2014 Goal Review: Consistency

In some ways, it's hard to believe that a year already passed. Then I look back and realize how much actually happened. We visited Disney World, put on the Corvallis Pulse, planted a large garden, bought an apartment building, and started preparing for a new family member.

Throughout all of that, I kept a piece of paper in my wallet of my goals for the year (the image above). The theme was "Consistency". The idea is that all of my goals required consistent action throughout the entire year to accomplish them. Here's how I did:

1) Finish the Bible

Yes! I can officially say that I read the entire Bible. It's a good feeling. It definitely does not mean that now I'm done and don't need to read it ever again, but it feels good. :)

2) Weigh 155 pounds

No! I got really close part way through the year to 160 and it felt great. Then I stopped being as vigilant and pretty much put the weight right back on. It's frustrating to say the least. This is still an important goal and I'm going to be trying something different next year.

3) Do 70 push-ups in a row

Yes!

It's not exactly non-stop, but I count it. Remember, I could only do 20 push-ups 1 year ago. I did it by doing push-ups each day and adding one each week.

4) No expenses above $2,000

No! Jessi doesn't want me to count the apartment building because it's technically a separate legal entity, but I do. The idea was to not buy anything large and pump all that money towards student loans. That worked for most of the year and we only have one loan left... but it was hard to say no to this particular deal. I don't feel too bad that I didn't accomplish this.

5) HP Salary Increase

Yes! I set up 4 sub-goals to help me accomplish the big goal. I knew if I did those 4 sub-goals it would most likely result in a raise. What I didn't anticipate was getting promoted to a new job that included a salary increase. So I didn't need to do everything I planned and just focus on my new job.

6) Increase side business income

Yes! With the promotion, I didn't get to spend as much time on this as I would have liked. But we did buy the apartment building which will definitely add to our income next year. For this year, the "extra income" is coming in the form of significant tax deductions, which is really nice.

7) Host a meal 6+ times at our house

Yes! By setting this as a goal, we intentionally invited people over... and people actually said yes! Next year will be easy to surpass this goal with a kid on the way. If you couldn't make it, it's OK because we'd still love to have you over. We specialize in homemade pasta, pizza, and ice cream. We're adding french onion soup & creme brûlée to the line up this year.

Overall

It looks like I did well with the "Do something" goals and poorly with the "Don't Do Something" goals. I'm not really sure how to fix that... but I do find it interesting. This is definitely something I'll need to keep in mind while forming my goals for 2015.

Thanks for all of the encouragement in 2014! I really appreciated it.