Remember a year ago, last January, when I put my goals out into the world for everyone to see? It seems so long ago and I’m a little ashamed to admit that I forgot about most of them. Spoiler alert – I did not accomplish over half of my 2023 goals.
Here were my goals for 2023. They were separated into four categories: finances, health/fitness, hobbies, and blogging goals. I did really good with my financial goals; I did not do so great with my health and fitness goals.
Here’s how I did:
Finances
Pay off my student loan.
I am super excited to tell you all that on January 19, 2024, I made the final payment on my student loan! Full disclosure, I could have paid it off in December, which would have fulfilled this goal, but I would have had to use money from my savings account. I only had the equivalent of one more payment to make so I thought I would just make that on my regularly scheduled pay date and then that way I wouldn’t have to take money from my savings. I am so excited to have this burden lifted.
Track my spending.
This goal was more challenging than I expected because I did not stay up to date on entering my receipts. There was a lot to catch up on and reconcile at the end of the year. My tracking was super interesting – I found that I spend the most money on food, both groceries and eating breakfast and lunch when I’m in the office. I also spend a lot at Starbucks, but not as much as I thought I would. I really want to continue this tracking into 2024 to see if my spending changes in any way.
Health/Fitness
Twelve 5ks.
Here, my goal was to run one 5k a month. I think I ended up running two 5ks in the entire year. But it’s not entirely my fault. As you know, I do not own a car so I rely on public transportation to get me around. The issue is that before 2020, there were so many 5ks in the area, especially in Ballard and Greenlake where it’s super easy to get to. Unfortunately, I don’t know if regulations have changed or interest has gone down, but there aren’t as many 5ks close to me anymore. I mean, I enjoy running a 5k but I do not want to ride the bus for an hour to get to the starting line. It’s kind of a bummer but this goal was just not feasible.
Run a whole 5k.
I think I might have to come to the tough conclusion that I am not a runner. I want to be a runner but running is so hard and I can get in a good rhythm for a couple of weeks, but then I inevitably give up. So no, I did not complete this goal of running a whole 5k and I’m not sure that it will ever happen. I think this goal is going to have to go on the back burner for now.
Hobbies
Knit and finish 6 items.
I got really close to accomplishing this goal – I finished knitting four items! Technically one item was finished in the first week of January but I knit the majority of it in November and December and just had a tiny bit left to go so I’m going to consider that one finished in 2023. I ended up knitting two shawls and two pairs of socks. I realized I’m a very slow knitter but that’s okay. I don’t have five hours to knit every day; I’m lucky if I get one hour. I have so many plans for 2024 of things I want to make so I’m hoping I can continue to knit and craft and we will see what happens this year.
Take a handwriting class.
I have no excuses – I completely forgot about this goal and it did not get completed.
Write and publish something.
This goal was difficult. I did not write an article and have it published somewhere that is not a self-published blog. My main hurdle was finding somewhere to submit my writing. I did a little bit of research, which consisted of going to the library and looking to see which magazines the library subscribes to, but I definitely need to do some more digging and find publications to pitch to. This might be another ongoing goal to work on in 2024 as well.
Blogging goals
Surpass last year’s number of posts.
I did not surpass the number of blog posts I posted from the previous year. In 2022 I published 113 blog posts. In 2023, I only published 88 blog posts.
Get more views than last year.
I did, however, receive more views on my blog than the previous year. In fact, last year (2023) I had the most views ever in a year on my blog. My views really ramped up in the second half of the year, which I found super surprising. Are people reading blogs again?
That’s my recap of my 2023 goals. Stay tuned for my goals for 2024!
Leave a Reply