Reading 30 Books: Did not complete

I had a goal of reading 30 books. My second book of the year was reading Barack Obama’s autobiography which, to say the least, was verbose. After that and a couple of other meaty books, I totally threw in the towel on hitting 30 books and got to 14 instead.

For 2021, I’m not setting a reading goal in terms of quantity. Just to read every day. It may be a book. Could be white papers or magazine articles. Just take time to learn new ways of thinking.

Run 500 miles: Completed

I ended up exceeding the goal a bit, running 567 miles. Next year’s goal? 650 miles.

Average 10k steps a day: Completed…by the skin of my teeth

I had the strategy of loading up as many steps in the warm months as possible in anticipation of the holidays. That was a good goal. I ended up averaging 10,083 steps on the year, mostly thanks to the great foundation I had set early in the year. The late fall and winter was not kind to me in terms of weather and life circumstances to maintain the momentum I built earlier in the year.

I walked the kids via pulling them in a wagon to daycare March - August. Helped quite a bit.

Journaling an average of 2x a week: Did not complete

Based on my own rules, this would have resulted in a total of 104 total journal entries. I ended up with 75. It just wasn’t a muscle I built.

However, I’m going to give it another go this year. I use the Journey journaling app on my phone and laptop for journaling to get photos, videos and more on-the-fly flex with recording thoughts.

In 2022, I want to use my time taking photos of the kids doing stuff with the intentions of putting it in the app for my own memories and reflection and not Instagram likes. I think it’ll be a healthier way to engage - and protect my kids’ privacy in the long term. At least what there will be left of it.

To conclude: goals for 2022

Here’s what I want to do in 2022:

Read every day
Journal an average of 2x a week (104 total entries)
Run 650 miles
Average 10k steps a day again

New goals:

Have 1,825 minutes logged in Headspace for meditation
Read through the entire Bible in a year (had this goal most years since I’ve been literate but never make it past a week or so).

Also, while it’s hard to quantify, I want to focus less reading up geopolitical news, policies, current events, etc. and more time investing in what I do for a living. That means most of the longform articles I read online will be more marketing/tech focused and less on the news.

It’s not an “either/or” trade-off. I still plan to stay on top of current events. After all, I want to be a responsible citizen of the world. But I also want to make sure most of my brain power and reading time is spent getting better at what I do for a living.

I feel that marketing and tech is at a similar inflection point that it was when I first graduated college in the advent of social media. To miss that could cost me (literally) in the long term.

What about you?

What goals do you have for 2022? Anything you want to join me on above?

My 2021 Goals: Did I Hit Them? What Next for 2022?