The final installment of the 2024 EOY Series wrap-up is all about going over the long-term goals I set back in January and have modified throughout the year. I wanted to have a portion of this series be all about looking over what I’ve accomplished over the year and tie it back to some of the habits I wanted to adopt at the beginning of 2024 and through to December. I’ve just finished reviewing my long-term goal sheet (and organizing my life while decluttering a bunch of papers) so let’s start off by going over what our successes were and where we fell short.
My 2024 EOY Goal Check-In
I started off this year by writing out the goals I wanted to accomplish over the year, which I then reviewed and modified both at the quarter, half, and three-quarter checkpoints. At each stage, I knew I had to make slight changes and refocus after various life events happened; doctor’s appointments, career updates, etc. I quickly realized — and even more so now as I review the year and plan for 2025 — that it’s hard to make annual goals that are resilient to daily and monthly changes; life looks different from month to month, which is why certain goals are best for the entire year (stable ones) and certain ones are best to track on a monthly basis to account for lie changes (less stable).
This was a mistake I knew I made when I wrote down my goals in January. Some of the goals I set were stable, and could remain consistent no matter what, but some I had to rethink as the year went on. With all this in mind, here is what my long-term sheet of notebook paper looks like:
- Financial Goals: Excellent
- Journaling Goal: Ok/Not Great
- Book Reading Goal: Excellent
- Community/Friendship Goals: Excellent
- Entertainment Goal: Bad/Ok
- Flexibility Goal: Bad
- Health Goals: Good/Excellent
- Professional Goals: Good/Excellent
How Do We Feel About The 2024 Results?
I’m feeling ok! Now that I’ve had a bit more time to reflect and really think about my goals, the ones that matter and are actually important — those I had the best results with. The goals I set that are really contributing to my future and to my life and overall well-being are the ones that went really well. Building up my financial stability; reading more books and connecting with friends and loved ones; the tracking of my health and trying to be better; the connecting with my professional community — all of these were either Good or Excellent. That is something to really be aware of when we’re talking about actual progress over 365 days.
The goals that I did not achieve and fell short of were ones that were more fun goals and really don’t matter in the end. I mentioned in my Last Fourth Of 2024 post that I wanted to catch up on Only Murders In The Building (finishing season 2 and 3) and also focus more on the last-minute flexibility goal I set in February. But I can live with this failure! Of course I wished I could have completed both (I did, for the record, make it through season 2 of OMITB and just haven’t finished season 3 yet) but I can live with this. I did an excellent job of keeping up with my 5 a.m. Morning Routine, which includes yoga stretches upon waking up, which I have enjoyed and I think has done me some good. That I did make a permanent addition to my weekday and weekend morning and, though I am not as flexible as I’d like to be, I like what it does to my mind and body.
What We’ve Learned From 2024 & Changes for 2025
In addition to realizing that my 2025 annual goals should be adjusted and restructured to for sure last all 12 months, I have also learned a lot about what my priorities are. It’s easy to see what the main priorities were through 2024 looking back at the final results above. I focused my energy on my financial health, working on getting close to 5,000 steps a day and keeping up with barre workouts, having a better diet, and being closer to friends, family, and coworkers.
I would call those pretty good priorities! Sure, I didn’t finish OMITB, but I basically have accidentally finished six seasons of Seinfeld and am working on Season 7. Plus I’ve read more books than I did in 2023 (one book more still counts), and I am feeling good about the year as a whole.
I’m happy with how 2024 went and while it wasn’t perfect, I made progress in very important areas. I’m still working on what I want to do in 2025 and how I want to keep track of my progress, but I will have a post about that coming up.
