2018 goals review

This is me giving a TEDx talk at TEDxMtHood. The photographer is the TEDxMtHood staff photographer.

Most years, I write out a list of goals for the year and then review them at year end to see what I accomplished. In 2018, I had a list of 15 goals. How did I do?

The big theme of 2018 was learning that I get burned out when I try to do too much, and that my body will just force me to take downtime if I don’t plan it in. I learned this lesson over and over and over again. I also set a goal – trying to save $10,000 despite uncertain and pretty low income – that striving to achieve, in many ways, set back progress on more important objectives (namely working 65+ hours a week in order to save money and then getting burnt out on the show/book sales/youtube content.) I take these publicly stated resolutions a little *too* seriously sometimes.

It wasn’t an awesome year for my mental health; more on that in my 2018 annual report but I fought through some pretty annoying “dark internal monsters” this year (I’m sure the general mess that was 2018 politics didn’t help anyone). I’m pretty proud at what I did manage to accomplish in the face of working a ton of contract jobs while publishing a book and putting out a radio show each week.

But I also hope I can spend more time with friends, creating new pieces of art and visiting new cities – plus more time riding bikes and trains in 2019; as those things all give me a lot of joy and there simply wasn’t enough of any of them this year.


dependson
The Almosts

  • squiggelySave $10,000 – I got really, really close ($7,200), but I ended up deciding to spend a bit of money before the end of the year on business expenses (new laptop, annual software, etc) for tax reasons. I feel pretty solid about my savings rate considering that I earned less than ~$19,000 tax-home this year, though, putting me at a 39% savings rate (not calculating before-tax savings rate since my taxes are complicated as a sole proprietor with inventory). Obviously; this isn’t possible without the monthly federal health care subsidy I get, and my co-pay assistance program (since the cost of my drugs exceeds my annual income). I’ll dive more into this goal on my 2019 goals post and my annual report.
  • squiggely35 Speaking Gigs – I stopped taking unpaid speaking gigs unless they were through a non-profit partner, which put a damper on this, but I did okay. I accomplished 24 speaking gigs in 2018, including a TEDxTalk.
  • squiggelyRelease A Statistically Significant Decade: A Data Memoir of my Twenties zine –  Instead, I did this as a 100-day project, called #100daysofQS – seen here.
  • squiggelyGet my splits back – Achieved this in February, and then lost them again when I wasn’t stretching enough.nopenopenope
  • noGet Radio Syndication up to 10 cities – I didn’t work on this, and I’m still syndicated in only 8 cities.
  • noSecret Dance-related project- Decided to not do it.
  • noThree Bike camping trips this summer –  I went on 0 bike camping trips, I hate to admit. I got really busy with work and didn’t make it priority.
  • noLaunch Get Your Money Together Bootcamp local hosts program-  I didn’t work on this as it turns out dealing with my own travel schedule and the book release was enough. I still want to do it though.

Habits 

  • squiggelyWeekly meal planning (cont’d) – did okay, not great
  • squiggelyStretching daily (cont’d) – did okay, not amazing
  • smallyesDaily German practice (cont’d) – continuing as usual
  • smallyesFlossing daily (cont’d) – easy peasy
  • squiggelyWorking out 5 times per week (cont’d) – nope, I averaged 3.5 times/week not counting bike riding
  • squiggelySleeping at least 7.5 hours per night (cont’d) – yes, technically, but my sleep turned crap at end of year related to below:
  • noReducing caffeine consumption to less than 3 cups daily – Failed miserably.
  • smallyesDaily journaling – yes! Thought I moved from paper to Exist.io

Overall Verdict: B-

Hey, I published a book and saved money and made some art despite a low income. I feel…okay… about it!

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *