I never write my goals down (it makes it easier to forget them), and the idea of publicizing them seems to portend a very public year-end failure! I find the act of defining goals for the year nearly impossible: I have a very diverse set of interests, an totally unrealistic belief in my ability to accomplish anything, a poor sense of prioritizing (everything’s important!), and bad organizational habits (where’s that paper I wrote them on?), etc, etc. But, since Sarah did it, I feel I have to keep up, so here goes:

Health & Wellness Goals:

A) Exercise

• Have a daily routine that works anywhere: Yoga/HIIT/Swim, etc
• Lose my nascent beer belly
• Surf at least once, somewhere

B) Meditation

• Finish our 8 week MGH-developed 20 minute guided body scan meditation
• Continue with our own 10-20 minute daily meditations post exercise when that’s over

C) General Health and Check-ups/Insurance

• Get a colonoscopy (not everybody’s dream, but we’re due and it takes effort to find a place and time when traveling)
• Continue not drinking in January and carrying that forward to less alcohol consumption throughout the year (it’s easy to get exuberant/lax when traveling to really cool places)
• Figure Insurance options for either renewal or new insurer for second half of  2023
• Spend less time doom scrolling, especially pre/post sleeping

Interpersonal Goals:

• Continue to try to make friends wherever we are
• Keep gratitude forefront, especially if drinking, don’t get offended or belligerent, and don’t get into any stupid drunk arguments with Sarah
• Keep listening and encouraging ‘us’ to be the best we can be
• With my children, continue to stay positive, loving and understanding

Writing Goals:

• Finish writing a story, start to end
• Continue with daily journaling

Piano Goals:

• Have a steady practice regimen
• Learn a new song every month
• Play with other musicians we meet

Financial Goals:

• Keep up with our budget tracking & keep staying within our budget goals
• Continue to track the US economy and my savings/investments and re-balance as necessary–but don’t overly obsess about it or react emotionally, stay steady with my plan, and adapt as circumstances change over time
• Refine my 5 year plan
• Create a 10 year plan
• Finish and finalize my late mother’s stuff

Language Acquisition Goals:

• Keep up with my daily Spanish instruction
• Learn (conversationally) another language
• Learn the daily basics for the local languages wherever we currently are

Travel Goals:

• Hike in Romania
• Refine our existing European bucket list to attainable places to see in Summer and Fall 2023

Looking over this list, I know I’ve over-reached here and have close to zero chance of accomplishing all of these goals, but that’s what goals are for, right? Something to aim for… At the very least, I’ve written them down this year. Now all I have to do is forget how to access them!

Choose Your Path to a Happy 2023!