2022 Goals Update and How I’m Shaking Things up in 2023

Last year, I got a little bit crazy with my annual goal setting, setting an ambitious list of 40 goals for 2022!

Did I achieve them all? Of course not! However, having these goals in mind during the year motivated me to try a little bit harder and get a little bit better each day. 

This year, I’m going to try something different.

Instead of setting a long list of very specific goals for 2023, I’m going to select an overarching theme or mantra that I hope will drive my behavior, helping me to make positive decisions during the year.

My mantra for 2023: “Healthy self; Healthy planet.”

While I will still pick a few micro goals or actions related to each aspect of this theme, my overall goal is to develop a habit by taking one or more actions each day that are good for me and/or for the planet.

This might be one thing that is good for both me and the planet (many sustainable behaviors are). Or, it could be multiple distinct actions.

Technically, this isn’t a SMART goal, as I often like to set.

However, I’m hoping that by removing the “check the box” mentality and achievement aspect of goal setting, I will gradually become someone who treats their body and the planet with respect. That it becomes an engrained behavior, a part of who I am.

Will this strategy work better than normal goal setting? I don’t know, but I figure it’s worth a try.

My 2023 Mantra

Healthy Self

I whole-heartedly Believe that health is wealth, so I’ve been on a journey to improve my health for a while now.

I’ve done a significant amount of research (total health-nerd here) and have strong opinions about what is healthy, but I still fall off the wagon more often than I’d like.

With rigid goals, I often default into the “all or nothing” territory. While this strategy can work, it can also very easily backfire.

No sweets for the month? That’s all great…until I slip up. Then I beat myself up about the failure and end up eating all the sweets. Instead, I would have been better off just moderating my intake from the start. 

In order to develop a healthier relationship with food (and myself) this year, I’m going to try to be less rigid and take it a day at a time. The goal is to learn to love myself and make more healthy choices than unhealthy ones.

With the exception of the first two bullets below, which are designed to identify how the absence of certain foods make me feel, I will not formally track or beat myself up over any of these items.

A few ways that I can work towards being healthy in 2023:

• Try the Paleo diet for one month (January)
• Abstain from drinking alcohol for one month, twice during year (January & TBD)
• Walk or exercise for 30+ minutes
• Eat 5+ fruits and vegetables
• Reduce overall consumption of sweets and processed foods
• Eat fermented foods more frequently
• Save sweets or carb-heavy snack foods for after fruit/veg quota met
• Meditate / journal
• Practice mindfulness and gratitude
• Random acts of kindness

Healthy Planet

Surprise! Most of the actions above are good for the planet, as well as the body. Many are also good for the wallet as well.

I’ve been really into sustainability lately. Although I’ve already begun making more items at home and reducing our use of plastics, I want to take these efforts to the next level in 2023.

Overall, I want to move towards a zero-waste lifestyle after reading the Zero-Waste Chef and listening to Anne-Marie Bonneau on a podcast (affiliate link). To be clear, I don’t plan to actually aim for zero waste. I just want to reduce our waste from where it is.

If everyone reduced their waste by just 10% it would have a massive (positive) effect, much more so then just a few people reducing their waste to nothing.

A few ways that I can work towards improving the health of the planet in 2023:

• Avoid plastic grocery and produce bags. Use reusable options instead (affiliate link)
• Buy more foods in bulk to reduce or eliminate packaging
• Reduce the amount of processed and packaged food we purchase
• Continue gardening and composting (and hopefully get better at these things)
• Continue to make bread, nut milks, dressings, and granola from scratch at home
• Try making more foods from scratch at home this year, such as chicken/vegetable stock
• Stop buying bottled water (keep a few jugs for emergencies)
• Continue to buy pasture-raised and sustainable meats and seafood, and stretch them out in meals to eat less
• Walk to nearby places rather than driving, or bunch errands together to reduce driving

Update on my 40 goals for 2022

You didn’t really think I was going to hit all of these goals, did you?!

Here’s are my goals broken out by those I achieved, those that were close and those I completely whiffed.

Nailed it!

Walk 3-million steps this year (~8,200 per day) – My fitness watch recorded 3,024,025 steps in 2022

Try a whole food, plant-based diet for at least 2-weeks (no cow dairy for 4-weeks)

Achieve financial independence – We reached financial independence in January 2022!

Max out tax-advantaged accounts (401k, HSA, Dependent care FSA)

Invest $75,000 in brokerage/taxable accounts – We invested $111,000 into our non-retirement accounts this year (net of reductions in cash position)!

Save 75% or more of our after-tax income – While I haven’t calculated the final savings rate for the year yet, it will definitely be above this.

Set up and fund a Donor-advised Fund for charitable giving – We contributed $40,000 in 2022

Update our financial forecast spreadsheet & create a portfolio withdrawal strategy plan – Created, but I never wrote up the blog post for this. I’ll update again and share in early 2023.  

Successfully complete 2-year clothing ban challenge

Organically grow Instagram followers to 3,000+ and Twitter to 600+ (By just being myself, NOT by following a bunch of people in hopes they follow back)

Declutter 500 items – We surpassed this and stopped tracking the number in August, but continued this process, giving away and trashing several more items in Q4.

Master the art of making sourdough bread

Start composting (and learn how to do it right)

Volunteer at least 50 hours (school or non-profit/charitable organizations) – I volunteered 52 hours

Attend at least one community social event per month

Plan and take an awesome 2-3 week road trip this summer (don’t worry about the insane cost) – Completed, and it was awesome! Someday I’ll finish that blog post.

Spend 1+ hours per week learning how to read music and play piano – I got a late start to this goal, but made up for it later, practicing piano for a total of 53 hours.

Try 50 new recipes – Tried exactly 50 new recipes, though there may have been a disproportionate amount of dessert recipes. This Oreo cheesecake was my favorite.

So close that I’m counting it as a win

Spend less than $55,000, slightly over our 2022 budget – We subsequently increased our budget to $61,000 and came in well under that.

Meditate Daily – I practiced some form of meditation most days

Keep up weekly dates with my spouse – Successfully dated my spouse most weeks

Successfully grow a salad from my garden – If by “salad” you mean different types of greens and herbs, than I succeeded. Gardening in the desert is hard!

Learn how to play (and sing) 2 complete songs on piano by NYE 2022 – I can’t successfully sing and play at the same time yet, and I certainly won’t be performing any time soon, but I can knock out 3 songs decently well.

Learn how to play pickleball (or pick up tennis again) – While I didn’t pick up a racket in 2022, I did sign up and pay for pickleball lessons that start in early January.

Progress, but not perfection

Read 30 books – I read 26 books last year

Write at least 50 blog posts – I completed 43 blog posts last year, after deciding to scale back a bit

Earn enough money from blog to cover its expenses – This goal was doomed once I opted not to add ads to the website as planned, but I came surprisingly close.

Spend 30-minutes a day playing with my daughter (whatever silly things she wants) – Playing make-believe with a 6-year old is hard! Some days were good, but others I just didn’t have it in me.

Finish our home renovation (finally!) – We made some progress, but ultimately decided to defer a few projects to 2023.

Hike 10 new trails – Only made it to 5 new trails

Complete 4 workouts per week (1 cardio and 3 strength) – Giving myself a “B”

Eat 5+ fruits & vegetables at least 5 days per week – Giving myself a “C+”

Nope

Finalize official will and trust – Oops. We started a DIY version, but going to work with a lawyer instead in early 2023

Post 3 social media posts on Instagram per week – I made an intentional decision to dial back on social media.

List 50+ items for sale on eBay or Poshmark – I intentionally scaled back on these efforts and started giving away things to my local “Buy Nothing” group instead.

Drink 60+ ounces of water per day – If coffee counted, I’d be fine here.

Two social media-free days per week (for mental-health)

Attend one personal finance networking event or conference

Learn how to properly can and preserve food

Learn how to grill

That’s a wrap on my 40 goals from 2022 and hopes for 2023.

What are your goals for the new year?

Cover image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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