I generated and chose these specific goals while working on my Annual reflection for 2023. This allowed me to look over my own actions and better understand what I wanted to head toward, and what was holding me back. With that in mind, here are my goals for 2024.
These are ordered hierarchically within their categories. So the number one goal in a category overrides the importance of the goals below them. They are roughly ordered hierarchically between categories, but that is a place where some negotiation is likely necessary.
Category: Personal Growth
- Write and publish a full novel of at least 50k words on Amazon by the end of 2024
- I’ve long desired to write novels for a living and this year offers me a unique opportunity to pursue this dream. I know, without a doubt, that this will be the hardest thing I have ever done. I have tried to write multiple novels in the past, but have never succeeded in finishing and publishing any of them. Choosing this as a goal requires me to work through the obstacles within myself which have stopped me every time before. This will be incredibly difficult. I know I will have days where I will not want to do this. Where I will feel powerless and will need to persevere. There’s no way out of that. If I don’t make this happen this year, it’s possible I will never do it. This is something I want to do before I die.
- This is my number one goal for the year. Everything else is secondary.
2. Journal every day and perform all weekly, monthly, and seasonal reflections
- 500 words minimum for daily journal.
- Spend 1 hour minimum on the weekly, monthly, and seasonal reflections
- I’ve come a long way in regards to journaling throughout the last few years. It’s certainly been a revelation, especially the weekly reflection which helps me to see my recent past more clearly. I’ve oscillated in journaling, oftentimes going weeks without journaling, and months without weekly or monthly reflections. The process of journaling can become repetitive and boring if I let it be so. But there is an incredible amount of value here, and more than that, it is a way of keeping myself accountable and aware of what I am heading toward as well as cultivating awareness of obstacles I encounter along the way. I know that if I truly desire to reach my goals, journaling is an absolute necessity for me.
- Face one thing I am resisting each day (except Saturday)
- I’ve tried this practice on for size a few times throughout the years and it’s always proven to be extremely useful in expanding my ability to take on things that feel overwhelming. Choosing to do one thing I fear, or which makes me feel uncomfortable, on a daily basis grows the part of me that loves taking this stuff on. It’s also a wonderful generator of positive emotion. To name something hard, which I do not want to do, then face it consciously, gives me a huge boost to my self confidence and shifts me from my default state of avoiding what is uncomfortable to seeing the experience of discomfort as an opportunity to grow.
- I’m giving myself Saturday off from this practice as Saturday is my rest day in the week.
Category: Connection
- Connect consciously with ones I love more often
- This sounds like a vague goal, but I’ve broken it down in my private goal list to explicitly state each person I want to connect with more often, as well as how often I will reach out and by what means. The format looks like this:
- Contact (Jimothy Crameeyo) 2x per month via phone to get together.
- This goal is in place because I’ve recognized how easy it is for me to lose touch, or simply not connect with the people I love as often as I would like. It’s easy for me to become distracted and not put my focus where I would like it to be. Additionally, I recognize that we don’t get to live forever. Any of the people I love could die or suffer serious injury at any time. So, I wish to cultivate the time I have with them now, because I am grateful for it.
2. Publish an article to my blog 2x per month to share my journey
- This may seem strange to find under “connection” goals, but I’ve struggled quite a bit with publishing my thoughts publicly and I’m attempting to open myself up a bit more here and choose to share more openly. To this end, I’d like to publish articles online a couple of times per month, even if these articles aren’t read by anyone but myself. It serves the purpose of choosing to be a bit more vulnerable and open to sharing my journey.
- Additionally, the process of writing these articles helps me to get my mind in order. The idea of writing in a way that is understandable has the side benefit of organizing my thoughts more clearly for myself, too.
3. GM for a group of friends ~1x per month
- Over the last few years, especially since COVID, the friend group I normally hang out with in person has gotten together less and less. It’s difficult when we all have other things to focus on and even though we enjoy hanging out, unless we really try to make that happen, it generally doesn’t. While thinking about the relationships in my life, I realized how important these people are to me and how much I would like to spend more time with all of them. So I’m taking it upon myself to learn a new roleplaying system (similar to DnD) where I can practice storytelling and give my friends an enjoyable adventure to experience together.
Category: Health/Wellbeing
- Get sick 2x or less this year. (Down from 4x in 2023)
- Exercise 3x per week
- Reduce sugar intake
- I honestly didn’t think too much about this until I looked at my journals for 2023 and saw how often and for how long I’d gotten ill. I also became aware that my immune system may not be functioning as effectively as I would like. When I get sick, it tends to not present in highly symptomatic ways such as coughing or runny nose, instead I feel intense fatigue, some dizziness, and a general experience of wanting to not do anything. Unfortunately, this lasts for about a week to a week and a half each time. I’d vastly prefer to just get intensely sick for a day or two and be done with it, but that’s not the way my body likes to operate.
- So, when I looked back on how much time I spent being sick last year (potentially more than a month), I realized how important it is for me to maintain my health. To that end I’m focusing on raising my general health via exercise multiple times per week and reducing my intake of sugar. It’s likely I will add additional subgoals here as I find them to be necessary, but those are the big two I’m starting with.
2. Align myself with my long-term vision for my life each day (Except Saturday)
- This is a practice I’ve often attempted to cultivate, but never effectively followed through on for any appreciable length of time. I need to be able to align myself with the person I want to be and the vision of my life I wish to bring about if I’m ever going to bring those things into being. This is a struggle for me, and I think it has a lot to do with the pain I experience in shaping my identity over time. When I look at what I want to achieve this year, and in the current season and month, and just in general what my goals are for my life, I tend to feel significant resistance because I know I will have to become someone else for any of those things to be possible. I’m going to have days where I just don’t want to do that. And on those days I’m going to make sure I look at the “hell to avoid” in my long-term vision. That’s a worst case scenario of where I feel my life would end up if I did not keep trying to become the person I want to be.
Category: Conscious Sacrifice
- No Solo Gaming
- As with all things we strive for, nothing comes free. To that end, I’ve identified a major player holding me back in my life from the things I genuinely want to achieve and the kind of person I really want to be. That thing is gaming by myself. I have a tendency to use gaming (videogaming specifically) as a comfort-seeking distractive behavior that helps me to avoid things I do not wish to think about and feelings I do not wish to feel. It is far too effective in this for me to continue doing it this year. Perhaps I will be able to integrate this activity some time again in the future, but for now, it’s simply not something I can afford to put my energy into.
- I’m allowing myself to game with my friends on Friday and Saturday nights if I have the time, and a couple of select other times every other week or so. I’ve found I don’t really have any issue limiting gaming when it comes to multiplayer gaming and it helps me to connect with my friends.
Conclusion
And that’s pretty much it. I’m sure this will all get a lot more complicated throughout the year and I’ll do my best to keep posting to keep myself accountable. I’m planning on making it all the way through the year with these goals in focus.