Wrapping My 2024 Goals

Published: 2024-12-31 10:00 AM

Category: Life | Tags: goals, 2024, reflection

2024 is nearly finished and one of my last things to do is think over my goals for this year. One year ago, I wrote down some things I was hoping to do. I checked in on those in July and now it's time to look everything over.

• Read 40 books - I didn't meet this one, but I read 29. Having some abritrary number of books to read helped me continue to read regularly, so I'll do that again. I don't know if I'll take the achievable approach or set some ridiculous number just to have a number to shoot for.
• Add blog comments - Still available at the end of every post.
• Cut phone use - This was probably my worst of all. I didn't really keep track of stats like I did with some of these others, and that's probably why it was harder. Sometimes, I just don't have the mental capacity to read or do much other than scroll. It's not a great habit and I need to find another outlet for those fatigue-induced scroll sessions. I'll probably keep this as a goal for next year, but I need some clear cut indicators I can work on individually.
• Ride my bike 150 miles - I crushed this goal. Turns out, I really like riding my bike. I logged nearly triple my goal - 430 miles on a blue 1986 Fuji Allegro - including a wonderful 15th anniversary ride through Chicago and a couple rides to Lake Michigan. We bought an indoor spin bike to keep our cycling muscles exercised during the winter and I'm looking forward to extending my cycling next year. My rides are logged in Strava if you'd like to connect there.
• Get two new courses approved - I am deep in the midst of teaching both Advanced Chemistry and Computer Science (web dev) as new courses this year along with my normal chemistry courses. Three preps is a ton of work - I'm really glad I'm teaching these new classes, but I will be cutting it back to one of those electives each year rather than both.