That’s the last goals’ retrospective article you will read on the blog as 2016 changed the way I handle big objectives in my life.
I will still report to you though, but in another format.
For now, let’s review my successful and failed attempts of last year.
Blog goals
1 - Have blogposts available both in English and French Failed
The purpose of this blog is to bring value in people’s financial lives.
In return, I get their feedback on my Financial Independence journey to keep improving my strategy.
At the moment, the blog is only in English which reduce considerably its audience. This pushed me to decide one year ago to bring French translation to leverage this coverage potential.
But I was scared to get there.
“People might recognize me more easily…”
This fear-thinking kept me from moving forward.
One year later, I feel more confident.
Recognized? Then, so what? What worse could happen? Mockeries? Jealous people? Who do we talk about anyway. Colleagues? Acquaintances?
I’m fine in my shoes, and my financial decisions are aligned with my life values.
And let’s stop being selfish: who cares about my life except myself anyway?!?
I won’t commit to anything about this 2016 failed attempt, but this is the one priority on my 2017 roadmap.
2 - Average at least one blogpost per week - i.e. at least 45 posts in 1 year Failed
I self imposed a rhythm of one post per week as a regularity goal.
Taking into account vacations and some margin, I set the year as a 45 weeks period.
I managed to get 29 blogposts out to the world. Not bad when you know the amount of research that some needed.
The cool thing is that it leaves room for improvement, although that’s pure data, and I don’t want to publish just for the sake of it, without adding value to your life.
3 - Write between 15 and 30 minutes per weekday Success
I had this item already in 2015. I always thought this would be the maximum I could afford in my busy life…
I’m now targetting one hour per day in the chair thanks to the HtWB course I took last summer.
I track my writing time since September. On this last quarter period, I logged 52 hours of deep concentration. Way above the 28h upper range of my initially planned challenge.
4 - Setup a newsletter email for new blogposts published Success
That’s done. And I’m glad I did it so you don’t have to watch social media for new posts.
Money goals
5 - Average 40% of monthly savings Failed
In 2015, we were only 3% off track.
Last year, we completely missed the target with purchases for the new home as well as expensive vacation in my beloved Canada.
I took drastic actions to get it back over 40% no matter what.
It seems to work looking at the stash that piles up!
Let’s see in which category I end up on the #BSRI 2017!
6 - Rebuild our emergency fund up to CHF 15'000 Success
That’s done! Just in time last December.
That rocks as it means we started the year by logging-in to our cheap online broker to buy some Mustachian ETFs!
Reading goals
7 - Read “The Miracle Morning” Success (available on Amazon DE, FR, UK, US)
That’s done.
Life changing.
I can’t believe I do wake up between 5-5:30am at least four days per week since the beginning of December.
Not to mention my joy when we don’t have social events on week-ends so that I can wake up at 5!
I will write my habitual book review in the coming weeks. You don’t have to wait for it though, it’s a must read!
8 - Read “The magic of thinking big” Failed (available on Amazon DE, FR, UK, US)
Started the book and stopped in the first half as too busy period at work — excuse! — and maybe because not enough narrative urgency in it. But I plan to get back to it as there were some ideas that still stick to me nowadays.
9 - Read “The millionaire next door” Failed (available on Amazon DE, FR, UK, US)
Didn’t read it yet. Still attracted by his title though!
10 - Read “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing” by Marie Kondo Success (available on Amazon DE, FR, UK, US)
Read it. It changed my home in the next days. Perfect to hone one’s minimalist skills. I wrote a book review that includes the number of garbage bags we sold/donated/thrown away.
11 - Read “Your money or your life” Failed (available on Amazon DE, FR, UK, US)
Not sure I will finish it one day as I wasn’t hooked. Maybe it’s because I’m already acquired to the cause…
I recommend it to anyone starting his/her financial independence journey though.
Health goals
12 - Go to sport training once a week from beginning of March Success
This one I’m proud of! Counting 45 weeks per year, it leaves 37 weeks since March. And my habit tracker states that a decent 37 sport trainings were achieved since then. That’s for a success!
Why I quit goal setting
I used to like a lot goals’ setting posts from other bloggers as it was a source of inspiration. I started two years ago to do the same, to inspire you guys and gals.
What I learnt since then, is that to achieve goals, you have to get strong daily habits.
At least that’s how it works for me.
So I won’t stop to have goals in 2017 per se, but instead of writing two blogposts about it per year, and have the risk to forget about them in between, I will make them ingrained in my daily rituals.
I will dedicate an article about my current daily planning so it inspires you to start your own life-changing routines.
And you, how were your 2016 goals? Failed attempts? Successes?
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