Monday Musings: 23 for 2023 Recap

Before I share my 24 for 2024 in a few weeks (it's still coming together), I want to reflect on my previous year's goals. This exercise from Gretchen Rubin suits me more than a single New Year's Resolution, since it lets me address goals in all aspects of my life, both personal and professional.

Of my 23 goals, I succeeded with 15 of them. Going into the process, there's an understanding that not every goal will be achieved, and some may only be partially complete, so I feel pretty good about this number. I would attribute part of my success to the nature of the goals--I tried to make them very specific and quantifiable. In previous years, it was hard to assess success because the goals were so vague. A few examples:

• Hit 100 workouts on the Peloton

• Read two books per month

• Finish 2021 and 2022 family photo books

• Try three new restaurants

My failures this year were largely things that just weren't as high-priority or were difficult to figure out. For example, we didn't renew our passports because we weren't traveling internationally this year. It would have been nice to complete that, but there was truly no urgency. A few of my other failures required research and multiple steps to accomplish and thus went unfinished.

As I'm working on my 24 for 2024 goals, a few noticeable categories bubble up from this past year's list: travel (like, "go somewhere for Spring Break"), family and home (like, "outdoor lighting"). I'll probably go back to this year's list with that lens as I finish developing my 2024 goals.

If you want to learn more about this process, you can check out my previous years' posts or visit Gretchen Rubin's website.