Measuring my 2020 resolutions

I, like many others, have set broad and general New Years resolutions before. The problem with resolutions like “eat better”, ‘drink less”, and “exercise more’ is that they are difficult to measure against your past self to determine success. As nice as it is to intend to be better, I have found that for myself it is more effective to structure a path to achieving goals through setting some specific targets.

So, incorporating a very on-brand piece of political nerdery, I embraced the model of the Better Public Service targets established under the Key-English National Governments to measure success within the public sector.

My rationale at the time was that it was going to be easier to achieve something specific that I could measure and that even if I failed to achieve it, having the target allowed me to consider the specific reasons why I failed to hit the target.

[2020 targets]My theory is that in the same way I think targets and goal setting is important for work and business (bring back the Better Public Service targets), I think that setting goals in life allows you to work towards something. Most of the goals I have set are easily achieved, but even if not I am happy that attempting and failing is better than not attempting. At least I will know why I failed and have a better understanding of my capacities.

I set targets in several areas that were of most immediate importance to me: health and fitness, finances, social life, and a wider set of targets extending on my first new years resolution like this, to read 52 books.

While I believed these targets to be easy at the time (and they were) the year we had challenged by resilience and commitment to them. In measuring results, I took a critical view where an ambiguity resulted in a ‘not achieved’. This resulted in me failing to hit over half of my resolutions.

I’m not that unhappy about this. I feel like I have ended 2020 with a better sense of myself, a stronger view of what my priorities in life are and a stronger sense of my own abilities in the face of adversity.

Where I did achieve, I am happy.

In fitness and health, I am regularly running much more, I am more active, watching my calorie intake (sometimes watching it far exceed my output), I have started a regular cardio and weights routine and have expanded the type of food I eat at home.

My reading goals expanded and I talked about different books with people more. I have found reading to be one of the most valuable pursuits of the year, not only connecting with streams of information, but building an understanding of events, people and places.

And I feel more in control of my finances and the direction I need to set out to achieve future goals.

Where I failed though, I could blame a series of adversities this year, but the simplest explanation is that I deprioritised the targets and I think this was an incorrect action by me.

I didn’t really expand my hobbies and I failed to give to charity. I could have done both of these and need to.

My fitness regime, while improving, failed to reach my targets. This was largely due to only properly integrating a routine in the later part of the year. I know I can do better here.

I am proud of the targets I hit and I know why I failed to achieve the targets did not. This has helped me structure my priorities and work towards improving myself.

So I am going to do it again in 2021. I will be refining my targets and adding to them. But, to keep me honest, I’ll take a little time to consider them and will also make public my 2020 targets, results, and comments on them (more so that I know they are out there than because I think anyone will ready them). But if you do see them, feel free to comment on them or, if helpful, adopt them!

Here’s to a great 2021.

Results: 2020 Resolutions

Fitness

5km Running

• Achieved
• 5km is the new normal in the weekly fitness routine.
• Renew aim for 2–3 times a week.

10km cardio

• Not Achieved
• This target only really happened during lockdown. Otherwise there were some sporadic times this occurred.
• Renew. Set some specifics around this. Perhaps a specific number of times, or amend to something like “run for one hour x number of times”.

100kg bench press

• Not Achieved
• My maximum by the end of the year was 80kg. This was probably down to a lot of apathy about a weights routine and only a late surge to integrate it into my regime.
• Renew. Set more specific target.

100kg squat

• Not Achieved
• I have done the 100kg squat a couple of times in 2020 but, similar to the bench press, this was a late surge into the fitness regimen and not achieved regularly.
• Renew. Same as bench.

New gym trial

• Achieved.
• I did the Les Mills classes on TVNZ on demand over lockdown and by the end of the year had completed a two week trial at Les Mills. It is a great gym, but I found myself essentially replicating my outside run on a treadmill and my weights routine on machines I have access to (if more limited access and less fancy machines) at the work gym.

Food

Five new recipes

• Achieved
• Lockdown was great, we went through all our recipe books and spreadsheet-ed a bunch of new recipes (and cooked them).

Keto week

• Not Achieved
• Got close on a number of occasions, but it needs more commitment.
• Break it down into days could help.
• Renew.

Vege month

• Not Achieved
• I’m eating a lot more vegetarian food, especially tofu and quorn as substitutes and more vegetarian dishes across the board, but have not been committed enough here.
• One month remains daunting — target four individual weeks.
• Amend and renew.

Alcohol limits

• Achieved
• Most of the time I a pretty deliberate. More specific targeting could be helpful.
• Renew. Target removing casual beers.

Fitbit food tracking

• Achieved
• Mostly happening. Lockdown disrupted a bit!
• Renew.

Finances

Annual Financial Plan

• Achieved
• Measuring and it’s good. Now I need to get more disciplined.
• Renew — target joint finances.

Increase shares/funds by 50%

• Not achieved
• 31% increase. More Aggressive approach needed in 2021.
• Renew.

Weekly budget and financial tracking

• Achieved
• Nice to be tracking finances — weekly budget is pretty rudimentary though.
• Renew — target joint finances.

Read 52 books

• Achieved
• 60 books again. 61 if I include a book by my Grandfather that isn’t on Goodreads!
• Renew

Read 5 books to challenge political thought

• Not achieved
• Some here that are arguable, but due to the ambiguity not achieved.
• Renew — target on recommendation.

Read three books over 100 years old

• Not achieved
• One read (Study in Scarlet), two begun: Meditations and Histories).
• Renew.

Read five books on new subject matter

• Achieved
• Yes, but limited. The target needs to be more specific because otherwise the categories are broad like “history” or “philosophy”.
• This is Going to Hurt, In Extremis, Invisible Women, Agent Running in the Field, Buzz as a few titles.
• Integrate into new recommendations.

Read three books on recommendation

• Achieved
• Only three tough, which, given the number of good recommendations, was poor.
• This is Going to Hurt, The Secret History, Buzz as titles
• Renew — upgrade number.

Find a charity to donate or volunteer with

• Not Achieved
• This was very bad of me. I do need to do this. Peter Singer has great recommendations.
• Renew.

Write 52 blog posts

• Not Achieved
• This didn’t work past easter. But decided later in the year that I should start a record of my thoughts as certain events may be useful to recall!
• Update to journaling.

Identify new hobby

• Not Achieved
• If anything, I doubled down on old hobbies and work. But am winding down heavily old hobbies.
• Feedback.

Play one game of a new sport

• Not Achieved
• I’m going to blame this on COVID. But also I got too relaxed.
• Renew.