2021 in Review
As far as my goals list goes, 2021 has by far been my most successful year. And all it took was a virus that banned the outside world. Some of my list was heavily hampered by COVID but mostly, I think it helped. A couple of them never got off the ground so not including, but here is most of my list.
Buy a house
Fail. Being a contractor makes you toxic to mortgages apparently, despite me making twice what my permanent employee colleagues do. So despite having an almost 30% deposit for the budget I can afford, I’m going to need another €50k, and have house prices magically not inflate at all in the time it takes me to save it.
Read 12 books
Success. Blew this one out of the water and read 21. No other comment.
Weigh 50kg
Success. Another one I crushed. I gained 10Kg this year, going from 43 to 53. Largely assisted by antidepressants but the point is I did it.
Run 500km
Success. Annoyed with myself for this one. I did it, but in the end I just barely scraped over the line. I should have had this wrapped up in October.
Floss 100 times
Success. One of the ones I’m most proud of, I made daily flossing a habit in 2021 and that’s pretty fucking great.
Journal 150 pages
Success. Also developed a habit of this one and think it’s been really good for me. Really helpful for my sleep and general well being.
Meditate daily for 6 consecutive weeks
Success. Eh. Meditation is just not for me, I don’t get it. Journaling and yoga and both so much better at what meditation is supposed to do. I did 6 consecutive weeks, I feel like I gave it enough of a go to establish it’s not my thing.
Drink 365l of water
Fail. I think I drank less this year than I usually do. I averaged out to about 750ml/day. Which is not enough. In the office I used to horse through water bottles.
Do the splits
Technical Fail. I lost sight of this as the goal pretty early on. I’m ending the year, not quite able to do the splits but with a great yoga habit. This goal is the reason I started yoga, I’ve done 20-30min almost everyday this year, and I love it. I’m stronger, more flexible in general and I always feel better after yoga.
Under 2000hrs of phone use
Success. Really glad I kept proper track of this all year, it was really interesting. I totalled a bit over 1700hrs of screen time on my phone across 2021, which is a lot, but less than usual years. Going to keep shrinking this.
10k in savings
Technical Success. The spirit of this one was to have €10k in addition to a house. I saved well in excess of 10 grand, but it all went into the bottomless pit of my mortgage deposit so doesn’t really feel like an acheivement.
150 photos I’m proud of
No Idea. I really should have set a better metric for this. “Proud of” is really subjective. Subjective doesn’t work for me, I like cold hard numbers. Like all great artists.
15k xp on Duolingo
Success. French, Irish and Arabic. Here’s to 15000 more, in Norwegian, Italian, and Spanish.
Go out 25 times
Fail. I went out 11 times in 2021, I can really only half blame Covid for this, I did quite a bit of “that’s so much effort”. Must do better.
Do a handstand
Fail. Next year for sure. I will be putting this on my goals list until I die.
Don’t buy any new clothes
Success. It was so much easier than I thought. I’m pretty comfortable sticking exclusively with vintage and second hand stuff as much as possible from now on. I really didn’t miss fast fashion that much at all.
Don’t cut hair
Success. I now have 4yrs worth of hair on my head, established I have self control. Job done, time for a chop.
Add 2 new portfolio projects
Fail. I do actually know the projects to add, but I’ve ended up still working with the company so no new adds this year.
Stay in touch with people
Success. I made a list of people with someone to contact every week of 2021, I didn’t complete the list 100%, but I kept in touch with people better than I think I would have otherwise and I got back in touch with people I haven’t spoken to in years. Definitely going to repeat this one.
That’s 11 successes. Over 50% of the list. And I am happy.
