Ho-lee shit, what a year. I feel like we crash-skidded into 2021 shot full of holes with only one landing gear down and all engines on fire. I won’t rehash all the damage; you’re well familiar with it. Ugh, good riddance, but it’s not the number that matters, it’s the work ahead…
…as well as the work accomplished. This is my annual Let’s-review-my-goals post, where I grade how I did and set new ones for next year. Needless to say, 2020 was a curveball for all of us. Let’s look at the dent it left it left in our helmet.
Read 20 books in 2020: According to goodreads.com, I completed 21 books by the end of the year, scoring 105%! A+! Yay me. I attribute that mostly to having a lot more free time, long walks I took to keep sane and healthy, and the audio books I plowed through while doing so. Yes, audio books count as books. However you get that author’s words crammed into your head, it counts. I might be tempted to set this goal higher for 2021, but not really. I’ve whiffed the 20-books goal enough times to respect it. So that goal stays the same for 2021: Read 20 books
Write 38 posts in 2020: This didn’t move since October. I wrote 12 posts, giving me a 31% grade. Solid F. Meh. Since last year’s goal was an arbitrary dice roll, I’ll do that again this year, except I’m rolling 2d20. I rolled a 9 and an 18, so this year’s goal is 27 Posts in 2021.
Get back on Schedule for Togahan #4: I was able to take a couple weeks off around the holidays, so I had this grand plan to catch up on my editing, but ….yeah, no. While I’ve maintained the same relative pace from back in October, I remain 393 days behind schedule. The problem is that my October schedule neglected to accommodate for a greater number of chapters that would need editing. While they are smaller chapters, it fudges the dates a little. Blah, blah, blah – AT4 will be out in August 2022. Sad face. This goal remains: Get back on schedule for Togahan #4.
Record the first chapter for A Togahan’s Tale: I never got to it. This goal is punted to 2021.
Walk 5+ Miles Every Day: Here are my final stats for the year:
| Days | 366 |
| Successes | 313 |
| % Success | 86% |
| Average daily miles | 5.79 |
| Total miles | 2120.53 |
Grade-wise, that’s a solid B. Averaged out, I got the miles in, and I don’t regret the days I missed. Some days were crap weather, or I just needed some rest. I think overall I managed to exercise more in 2020 than in past years, and I probably needed that for a number of reasons. Again, while I’m tempted to raise this goal for 2021, I think this was about right for me, so this goal remains: Walk 5+ miles Every Day.
So, tallying my grades, that leaves me with:
| Read 20 books | A+ |
| Write 38 posts | F |
| Get AT4 back on schedule | D- |
| Record ATT chapter 1 | Incomplete |
| Walk 5+ miles daily | B |
Summarized that way, it’s tempting to feel bad about that. (Interestingly, it looks similar to my daughter’s report card, although her grades were a little better). The thing is, this wasn’t a normal year. Aside from those five goals,
- I was lucky enough to work from home (and to keep my home)
- My family stayed relatively healthy
- My daughters learned a lot over the summer, even though it wasn’t academic
- We managed to find at least one thing to laugh about every day
- I’m still breathing
I don’t take any of that for granted. The next year will require a lot of work, on a lot of fronts. I hope we turn a lot of corners this year. I hope we muster the strength to be better. I hope we end 2021 saying, “This finally feels like the twenty-first century.”
Happy new year, -Pete