Why I’m OK With The Fact That I Didn’t Achieve All My Goals This Year

December 31, 2018

Editor’s note: As 2018 draws to a close and we launch 2019, I’ve asked each of our bloggers to reflect on their own personal goals, plans or thoughts on the past or upcoming year. Our hope is that you not only draw inspiration from our sharing over the coming weeks, but also that we are all able to feel more connected through our shared human experience and recognize that no matter where we are on our personal financial wellness journeys, that we all have similar hopes, dreams and struggles. Happy New Year! Here’s what I have to say:

Last year I called my personal goals the 3 T’s: travel, tennis and tail (getting a dog). As I reflect on how that went, I realize that I didn’t really accomplish any of those goals as they were set, and yet I feel like 2018 was a great year full of accomplishments and success. The moral of the year for me is that goal-setting is less about the actual end-point and more about giving purpose and intention to your efforts, with a requirement to remain flexible and self-aware of what’s working and not working so you can adjust on the fly. Here’s a quick review of what happened:

Travel: my travel goal for 2018 was to make the most of our Southwest Airlines companion pass by visiting at least 3 new states. I technically hit this goal because I deliberately visited two new states (shout out to Utah and Oregon!) but the third was actually checked by a diverted flight to St. Louis, which required us to drive back to Chicago from Missouri. Sorry MO, but that counts as a visit in my books! Did I accomplish my travel goal? To me, yes – I visited new places and also revisited some pretty cool other places like New Orleans and NYC. Check!

Tennis: this is a semi-success to me. We did take tennis lessons last year and I loved that, but after the lessons ended I played exactly twice and hated it. Was it the heat? My lack of skills? Not sure, but I’m going to try again this year with some more lessons and see if I am just a lesson-taker or if I can become one of those people who plays on the weekends with friends. Semicheck!

Tail: this was a bit of a stretch goal, which was basically an intention to find a better place to live where we could have a dog. The bottom line is, we have not moved, but more importantly, we realized that maybe having a dog isn’t for us right now. Luckily we were able to do a little trial by caring for our friends’ adorable golden retriever for a week, so we had a taste of the work involved. It’s not for our current lifestyle. 

Instead we’ve decided to open our home to foster cats, which can be contained if/when needed and can be left alone for an entire evening without needing a walk. Goal not accomplished, but changed, so I consider this a successful effort. Checkminus?

The life lesson for all of us 

Many times we set goals for ourselves and then in the process of working toward those goals, we learn new things about ourselves or the world in general. The key is to recognize when it’s time to re-think the intention behind the goal rather than pushing toward it just to say you did it. 

If your goal is to run a marathon in order to get in shape, but you find that you hate runs longer than an hour, it’s ok to shift to running 10ks – you’re still in better shape than when you weren’t running at all! Or if you have a goal to max out your HSA so you can let it grow for retirement expenses, awesome, but don’t let an unexpected health event drive you into credit card debt because you want to preserve your HSA – that’s what it’s there for!

Goal setting is an important first step in any effort, but sometimes it’s ok to not accomplish the goal if the intention behind the goal still exists. Are there any areas in your life where you need to re-think the goal in order to be happier and healthier?

Happy New Year!