So…for the last couple of years, I’ve set goals instead of resolutions. I said resolutions are such an absolute concept that they generally lead to disappointment, at least for me. (Aside: if I had made some of my old resolutions this year, I would have already broken some. This rather solidifies my reasoning.)
Each year, I like to look at last year’s goals to see where things went well and where I could improve. After that, I like to plan out my goals for the coming year.
So, let’s move toward my 2019 results and 2020 goals.
Did I Meet My 2019 Goals?
Before I set my 2020 goals, I want to look back at last year. Did I go the way I wanted it to go?
Short answer: no.
Longer answer: I would say I met some of my goals, but certainly not all. Let’s look:
- Spend more quality time with the kids. Definite mixed bag on this one.
- Write a will. We got with an attorney and started one. Still need to get it finished.
- Read 20 financial books. I’m sure I started 20 financial books. I think I finished three. Let’s hear it for abysmal time management!
- Declutter the house. It probably didn’t help that an extended family member “cleaned up” the basement, causing us to lose track of about 20 boxes of stuff. And it certainly didn’t help that the sewer line backed up into the basement shortly thereafter. With all that said, this is on me, and it just didn’t happen. (For the record, the basement is pretty much unusable at the moment.)
- Post consistently. Um…no.
- Increase my traffic. Well, this post did pretty well.
- Make $1000 from my blogs. Nope.
- Save $20,000. Mixed bag. We saved over $5000 in the retirement account (including my company’s match), but thanks to the medical bills, we’ve exhausted the emergency fund and are in credit card debt for the first time in a long time. I’m not at all thrilled about this.
- Earn $5000 from side hustles. I will admit to hoping that the trivia app craze would continue. It kinda has, though games have been made much more difficult to win. Long story short: I didn’t get nearly that much…but I did earn some.
- Have a monthly budget and stick to it. Don’t make me laugh. Or cry. Or something.
- Curtail my spending. I think so, except for medical bills. Unfortunately, they overshadowed everything last year.
This is how a lot of my proposed goals end up, at least figuratively. Image by Steve Johnson from Pixabay.
2020 Goals
It’s a new year, so hopefully that gives me a decent chance of starting over and doing better. Maybe this year I can hit a few more of these goals, but I guess we’ll know in about 12 months.
Rather than repost last year’s goals (which are conveniently available, well, about three paragraphs above here, and most of which I want to try again this year), let’s just discuss my new 2020 goals.
Actually, there are really only two.
- Get out of debt! As stated above, medical bills did exactly what we didn’t want and put us into debt, as of the end of last year. This year, we’re already starting the cuts in order to get that paid off. By the end of 2020, it will have happened.
First of all, wish me luck.
The real undertaking I have planned for myself may seem a little recursive, but I want to be better at setting goals, which leads to…
The Big Goal
- Plan out my goals throughout the year. My mindset* is such that following through on goals, if nothing else, feels more difficult for me than for most. Seriously, I’ve tried loads of different ways to stay on top of my goals and/or my to-do list. Well, after viewing “Balance is Overrated”, the most recent webinar (AFAIK) by the almost ubiquitous Ruth Soukup,** I am trying yet another method, this time involving determining for each day/week which items are “must do”, “should do”, or “would like to do”. (I’ve tried this before, but it didn’t take at the time.)
So, just two new goals for 2020, but they’re pretty overarching. Feel free to ask me how my goals are coming if you run into me on Facebook or Twitter.
And did I already mention wishing me luck?
* I was officially diagnosed with ADHD a couple of years ago. I’m presently not taking anything for it.
** As previously stated somewhere on this site, I am not above name-dropping.
Note: this post may contain affiliate links. And honestly, it probably does. View my affiliate link disclaimer here.