Goals - Revisited

📅 14 Mar 2021

This post is more for myself than others. But if you can get something from this, be my guest.

When I fist started this blog, I wrote two similar posts: one on Covid and the other on general goal setting.

Both of those posts were important for me to write. I picked up quite a few bad habits over Covid and in general, I need to get better about goal setting.

So today, now that I have achieved some nice progress on working past some bad Covid habits, I figured I would sit down and actually do some real goal-setting.

First, a brief recap. I gained a decent amount of weight over Covid. I never got really fat, per se, but some clothes stopped fitting and I felt sickly almost every day. I also was getting terrible sleep - around 5-6 hours every night - but on a sporadic schedule, i.e. 10pm bedtime one night, 1am bedtime the next. Finally, I was eating terribly. I was drinking a decent amount (multiple drinks a night) and eating pizza, mac and cheese, ice cream, and other junk every day.

Here’s where I am now:

I’m nearly 100% consistent with a 10pm bedtime.
I have 2 alcoholic drinks per week at the most. This is relatively recent. For around 2 months I didn’t drink anything.
I take at least a 10 minute walk every day.
I exercise 5-6 times a week. Day’s I don’t exercise I make sure to take a longer walk (20-30 minutes).

None of those things are to brag. Again, this is just a step I am taking to make sure I’m remaining consistent, documenting my progress, and ensuring that I continue to move forward.

I won’t go through my general goal-setting strategies again because I really want to get into some real goal setting. So without further ado, here we go.

First Goal

I want to run 6 miles as soon as possible. Currently, I can run 30 minutes without stopping at a decent pace (probably under 9 minute miles). I don’t want to put a time cap on this, I just want to say I can run 6 miles again. Due to some joint issues, I have to be careful how fast I increase my mileage. But for the sake of putting a timeline on this, I want to run 6 miles by May 15th.

Second Goal

I want to read 12 books this year. It’s funny because just a few years ago this would have been laughable, considering that in 2016-2017 I read around 50. But, I have not been very good about reading in the past few months as I have been focused on other things. I think I can find a better balance and one book a month seems like a very reasonable goal.

Third Goal

I want to make my first dollar online. I have a few ideas of how I can make this happen. In the past few months, I have been reviewing a lot of films. It is possible that I could try to get one of them featured on a popular review site and that may bring some income. Another possibility I have considered is online programming tutoring. I personally don’t know anyone who has done this and it’s seems a bit odd. Finally, I have a short story that I have been meaning to submit forever. I just need to pick 5-10 publications and send it. I honestly don’t know why I keep sitting on it. Again, for the sake of establishing a timeline, I would like to accomplish this by August of this year.

I would love to expand beyond three but it is just not where I am right now. If there is anything I’ve learned over the past few months, it’s keep it simple. I have moved past quite a few bad habits in a short amount of time which is awesome but frankly exhausting. If you have the time and ability to take a more relaxed and nuanced approach, that may be a better path for you.

First Goal

Second Goal

Third Goal

💬 Looking for comments?