. I bet that will help you make your goals for 2019!
I didn’t set any goals this year. I knew this would be a crazy year with adjusting to having a baby and I was right about that! I am going to do a ’19 in 19′ list for 2019, though. It’s not goals, though, it’s more like a to do list that includes pesky tasks and fun things. I got the idea from the Happier podcast and am excited about it!
You did great, I think! You really learned that all or nothing is not for you (that is why I don’t do things like Whole 30 or must restrictive stuff either). And come on, no new state, but TWO countries! And I am still so happy you found a therapist and it’s going well. That’s so important!
I don’t set yearly goals! I am more likely to make a weekly goal (like your workout 3x a week) or decide to do something and go for it 🙂
I think you made great progress. I love that some of these goals are ongoing and not a one-and-done thing… I like that.