Personal Goals for 2022

[collingwest]

Happy New Year! 2022 has already started out fairly decently in my world, in that both Will and I woke up this morning with clear indications that we’re getting toward the end of our respective bouts of COVID-19. Our vitals are mostly back to normal, and aside of still being quite tired we’re both starting to feel that way too. We’re taking the rest of the weekend to let our bodies finish their recoveries on their own times, instead of attempting to force schedules onto them.

In the meantime, though, it’s still New Year’s Day and that means it’s a time for goal setting. I actually wrote most of these out this past October and have been fine-tuning them since then. I’m going to be using this blog as a way of keeping myself accountable, because if I can meet these goals this year, then I’ll be well on my way toward finishing my larger overall plan of self-improvement between now and the time I reach the half-century mark. So, without further ado, here’s the list of goals I will be working on:

Writing

For non-fiction writing, my goal this year is to successfully establish and maintain a good blogging habit. During the last weeks of 2021, I set up two new blogs: Radius, where I will post on Tuesdays; and Second Row, where I will post on Thursdays. In addition, I plan to continue the semi-private personal journal I began in July 2021.

• Post 2 articles per week on my blogs, excluding this one.
• Complete 350 days of personal journaling.

For fiction writing, the goal is drafting a total of 120,000 words of fiction in 2022. I’m primarily going to be focusing on two projects. Nine Angel (working title) is a rewrite of a story I outlined in its entirety about ten years ago. I wrote about half of it but never got around to finishing; The Silver Crucifix is a new project that I’ve been researching for a couple of years.

• Outline the Nine Angel rewrite in full
• Outline The Silver Crucifix in full
• Draft Part 1 of The Silver Crucifix

Career/Education/Finances

• Renew my life & health agent license, which expires this coming March. This will include completion of some continuing education requirements in addition to going through the administrative renewal process.
• Obtain my property & casualty agent license. This will require completion of pre-licensing training, an exam and then going through the administrative process. Since I already have an agent license, this means that, when I’m done, my existing license will expand from two lines of authority to four.
• Take one certification course. I’m not yet certain as to whether this will be working toward the CIC, CEBS or REBC designations, but since this goal is likely one I’ll be working on during the second half of the year, I have time to figure that out.
• Contribute $1,095 to my IRA without taking any withdrawals. This works out to $3 per day, which I usually deposit as $21 per week. This works out to $3 per day, which I usually deposit as $21 per week. It’s nowhere near the level that I need to be contributing, but every dollar I put in, is a dollar I didn’t miss out on; and once I build the habit I can work on increasing it.

Fitness/Diet

I am not dieting in the traditional sense, that is, making temporary changes to my eating and exercise habits in order to accomplish a relatively short-term weight loss goal. Instead, what I’m doing this year is the first of three years dedicated to making permanent changes to those habits. While I have a weight-loss goal which is 26 pounds (0.5 pounds per week), that’s mostly for tracking purposes.

• Drink no more than 912 sugary drinks (average of 2.5 per day)
• Eat my own cooked lunch 104 times (average of twice a week)
• Exercise 104 times (average of twice a week)

In addition, I have one additional goal which is to plant, tend and harvest one herb garden successfully. Will got me the garden frame for Christmas, so that one is already started.

While this all sounds ambitious, the important parts of these goals are actually that they’re SMART — specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. If I simply devote an hour or two to goal-keeping every day, I should have no trouble managing all of this. Writing this post has been a good start, so here’s to keeping the momentum going throughout the rest of the year!

Originally Posted at https://blog.collingwest.com/2022/personal-goals-for-2022/.