New Year’s Eve allows many of us to see the ideal version of ourselves we want to be in the next twelve months. The difficult part is actually taking the everyday steps to become that person. While it can be easy to set lofty goals and resolutions, it’s often the simple things we can be doing each day that actually matter.
Report Cards
In school, there was one objective matter that counted, the grade at the end of a course. That grade was, of course, made up of every small decision that was made since day one. I like to think of goals as that way too.
Goals are easy to set, but can be really hard to achieve. What I am hoping to start off for this year is a weekly report card on a number of metrics: health, finances, relationships, projects, and skills. I added that last one after sending out a sneak peek to newsletter subscribers. Not all of these areas are tied to specific goals I had in mind, but all are things I believe need momentum to maintain. Throughout the year those areas may change, but that’s what I have in mind right now.
When it comes to health, I am thinking both physical and mental health. Diet, exercise, and sleep are critical to both, but managing stress, boredom, and happiness should be considered as well.
Finances is straight forward in that I want to keep track of my thoughts on my spending. I’m out of town for work this week and so it’s not looking so good. Hopefully, I can turn things around for the latter half.
Relationships include family, friends, co-workers, and I might as well throw in strangers. I want to make sure I am being sociable and connecting with the people around me.
Projects and skills might end up becoming one, but for now, I have projects as progress in a few specific things, including this blog. In regards to skills, I want to make sure that I am making actual progress on things that I am learning. For example, a goal of mine is to pass a Japanese proficiency test sometime this year. I haven’t done much research into exactly what that entails, but I’ve been learning since late last year.
Correcting Course
One thing I don’t expect out of this is to always get “passing grades,” but that also doesn’t mean I’ll be struggling each week. The final grade I give myself will ultimately be subjective, though there’s a vague idea of what each will be.
To make things a bit easier for self-applicaiton, I’ve pretty much determined that a “C” will be staying the same. No real progress may have been made, but things haven’t gone for the worse. An A or B would be given for progression depending on the scale, and vice versa for a D or F.
A major piece I am looking for out of all of this is patterns. Trying to detect that I’m slipping in one place for the worse is something I’d like to course correct. Even an F one week may not be so bad if I have an A or two. For example, maybe I had to miss out on a few social events, but was able to make huge progress on a goal or learn something big. For me, the problem starts when performing poorly becomes a trend.
Getting Granular
I’ve already found myself taking note of things I do throughout the day and how they impact my weekly score. It’s only been a few days into the week, but having the regular check in helps to keep me on track for what I really want to be doing.
Knowing I need to grade myself at the end of the week, I actually jotted down a few key events of the day tipping the scales for each section. While I did journal in the past, I didn’t really like the daily commitment, but maybe a weekly cadence might be enough to get me to at least jot down the key moments of each day.
It’s good to be writing again, though the time off was definitely rejuvenating! I have a lot of fun ideas for 2019 and hope you’ll read, if not follow along!!
Trying Out Before Buying In 