We’re a little bit more than halfway through the year, which reminds me that it’s time to take a look at how I’m progressing against my goals in this crazy year. I'm a little afraid to look. Wanna check-in with me? Maybe you want to look at yours too?
If you’re like me at all, a mid-year check-in can be helpful because it’s easy to forget annual targets set 6+ months ago. In fact, when I tried to remember what my goals were, I got two of three.
To begin, I'm telling myself no need to feel down for not remembering. This is why I write them down! However...
Not remembering an annual goal is generally a sign of lack of progress. Unfortunately, for me that sounds about right. Though it has been a most unusual year.
To recap, my goals for 2020 were to try two new recipes per month, learn to do a proper push-up and organise my digital photos.
So let’s have some honesty about the progress, with a healthy dose of kind words.
I definitely tried two new recipes in January. However, life from February on was a bit more unsettled than I expected and I haven’t been tracking this goal as well as I could have been. I would say for sure that I’ve made at least one new recipe a month, including: berry ricotta cake, coffee cake, Irish soda bread and ramen noodle soup. I’ve also experimented with some new meat marinades. I've been wanting to make a non-dairy creamed spinach, but haven't done it yet. And I’ve bought two new cookbooks. So I’ve got plenty of inspiration...I just need to get this goal back on my radar and include it in my weekly to do.
In relation to my push-ups, I have thought about this A LOT, particularly when I'm struggling with a push-up during a workout. And I feel they are getting better, but I have not actually measured my achievement. I think we can agree that feeling and knowing are two different things. I have some reference videos saved that demonstrate how to scale push-ups from standing to knees to toes. Now I just need to watch them and put the techniques into practice.
Finally, let’s talk about my digital library. Let me start with my excuse on why no progress. I don’t currently have access to my computer which is how I envisioned doing all my sorting, filing and deleting. That said, I store my photos in the cloud so sitting at my computer isn’t strictly necessary. Sure, it may be a bit more cumbersome to view photos on a smaller screen to sort them, but it’s entirely possible. This was has fallen to the wayside unnecessarily.
So my progress isn't huge so far, but all of these goals seem to be pandemic-friendly, so while I’m not sure what my life looks like tomorrow, COVID doesn't seem like it should prevent me from achieving my goals.
If you are minded to re-examine your goals at this time, while you’re evaluating them, be sure to check how reasonable achievement is now that we know what kind of year 2020 is. If something doesn’t feel doable, let yourself cross it off the list and tackle it another time. Maybe replace it with a new goal that seems within reach or maybe even something you’re well on your way to accomplishing.
Goals help give us focus and can fulfil us. And this is certainly needed now. That said, if there’s any year to cut yourself some slack, this is the one.
What were your goals? How are you doing on them?