2022 Mid-Year Goals Check-In
A few months ago, I set some goals for 2022 - 22 goals, to be specific. From past experience regarding the pressure I put on myself that whatever I set out to do at the beginning of the year must be exactly what I accomplish by the end of the year, I knew it would be far more practical to adapt and readjust throughout the year to fit my current physical and mental state. Now seems like a good time to do a little mid-year check-in on my goals.
If you want to follow along, here are some questions I asked myself as I evaluated each of the 22 goals.
Why did I choose this goal?
What area of my life does this goal relate to? Is this an area I still want to focus on?
What, if anything, have I done so far to progress on this goal?
Is this goal still serving me and my current needs?
Is this goal inhibiting my happiness or mental peace? If so, is it necessary to continue pursuing this goal? If not, has it been adding to my life?
What steps, if any, have I taken so far in working toward this goal?
What, if anything, has been preventing me from making progress on this goal?
How much, if at all, do I want to prioritize this goal going forward?
What steps can I take going forward to make progress toward this goal?
How will I feel if I reach this goal? How will I feel if I don’t?
Where would I like to be if I can’t complete this goal in my given time frame?
Remember, you don’t have to set 22 goals or 50 goals or even 2 goals. If goal-setting isn’t for you, that’s totally okay; if it is, that’s great, too. Ultimately, I think it’s important to set goals to guide and enhance your lifestyle, rather than to do so because “everyone else is” or “that’s what you’re supposed to do” or any other reason that doesn’t feel authentic or beneficial to you.
To avoid making this post an hour-long read, I’ll talk about each category generally rather than each individual goal, which you can find in the initial blog post. But please feel free to reach out if you’re curious about any specific goal!
Lifestyle/Personal Growth: I think this area could use the most improvement. I feel strongly about all 4 of the goals I had in this category, and I think these will drastically improve the quality of my life for the time-being. I definitely haven’t made much progress in this section, especially with establishing routine in my day-to-day schedule, but I do believe that not improving on this goal impedes my mental peace. My biggest barrier in all of these goals has been lack of consistency, so going forward I would like to work on cultivating these goals as routine habits. I’ll feel more free if I can reach these goals, as if I can move forward on all the things I have been holding back as a consequence of disorganization. But I’ll continue to feel limited and unmotivated if I don’t.
Hobbies: I’m feeling pretty good about this area. I think I’d like to spend a little more time on each of these hobbies, but I’m content knowing that I’m at least striving to carve out time for these activities, especially learning to DJ. One of the biggest reasons it took me so long to start DJing was that I didn’t know where to start. But now I find myself looking forward to experimenting with my deck every night and getting the chance to do something I truly love. As for reading, I’d like to incorporate reading more personal development/self-help books again, so I’ll prioritize that for the second half of the year and utilize my reading journal more.
Career/Education: This area is another one that could still use a lot of improvement (and is probably a little bit of a sensitive spot right now :)). My only note to myself here is to just keep pushing along. I think focusing on my day job is most important to me here, and once I make some headway there, I’ll turn toward taking Skillshare classes and trying to become published (thinking Medium is the best place to put my efforts right now?). This area probably brings me the most stress right now, but I also know that it’s deeply important to me. I’ll be honest, it’s hard to evaluate if resolutions in this area will add to my happiness and mental peace or if I’ll feel the same, but I know that not trying will definitely keep inhibiting both.
Health: *content warning for anyone who is sensitive to fitness/exercise/food/body-related talk, please don’t hesitate to skip past this section to Recreation/Social ♡* I thought my fitness goals would be the easiest goals for me this year - I kept them realistic and detached them from anything appearance-related. But when I injured my back in Q1 of this year, I didn’t realize the impacts would last this long. I’ve scrapped all my fitness goals and am just focusing on healing and protecting myself from further injury or aggravation. It’s scary how much I took my body for granted and how one split-second mishap has led to months of not just physical but mental impact. That said, I am so grateful that I was able to access healthcare and take care of myself, and I just want to try to gain back my range of motion over the rest of the year. As for eating less processed foods and drinking more water, these are daily habits I’m still working on and will continue to do so.
Recreation/Social: I haven’t necessarily accomplished all 3 of these, but I’m feeling excited and invigorated to explore and spend more time outdoors doing activities and being present rather than staying at home scrolling on my phone or watching TV (don’t get me wrong, I love my time to just curl up on the couch and zone out to a show, but I’ve also felt more energized to get outside and do something new). I was able to visit a few of my friends in person on the East Coast after many years, and I want to make sure I keep up these ties as much as I can. Especially in your twenties, I think it’s really comforting to stay connected to people who add value to your life as well as build new strong friendships. After all, these are likely the people who might be alongside you as we all try to figure out life together.
Finances: These goals feel almost untouched - I don’t think I particularly tried to intentionally take steps in this area, apart from working on spending less and saving more. I plan to spend more time on these during the second half of the year, particularly Poshmark and budgeting. If there’s an area in your own life that you wanted to prioritize but found that you didn’t have the bandwidth to do so, see if you can break down the goal into smaller steps. In my case, I might say my new goal is to post 50 items on Poshmark or create a monthly budget. If you still feel like you can’t “keep up” with that goal (and it’s not something that you HAVE to do), allow yourself to take space from that goal and dedicate your energy to what you can focus on for now. In the case of my financial goals, some are must-dos, such as budgeting and saving, but others are nice-to-haves (like Poshmark).
One pattern I noticed as I reflected on my goals was that I kept telling myself I’d prioritize each of these. Though ideal, it’s not very realistic that I can give 100% of my attention to all of these over the next few months. Many of these goals might be pushed to 2023; some might be half-completed. As I go through the next couple weeks, I will have to determine what I’m more willing to let go of and what are my less-negotiable goals. I hope these reflection questions help you identify what path is best for you as you proceed through the next several months.
As I said when I set these goals, trust yourself and design the life you want to live.
P.S. If there’s anything I can do to make these posts or even the website more accessible, please leave your feedback below or email/DM me. Inclusivity is super important to me, so I’d love to make any adjustments to ensure this content can be accessed by all!