It’s been a while since I last posted on my blog, not because I didn’t want to, but solely because life, as it usually does, threw a whirlwind of preoccupations and circumstances my way. As such, writing kept falling lower and lower on my priority list, which is unfortunate considering its a great vehicle for sharing my thoughts, ideas and creativity – even if no one else ends up reading it. I was hoping to write this post in January, but better late than never!

I’ve made a habit out of goal-setting every year, and come November/early December of each year, I ensure I review that list to track what I’ve accomplished, how far I’ve come and what’s next for me. Don’t get me wrong, this process isn’t always filled with highs; that is, goal-setting is an equal blend of excitement and disappointment. I was happy to see that I made amazing progress financially (paid down a huge chunk of my student loan payments). In the same vein, I also wrote five articles for Medium, ran the Boston Marathon (I qualified the prior year with a 3:14 marathon time), and ran 10k/day in the month of January. After achieving the 10k/day goal, I found myself asking the question: what next? I felt the urge to pursue something else, something more challenging – so I set a new goal, in the same year, to break a world record by running 70 consecutive half marathons. It’s funny how goals work in a cumulative fashion – one leads to the next and they continue to snowball.

I always love to see what other people have planned for the year, and despite the fact that I have never shared my goals publicly before, I figured I’d give it a go. This year I’ve decided to shift my goals to encompass running, personal finance and self development. Last year I tried to set spiritual, family and relationship-oriented goals, but because of their arbitrary nature, I decided to forgo making interpersonal-related goals this year. That’s just the thing about goal setting, it’s a constant process of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction; you figure out what works and what doesn’t, and you fine-tune accordingly.

I keep a copy of my hand-written goals right beside my desk – a frequently visited location. I keep this list in such a central and visible location so that it can serve as not only a pick-me-up, but it can also function as a constant reminder of what I’m striving for this year.

Here’s a list of some (not all) of my 2018 goals broken out by category:

Running

• Qualify for the NYC Marathon (with a sub 1:32 half marathon or sub 3:13 marathon time)
• Run an ultra marathon (Over 60 km)
• Attempt to run the Halliburton 100 mile race in September
• Run at least 8km + everyday (7 days/week)
• Achieve a sub 4’00 pace on a 8km run –This one I just accomplished last month J

 Personal Finance

Throughout this past year, finance-oriented goals have been harder to stick to and predict. I’m running a start-up, and as an entrepreneur, my work (and income) is fairly precarious. In order to have some consistency with my flow of income, I have also been doing some freelance work. With that being said, some months are great financially, while others can be pretty deflating. Regardless, I still try to stick to a plan.

• Pay off car loan
• Save 10%+ of my income each month

Personal Development

Last year I set a bunch of really vague goals such as “be more patient” – for me, these goals are really hard to measure and, as articulated previously, were not motivating enough to stick to.

• Travel to a country I’ve never been to before
• Take one month off drinking alcohol – This year I’m breaking it up (2 weeks in January and 2 weeks in another month)
• Read/Listen to a book a week – I’m finding listening to audiobooks at 1.5 -2x speed is really helping with this
• Write 1-2 blog posts every month to improve writing skills

Business/Career

• Raise $150-250k in investment for my business to help scale growth
• Release a new product in the fall of 2018

Goal setting and writing out major goals takes time and concentrated effort. My list isn’t set in stone and I let my goals evolve over the course of the year. I’ll be adding to this list continuously and checking in to make sure I’m on track to hitting my major milestone. Excited to make 2018 a great year!

What’s on your goal list this year?