Personal Goals Review 2024 #4 (the finale)
As is now my pattern, at the end of 2023 I set out some personal goals for 2024, which get reviewed every quarter… #1, #2, #3. Here goes for the end of year review.
TL;DR: Cycling over achieved, nearly there on the reading. Reasonably satisfied.
Details on progress….
>> Read 50 books. Missed. I read 43 books this year. I had a pretty slow start for some reason, but still happy with this total.
I had a few sub-targets:
Read two Victorian classics. Missed. Only read one — The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.
Read three books to educate myself more about race. Missed. I only read Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor
Finish the Biography of Ceasar. Missed — again! Didn’t even read a single page.
How did the 43 books break down?
- I read 22 authors for the first time. I also read multiple books by the same author this year; 3 x Lee Child, 2 x Alexander Kent.
There were:
- 28 novels — top picks: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, Kala by Colin Walsh .
- 1 book related to my Christian faith. Since 2021 it has been my aim to read one a month, so missed that target by a mile again this year.
- 3 about cycling: Tour de Force by Mark Cavendish, The World of Cyling According to G by Geraint Thomas and the best was 1923 by Ned Boulting.
- 7 random non-fiction — top picks: The absolutely surprising and brilliant The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes and The Island of Barbed Wire by Connery Chappell
- 4 leadershippy/healthcare/technology books, the best of which was Aspirationally Idle by Martin Sadler.
>> 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 . Seems a trend that some of the summaries are pretty thin this year, but none of the books really really inspired me.
>> Cycle 4000 miles. Achieved. Cycled 5,210 miles, ran 83 miles and the hiked 37 miles. The big miles were in May when I did a multi-day challenge ride called All Points North, clocking up 800 miles in 6 days. I also completed the Rapha Festive 500 (500km between 24–31 Dec) for the sixth time, having it attempted it for eight years in a row. This year I completed it in 5 days of riding like last year.
The graph below shows Strava’s calculation of fitness level based on heart rate and recovery times. I finish this year with a slightly higher number than at the end of 2023.
>> Cycle a Gran Fondo each month. Achieved (sort of). I did 20, but missed out on 2 months (an improvement on last year when there was 4 months when I didn’t log one).
>> Cycle to Work 3 times a month. Missed. I did it 24 times this year, compared to 26 times last year.
>> Get 3,000 Twitter Followers. Missed. I have 2,864 followers as at 1/1/24, but given the absolute bin X has become and my reducing use, it’s of no consequence.
>> Get to my target weight. Missed Target. Didn’t put a lot of focus on this in the last quarter, so not surprised to be back at the start.
>> Write weeknotes. No target (intentionally). 36 done this year. Managed to do one for pretty much every working week.
>> Write two “Thought” Pieces. Achieved. I ended up writing 8. The ones that properly fit in this category are How not to suck at NHS job offer negotiations, How not to suck in your first 100 days in your new job, A spotlight on racism in 6 prizes and Eating some NHS FOI Dog Food*. But I also wrote up the Board-Level CDIO Programme for Cohorts 2 and 3 and did reflections on my role at NUH at 12 months and 18 months.
>> Do Some Substantial Research. This has been do painful. I send out the FOIs in November 2023, but it took about a year to get all the FOIs in. I wrote up the process of FOI-ing the NHS in the article Eating some NHS FOI Dog Food*. I still need to collate the material and write it up.
Other metrics:
- Gigs attended: 4.
- Football Matches attended in person: 10. All Boston United
- Trips to cinema: 0
Conclusion
I’m reasonably happy with the year. The point of doing this isn’t to beat myself up if I miss a target, the idea is that by breaking it into quarters it makes in-year correction more possible. But life is busy and I finish the year feeling pretty satisfied.
