2021 review and 2022 Goals

We think a lot about those black lines, forgetting that it’s all still in our hands. 👇

Source : https://twitter.com/waitbutwhy/status/1367871165319049221

Last year in 2021, I did something different. Every year I would plan to do something, set some goals for the year and it usually never worked out, for example in 2019 I wanted to run every day and reach my goal of 10k run, I started running for a few days then slowly it fizzed out and I was again back to zero.

This year I did something different

• I made my goals public.
• I reviewed my goals on a Q-Q basis.

The idea came from appraisals that happen in any company. Why not set the metrics and goals for my personal life and track them in a similar way we do at the work. Work is only 40 hours per week, the remaining 128 hours we are spending with ourselves. So why not be accountable and make the best use of those hours instead of just letting them fade away. Like Socrates has said, “An unexamined life is not worth living “.

It also came from the quantified self-movement, where thanks to technology, people are gathering data for their personal life to make better decisions for themselves. As they say - “Whatever gets measured gets done “

• Making my goals public made me more accountable.

• Updating the goals kept me on momentum.

• Tracking my goals kept me on track.

Now, if you see my goals tracker post, you would see that I am not 100% percent able to achieve the goals that I had set this year. But, that does not mean that I was not able to achieve anything. A little progress is far-far better than no progress.

• This year I ran the most miles, I have run in my lifetime.
• This year I ran the farthest 11kms without stopping.
• This year I read the most books, listened to lots of podcasts (Maybe too many).
• This year I learned personal finance and made the most of my investments.
• This year I felt happier, healthier and fulfilled.

With this experiment, I also have a few learnings :-

• As Naval says, all good things in life come from compounding. You need to keep at it.
• Consistency is the key. Reading 20 pages every day is more enjoyable than 100 pages.
• Don’t be too hard on yourself, the most important thing is to have fun. If you are not having fun, why bother.
• Goals are overrated, systems and routines are underrated.
• It’s ok to fail, sometimes life will get in your way, things will happen. Don’t worry, start again, Keep at it.
• In nature, momentum is everything.

With these points in mind, this year also, I plan to follow the same