This year, I decided to draft a shorthand list of my goals that I can refer to throughout the year. Some of these are tied to longer-term strategies and plans, but most are just for fun.
I also left four slots empty for goals that I want to add during each quarter of the year. I’m trying to add one additional goal per quarter as they occur to me throughout the year.
Now that we’re wrapping up the third quarter of the year, it’s time to check in on my goals and see how things are going.
Here are my 22 goals for 2022 and the progress I’ve made so far:
Reading Goals
- Post at least two videos per month to my YouTube channel related to books and reading (you can check out my YouTube channel here). So far, so good. I’ve posted at least two videos about reading to my YouTube channel every month of this year. While I’d like to do some extra reading vlogs, I’m not stressing about it. At minimum, I’m focused on a TBR video and debrief video each month and that’s working well so far.
- Read over 150 books throughout the year (see what I’m currently reading by connecting with me on Goodreads). I’m definitely on track with this! I passed 150 books read in Q3 so I can officially mark this goal as completed for the year.
- Read the 14 books in Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” series. This goal is moving forward, and I’m picking up the pace in Q4. I’ve read nine books in the series so far and I have six left to go. I’m planning to read two books of this series per month in Q4 to get it wrapped up.
- Read the 17 books in Louise Penny’s “Inspector Gamache” series. This goal is also going well at this point in the year. I’ve read twelve of the books in this series so far and I have five more to go before the year wraps up.
- Complete an alphabet reading challenge each month to read more books that I already own (see more about this challenge in this YouTube video). This has been one of the most fun parts of my reading life this year! In January I read books that started with “T,” in February I read “F” books, March was books that started with “M,” April was “N” books, May was “B” books, June was “U” books, July was “S” books, August was “J” books, and September was “G” books. I have loved this method for diversifying my reading and working my way through books that I’ve had in my digital library for a while.
- Contribute to a little free library in my neighborhood. I located a couple of little free libraries within walking distance of my house and I’ve contributed books a couple of times now, so this goal is completed!
- Visit all of the 26 different branches of the Denver Public Library and choose my favorite one. I picked up the pace with this goal in Q3 and visited several more libraries over the past few months. I’ve found this is a great way to explore different parts of the city since I get to visit lots of diverse neighborhoods. I’ve visited 16 branches so far and now I only have 7 left.
- Maintain my daily Spanish language practice (so that I can eventually read fluently in Spanish). After a reboot of the user experience in the Duolingo app (app redesigns are the best!), I started to make some good progress with my daily practice. I’ve made my way through several modules, passed the 365 day practice mark, and have learned more content and vocabulary in Q3.
Goals that support my mental, physical & emotional health
- Experiment with an art journal (and fill the 240-page sketch book I bought for this purpose). In Q3, I retired this goal. Although I liked the idea of having an art journal, I found that I wasn’t motivated to engage with it at all. I’m swapping this goal out for refreshing my home office, which I devoted time to in Q3.
- Meditate daily for at least 15 minutes. This is still definitely not happening every day. I love this habit when I can squeeze it in, so this is going to stay on my goal list for the remainder of the year. Even when I do this sporadically, it has positive benefits.
- Complete a day-long yoga retreat (even if self-designed). I haven’t done this yet, but I’m wondering if the Thanksgiving holiday weekend might be an ideal time to do this.
- Explore at least five different walking trails in the Denver area. No progress on this goal, but I’ve gotten a few recommendations from colleagues about good trails to try so I just need to carve out some time for this one.
- Walk 10k steps per day the majority of the days in the year (183+ days). This is a goal that I saw a little progress with in Q3. In Q1 & Q2, I hit 10k steps on 42 days. I crossed the 60+ days mark in Q3, but then fell off my walking routine. I’m going to get back to this in Q4 and see what I can achieve before the end of the year. Even if I don’t do this the majority of the days this year, I know I’ll can get closer!
- Walk or run over 1000 miles throughout the year (on average, a little less than 3 miles per day). In Q3, I neared the 200 mile mark of mileage that I’m achieving through intentional workouts (i.e. not miles from just daily steps). At this point, I know I won’t get to 1000 miles this year, but it would be nice to add a couple hundred miles to this number over the next few months so that’s the goal I’m adjusting to.
- Walk a half marathon. The longest mileage I’ve walked this year is a 10k and I’ll need to more than double that to meet this goal. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m still looking forward to doing this in 2022.
Goals with my partner
- Pay off 15% of our mortgage. So far, we’ve paid off just shy of 12% of our overall mortgage this year. I’m really happy with this progress since we’ve had steady extra payments each month.
- Double the amount in our current savings account by the end of the year. This is a similar update from Q1 & Q2: we’ve been able to add a little to our savings, but we also learned of some additional updates that we needed to make to our house that have impacted this goal. I’m adjusting this goal to hold steady with our savings number from the beginning of the year since we’ve had several unexpected expenses.
- Watch all the Star Trek movies with my partner. I made some progress on this goal in Q3. We have watched six of these movies so far and have seven left to watch. I think I can get this completed by the end of the year!
TBD
- TBD for Q1 — I decided to add an additional reading goal to try and read 22 books for each month of 2022. So far, I’ve been able to do this for every month this year.
- TBD for Q2 — My extra goal for this quarter was to complete a change management certification with ProSci and I can mark this goal as completed!
- TBD for Q3 — My extra goal for this quarter was to complete accreditation materials for ICF Level 2 requirements for my coach training program. This is done!
- TBD for Q4 — My extra goal for Q4 is to make good progress on the writing I need to do for the second edition of The Blended Course Design Workbook.
How are your goals for 2022 going so far?
