Achievable Growth
For the longest time, I’ve set annual goals, usually using something like a mind map to help keep me on track. Unfortunately, such maps usually becomes unwieldy and their goals unreachable due to the size and ambiguity of each topic. Each year I would notice most of the goals spill over to the next. What I came to learn through this was that those “goal nodes” I never reached were obviously not as important as I thought when I’d originally put them in the map; evidenced by the fact that they’d carry over year after year.
This year, I’ve set about doing another map, although using Obsidian’s Canvas this time around since I’ve really come to love that tool after having a long conversation with my friend Tom about how to best utilize it and his useful recommendation of the fine Doto book for how to implement a Zettelkasten system. But I’ve decided to put some guard rails in place to help the goals be more achievable.
New Website
The biggest among these criteria are atomic, actionable goals that have measurable milestones. An example would be this blog. A few years back, in an effort to practice web development, I made a basic portfolio site and set it up on GitHub Pages. The problem with it was that I wanted to do blog posts, and it just would’ve been much too tedious to do that. So I set a goal this year to redo that site, and replace it with a Hugo site. Would it be as original? No, although I could always build a custom theme when I get the time to do so. But the important part was to start somewhere. It was a measurable goal in the sense that it would be obvious when it was completed, and that I wanted it up by February of this year. Something I’ve achieved and marked by this very post.
Preparing for Failure
Even though I’m on the right track with many of this years’ goals with this strategy, I’m also being open to inevitable failure in reaching some of them. And that’s okay. I have some lofty goals still, but I feel the most ambitious among them have realistically been broken apart with the expectation that they will be multi-year projects. So, I’ve left room to allow for failure in such a way that I won’t be mentally crippled when it happens and not let it be an excuse for me not to pursue other goals to their completion.
Balance
One thing I want to focus on is more balance: Trying not to be too perfect with outcomes, and trying not to be too authoritarian with expectations. Having a couple of kiddos has a way of resetting timelines and priorities. Many of these goals are with them in mind as a way to secure a stable future for us all, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of quality time with my family.