It’s the time of year when people are wrapping their Spotify, replaying their Apple Music and preparing to eat just about every edible animal on planet Earth. Which coincidentally makes it the best time to look back on the year that was and look forward to the year that will be. It says something to me that the only time people tend to do this is when work takes a break, and they actually get time to think. But that’s a topic for another time.
Twenty Twenty Three was a wonderful year for me. Not only did I see so many great bands (Slipknot headlining Knotfest for one!), but I also travelled the world, watched one of my best friends get married, and most importantly, welcomed my firstborn to the world. To say it’s been a great year is a bit of an understatement. I mean I still have to complete my Vietnam travel blog!
And now, as 2023 slowly fades into distant memory, it’s time to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what is going to change. But in doing so, even though I missed more goals than I accomplished, I still feel like I have not missed the mark by much. Some just outright didn’t happen, others are in the realm of “I made a start”, and the rest I actually accomplished. So, it’s not all bad.
Kyle’s Goals for 2023 in Retrospective
The goals are divided into categories, as this is easier to then break down into habits. I am a big fan of this method as it allows you to make slow but steady progress – just do the thing you have to do today and if you do that enough times, you end up meeting or exceeding your goals. This is represented by that “1% Better Everyday” graph – small, constant improvements compound into massive changes.
While looking at this list, very quickly you’ll notice the ones I missed. And to be honest, looking back at some of them, I don’t feel that they are as important as they were just 12 months ago. I didn’t expect my worldview to shift so dramatically when becoming a dad, but some things are just not as important as making him smile in the morning. Now it’s no excuse for not working on them sooner either, so I have a plan… Stay tuned to hear all about it.
Kyle’s Goals for a Happy Life in 2023
As I said before, the goals were split up into categories. Now let’s dive in.
Writing
- Make a start on a fiction book ✅
I did this and in fact I have started 2 fiction books. Now the struggle is which one to I stick with… - Double my lifetime views on my website ❌
This was supposed to be a way to get me to blog more, but I ended up facing the harsh truth – if you don’t blog, no one comes to read… And I only published 6 (that’s right – 6!) posts last year. Oh, for shame!
Career
- Increase my salary by at least 50% ❌
I went through phases of taking this one very seriously and then not at all, so it’s no surprise that it didn’t happen. But, and this is a big but, through the many and frequent interviews, I got a lot of positive feedback, got exposed to a lot of new technology and started to develop a true career path for the first time in what feels like forever.
So, this failure was a particularly good learning experience and will help me accomplish this goal in the coming year.
F.I.R.E
- Move my KiwiSaver to Australian Super 🔜
For something relatively simple, this took me longer than expected. But I am happy to say the documents are now on route back to New Zealand to be actioned. All indications this is something that will be done by the end of January 2024.
For those interested in my why, who and other details – I’ll be writing about it in a future blog post. But the TL:DR: If you’re in New Zealand, move your KiwiSaver to Milford. They are fantastic, and I am sorry they do not exist in Australia… - Move my New Zealand Shares to Australia ⛔
While I did manage to cash in a few holdings and shift that money across into my portfolio here, this plan is currently on hold. The shares in New Zealand are taking a battering during the Labour government, so it’s going to take a while for National to resurrect any faith in New Zealand. Once these start on the upward trend, I can continue this process.
Health & Wellbeing (Such a new-age heading, ugh)
- Run the Melbourne 10K ‘Marathon’ ✅
I have the medal and the scars from the blisters on my feet to prove it. I ran, 2 weeks after Baby J was born, while sleep deprived and with enough Vaseline on my nips to make any bystander think I was having some unbelievably bad hormonal issues. But I did it, and it was as hard as I made it sound. - Kick my caffeine addiction ❌
I have just finished my 3rd glass of Coke for the day, so suffice to say this didn’t happen. Everyone needs their vices, and really how bad is sugar free Coke anyways? Oh, it can cause cancer? Hmm… Well, it’s still better than being a grumpy bum for a week! - Read at least 15 books ❌
I have a very valid excuse here. I read one of the best books ever written, and you can’t just pick up another book after that! I mean what kind of psychopath goes from book to book to book without a break?
In all honesty, I got lazy with my reading, and so accomplished this goal by reading comics, which I am choosing not to count.
Life (Yes, it’s vague on purpose)
- Make the apartment more livable ✅🔁
Yes, it’s vague on purpose!
Podcast
- Get 200 downloads per an episode ❌
Call me old fashioned, but I still believe that podcasts are audio things and not YouTube things. So, I want to see the audio numbers go up. This year, the audio numbers went down, but the YouTube numbers exploded up! You may see that as a win, but this goal was quite specific to audio, so it doesn’t count.
Also, I didn’t exactly advertise the podcast, which I was hoping to do more of… And if no one knows you exist, then no one knows to listen. It’s a vicious cycle. But this hard life lesson means I can now become a sales expert and get paid to talk to your underperforming sales team.
It’s a pretty abysmal score card, isn’t it? Or it would be, if I didn’t have a plan. Ah ha! He’s referencing something he said earlier, and bringing it back, getting ready to wrap up this post in a nice little bow, isn’t he!
Looking Ahead
Recently, I have come to understand that New Years Resolutions, or New Years Goals, are more of a moving target. Or more like they should be created as a moving target. Not only does it make it easier to aspire to reach them, as you’re no longer tied to a set time frame, but it also means that if you reach your goal, you don’t stop. Like I ran the 10K and then stopped running all together. It also has something to do with how we see the goal in our mind. As you get close to your goal, you should reassess, reevaluate, tweak it, and go again. Like the last 500 meters of a run, you’re so close to finishing it, you may as well push a little harder.
With this in mind, the goals I missed last year, get rolled over to 2024, and added to the new ones for this year. There is no “oh I didn’t do X, so give up on that one” going on here. No siree. The goals are now part of a project plan – Project Kyle. Let’s get into it, shall we?
In addition to the goals I missed above, we have these guys joining them for the ride:
✍️ Writing
- Finish the first draft of one of my fiction stories
This will force me to actually complete a story I start. A feat and skill I have yet to master, as evidenced by the many half done travel blogs and short stories on this here very site… - Blog at least once a month
I have to double my lifetime views somehow, and for some reason putting out new content makes more people visit your website. Who would have thought! - Complete my Vietnam Travel Blog
Now you may think this is easy, but it’s not. And all because I chose to make it hard. On purpose. Take that future Kyle!
🔥 F.I.R.E
- Look into, and possibly, buy a third house in New Zealand
The housing market in New Zealand looks to be bouncing back, and the investment advice from the many financial institutions I follow all say the next 10 years will outperform the last 10. If we can secure another house, and ride the wave upwards, we’ll have a very good nest egg for when it’s time to retire in about 10 to 15 years’ time…
❤️🩹 Health & Wellbeing (Such a new-age heading, ugh)
- Start and complete #75Hard
This is probably going to be one of, if not, the hardest thing I’ll tackle this year. I have set my start date as February 1st, so wish me luck. And if you would like to join me on this journey, reach out. Doing something hard together is easier than doing something hard alone. This comes with its own goals and challenges, so no need to add them to this list.
If you’re wondering what #75Hard is, fear not, I will be blogging all about it in no short order! - Maaaayyybeeee start #LiveHard
We’ll see how much #75Hard kicks my ass, and then see if this is viable. I may jump straight into it. I may need a change of pace. We’ll see…
🦖 Life (The topic may be vague, but the points no longer are!)
- Buy a possible forever home in Melbourne
I can’t wait to put networking in the walls again, kit out the house with Wi-Fi 7 and litter HomePods everywhere! And we have a real plan to make this happen this year, so we really should go for it. Plus, giving Baby J a home to grow up in is really important to me. - Organise, organise, organise my digital life
I made a start with my iCloud Photo Project, but there’re many more areas that need to be organised. OneNote, To-Do- Email, Notes, music collection – all in chaos! Which leads to… - Create aesthetically pleasing OneNotes
OneNote has far too much freedom. This is both a good and bad thing. And for far too long, it’s become my dumping ground for text. But I have seen how others are able to create engaging and wonderful notes that retain their functionality. I mean just look at this video (you probably want to skip into a bit..). - Listen to more new music
Pretty self explanatory, but discovering new albums and new artists is something I really enjoy. Mot new music these days is too safe, so this is a personal quest for me to find those bands that aren’t afraid to say what they really mean.
🎙️ Podcast
- Advertise, advertise, advertise!
The goal this year is simply to get the word out about the podcast. We have a lot more things in the works that our existing fans are going to love, so no need to add them here, but my personal goal is to get them more visible.
And introducing a new category
🎮 Gaming
- Tackle the backlog
This is the year of no new game purchases (see the very clever wording there), and (hopefully) lots of game completions. I intend to work on games I have purchased, games I have started and games I have almost completed, all to knock them off the backlog.
Gaming and games are not going anywhere, so there is no rush on this goal. And of course, I’ll be writing all about this plan, so you can critique my choices to your heart’s content.
Onwards & Upwards
With the old goals and new goals becoming acquainted with each other, it’s now time to break each down into daily habits. Those small things I need to do everyday to make sure I accomplish what I set out to do. And this is either the very fun (work on the gaming backlog plan of attack) or very hard (what diet to stick to for #75Hard) part of the process.
I wont blog about this process as
1. it’s only exciting to me, and
2. probably quite boring for people not directly invested in each and every part of my yearly plan.
But, adoring reader, some of these goals and plans will be written about – stuff like the gaming, the #75Hard and maybe even the finacial stuff. All part of my plan to blog more, drive my numbers up and get back to exercising my writing muscle. See, its the habit to goal in action!
