My 2018 Goals
I love the New Year.
I love the weather.
I love the reflection. Another chance.
The thoughtful end to a long holiday season.
But more than anything I love making goals.
Every December I sit down to whittle away at what worked and what didn’t. I look back at the year and see how my actions lined up with my goals. Where I am compared to where I wanted to be.
A lot can happen in a year. Most of it we have no control over. So the little that I can control, I prefer to isolate and monitor.
2017 was a good year to me. My most successful in many ways. One of the hardest in others. I meant to write a goal recap, but alas — next year.
Every year I break down my annual goals into key categories: Health, Career, Spirit, Knowledge, and Personal. These goals then get split into quarters, months, and ultimately into days.
I only look at my yearly goals at the start of new quarters, monthly goals at the start of new weeks, etc.
I have found this to be the most effective way for me to track my growth across all targeted categories. However, it can be neurotic; so take it or leave it.
The second trick I have found that helps my success rate is to be painfully specific. Any goal that can be assigned a number value, gets one. In the past, I have tried to “work out more” or “practice meditation.” These are vague and hard to track.
“Shoulder Press 300lbs for 10 reps” is specific. It is trackable.
“Meditate 180 times this year”. We can count that. We can divide it out and build monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
We will know whether we got there or not.
Here are my 2018 Goals:
(some business and private goals have been removed)
Health
Overall:
- Weight — 180lbs
- Exercise — 180 Times
- Run — 250 Miles
Exercise Weight Goals:
- Leg Press — 600lbs for 8 reps
- Bench Press — 250lbs for 8 reps
- Shoulder Press — 300lbs for 10 reps
- Bicep Curl — 45lbs for 8 reps
- Lat Pulldown — 200lbs for 10 reps
- Seated Row — 250lbs for 12 reps
- Deadlift — 300lbs for 6 reps
- Squat — 180lbs for 5 reps
Diet:
- Heart Healthy
- Daily Supplements
- Intermittent Fasting
Experiment:
- 60 Days of Boxing (or Climbing)
- 30 Days of Soylent
- 30 Days of Onnit Total Primate Supplement
Spirit
- Read Half the Old Testament (0/400)
- Meditate 180 Times
- Fast 12 Times (once monthly)
Knowledge
- Read 25 Books
- Read All of Amazon’s Shareholder Letters
- Memorize Top 500 Spanish Words
- Finish Memrise Spanish Course
Personal
- Write 12 Blogs (1 down, 11 to go!)
- Zero Debt
Life*
- Make Salsa Recipe
- Buy Tiny House
- Buy Rental Property
*These come from a much larger Bucket List that I add to as inspiration strikes. They range from homemade salsa to seeing all seven continents.
“Discipline is your best friend. It will take care of you like nothing else can.” — Jocko Willink
I’d love to see your goals for the year. Especially if you have different ways of breaking them down or zeroing in on actionable steps.
