Raise your hand if you have set goals before and didn't follow through on them. I believe many of us would, especially myself. I am so good at it that you could just call me the "General Do-It-Later." It's not a good thing, but hey, we're trying to be positive here, so let's keep that face away for now.
What I'm here to do is set yet another set of goals, the goal of which is to bet better in the new year. You know how it is with setting goals so quickly and how everybody likes to make "new year's resolutions." It looks like a chance to reset one's life, when in reality it is just the calendar starting all over.
Somehow, however, I waltzed into 2022 with zero goals and no direction, and guess how that turned out for me. Well, think no further, as the straight-up answer is "awesome." Or what were you thinking? that I'll say "terrible?" Come one, give me some hope to be optimistic about these new goals. I don't want to be too hard on myself, even though we both know the actual truth.
At the same time, setting goals and achieving them are two distinct areas of expertise, with the majority excelling in the former. And at the end of the day, it takes more than a pen on paper to realize goals; it takes willpower and determination.
Even if things happen along the way and some of our plans fall through the cracks, it's safe to say that goals provide some sort of direction towards where one would like to see themselves after a certain period of time. And for this reason, I am coming up with certain goals in hopes of improving certain areas of my life.
- ʜᴇᴀʟᴛʜ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡᴇʟʟɴᴇss
Fortunately, the Med-Hive community encouraged me to think about this before putting together this article—or should I say journal? I shared them in this post, but in summary, I intend to sleep better, eat better, and get back to hitting the gym.
I am aiming to sleep for an average of 8 hours every day. This equates to 2880 hours out of a total of 8760 hours in a year. That's one-third of the year spent sleeping. It does sound strange to know that I am going to spend four months out of twelve sleeping through the year. However, if I stick with it, I will have a better chance of being more productive all year.
Eating better is part of the goal; however, it is a little difficult to be more definitive on "how much better" it is that I would like to eat. The cost of feeding over here inflates every day, and so it may heavily affect my plans. In all, I intend to be more intentional with how I fuel my body. I'll devise cost-effective, flexible plans.
- ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴᴀʟ ᴅᴇᴠᴇʟᴏᴘᴍᴇɴᴛ
I am not much of a reader, and this is mostly because I get really lazy with reading. However, I have come to understand how much power lies within the pages of books. So therefore, I intend to read books this year. And since I am not much of a reader yet, I am sticking with one book per month.
I have a couple of books lined up, probably for ages now, and then I have newer suggestions from friends. And so for the month of January, I am looking to finish the book by Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People. And for the next month, it'll be Atomic Habits by James Clear, and so on. I'll share more details about this plan soon enough.
- ᴄᴀʀᴇᴇʀ ᴅᴇᴠᴇʟᴏᴘᴍᴇɴᴛ
At this point in my life, I am careerless, and I'll be graduating from the university in 2023. I have no particular thing going now, as I have fallen by the wayside a lot throughout the year. But I know that I would like to do something in tech.
This area is a little bit blurry at the moment, but there are two main things I am considering. I am looking into learning a programming language for real this time, and I'll be starting with Python. The other would be getting into the tech itself, so I enrolled in an online school for programming in January. It is to last for 12 months.
The goal is to learn and master using Python as a programming language and complete the training I enrolled for.
- ɴᴇᴛᴡᴏʀᴋɪɴɢ
You see, I have met a lot of amazing people just this year. The majority of them are on Hive, but I have a good number of them off Hive too. And in my experience, good friends are super important. So this year, I am going to build a much stronger network for myself.
It's a little vague on how I want to do that exactly, but I am looking to get bigger with virtual spaces and communities, particularly Hive. This would involve building networks with more and more people.
- ғɪɴᴀɴᴄɪᴀʟ sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ
In 2022, I learned the hard way the importance of ensuring financial sustainability. And now, in 2023, I am looking to change the narrative.
My only source of income at the moment is Hive. Hive, as a matter of fact, is my first actual source of income. I am going to build some "emergency funds" this year, and Hive is largely going to sponsor that.
I will get a job at some point in this new year. And that is why I am looking forward to learning new skills, honing them, and then deploying myself into the labor market. But for now, it'll just be Hive.
I already had one building up, but due to some "emergencies," I had to take them all out. I am going to start again, and I am going to have 300 HBD saved by the end of the year.
- ʜɪᴠᴇ ɢᴏᴀʟs
I already set some goals in October for where I wanted my account to be one year after I made my introduction post. In that post, I had certain goals to meet by the 19th of April, 2023. However, since we are looking long-term. I have new ones to reach by the end of this year.
I currently have 66 rep. And I am aiming to have a reputation score of 71 by the end of the year 2023. It will come by only hardword and dedication, but I am willing.
The next on the line is building my HP. I am currently at 965 HP. I am going to have 3000 HP stacked by the end of the year 2023; that's doubling up my efforts in 2022. And it will only come by posting regularly, which I am pumped to do in this new year.
My engagement dropped massively in the last quarter of 2022, and it hasn't been healthy for me on Hive. I am picking back up, and although I haven't made so many comments in the last couple months (about 3500), I am determined to show up every day and make 20 comments on 20 unique posts every day. This would be the base for engagement, which will definitely raise the numbers.
There will be really good days, and there will be days when I may not be able to show up much, but the goal is to have made 20,000 comments by the end of the year. It'll all be healthy for my account in the long run.
I prefer to make pretty simple goals now because, in the past, I have set too high standards for myself and ended up not achieving them in the end. These goals I have set for the new year may be small, but they will be the foundation for building the direction I need to get to where I desire to be at the end of the year.
Goals are meant to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). And mine are not exactly so, but since I'll be working on them and journaling them, it'll all take a better shape as I go.
Other images made with Canva
ℍ𝕖𝕪, 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕖𝕟𝕛𝕠𝕪𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕥, 𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕪 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕒 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥, 𝕣𝕖𝕓𝕝𝕠𝕘, 𝕠𝕣 𝕦𝕡𝕧𝕠𝕥𝕖. 𝕀𝕥'𝕝𝕝 𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕓𝕖 𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕.