2013 Goal Review: Focus!

My theme in 2013 was to focus. The idea was to say no to things so that I could be freed up to focus on the really important things. I managed to move a lot off my plat the first half of the year, which was great. Then the second half I was able to say yes to a few larger projects. At the end of the year, I was as busy as I've ever been, but it was on focused mostly on 3 things, all of which supported my 2 goals. Speaking of my goals...

1) Read all Bible reading plan assignments
Is there anyone who can complete one of those "read the whole Bible in a year" reading plans? I just finished another year of reading, and I'm convinced it's impossible to do any faster in a meaningful way. If you've done it, I'd love to hear from you.

My goal was simply to read another 1/3 of my reading plan, which will eventually cover the entire Bible. That averages out to 1-2 chapters a day. I'm happy to say that I did it! Plus, I actually got a little ahead and am very confident I'll finish it in 2014. I'm pumped to be able to say I've read the entire Bible by the end of this year.


2) Increase my income this year
Technically, yes. I did increase my income (18%!). Though, I didn't do it exactly in the way I planned. I had 3 areas of focus: HP, Furlo Bros Tech Podcast, and a finance class. I worked really hard for HP this year, doing essentially two jobs for most of the year. I got promoted, which is fantastic, it just didn't come with a change in pay. I'm honestly not 100% sure how to feel about that. Right now, I'm choosing to be optimistic that it'll open up future opportunities.

With Furlo Bros, we opened up a store this year. We've sold some swag, but it's nothing life changing at this point. Our subscribers continue to grow, which is pretty exciting, and amazing new tech keeps being invented, which is also pretty exciting.

I didn't finish the finance class I was working on. Part of the reason is that it's a huge project. It's the equivalent of researching and writing a book, which takes years for some people. Don't get me wrong, I've made a ton of progress, but I still have a ways to go. The other reason I didn't make it as far as I wanted was that I started doing some freelance consulting on the side. Specifically, I took on a large project at the end of the year. I'll be sharing more about that shortly, but it's basically helping to put on a forum where people can learn about Corvallis real estate trends.

One of the big influences was actually buying a house, or more specifically, moving out of our duplex and renting it out. Since we downsized, we were able to make more renting it out than we had to pay on our new mortgage. We probably won't stay in this house forever, but for now it's helping us make a significant dent on our student loans.

So that's how I did on my goals. Up next, the goals for 2014!