Personal Goals Review 2020 #4 (the finale)
At the end of 2019, I set out some personal goals for 2020. This is the second year I’ve done this in this form, including reviewing 4 times a year. Links to previous reviews in 2020… #1, #2, #3. Here goes for the end of year review.
Here’s the TL;DR summary from the spreadsheet I’ve set up. I achieved 4 goals and missed 3 which were related to my weight and distance to cycle.
>> Read 50 books. Achieved. I read 70 books this year. An all time personal best since records began (in 1996).
- 40 novels — top picks: The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce and the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Only one classic this year Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.
- 13 leadershippy/technology books — top picks being Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed being my fave, with Daniel Pink’s Drive a close second.
- 5 books related to my Christian faith. It was my aim to read one a month, but this was a decent first year attempt.
- 1 graphic novel — Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons being my first ever
- 3 books widening my knowledge about the experiences of racism and what I can do to support. I found Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race by Reni Eddo-Lodge the most action orientated.
- 8 random non-fiction — cycling biogs, footballer biog, biog of Charles Dickens, one on reducing use of plastic, Bill Byson’s The Body, one on Victorian Railways.
>> Summarise 100% of non-fiction books read. Achieved. As per my habit for the past few years, the summary is simply a three-sentence summary on the index card I use for a bookmark.
>> Cycle 4000 miles. Target Missed. Cycled 2566 miles, ran 239.5 miles and the difference in walks.
Didn’t really start properly riding some distances until the lockdown in March, when I built up a good level of fitness to do a couple of Centuries during July and August. I got an injury to my shoulder/neck out of the blue in September which stopped me for a couple of months, but doing the Rapha Festive 500 has helped me end the year with a few extra miles in the bag.
>> Cycle a Gran Fondo each month. Missed Target — 8 completed. Although I completely failed to do one each month, they are bunched in a few months over the summer plus my end of the year flurry.
>> Write 10 Blog Articles. Achieved. 11 published. The most popular one with over 1000 reads was the The dire state of cloud-first strategies in NHS Trusts in 2020, which leds to some brilliant conversations and rebuttals!
>> Get 1,000 Twitter Followers. Achieved back in June. Target for next year should be 2,000 I guess.
>> Get to my target weight. Missed Target. This is totally linked to the amount of cycling I’ve done. I’m not into restricting eating, so the inevitable happens when I’m not exercising as much as I like.
>> Spend more time with my family and friends. Yes to the immediate family as we’ve gone through lockdowns and I’ve really enjoyed it. It was one of things I noted I’ve really appreciated in my Lockdown Reflections blog. We saw some friends socially distanced briefly in December and I realised that I’m looking forward to being spend time with friends at some point in 2021.
>> Write weeknotes. No target (intentionally). 48 done this year. I think I’ve settled into a format that works for now, so Series 3 will be the same in Jan.
Other metrics:
- Gigs attended: 2 (all pre-Covid-19. I’m really missing seeing live music)
- Football Matches attended in person: 3 (all Boston United matches and all pre-Covid-19).
- Boston United Football Matches streamed: 8 (2 play off stages + 6 league matches). It is looking like I’ll watch more Boston matches this season than I’d normally do, but I can’t wait to actually visit the new stadium.
- Trips to cinema: 1 (pre-Covid — The Rise of Skywalker in Jan)
Conclusion
Given the year this has been, I’m pretty happy with the results. Now to think of the goals for 2021...
