There is a least one or two periods each year when I think about my personal goals and how far I progressed this year.

Quick clarification – I’m not a person who always sets new goals at the beginning of a new year. I sometimes do this sometimes not. (But, by definition I can’t be such person, I’m a corpo-rat, remember?) I simply do this when I feel like it. And as I mentioned it the openning sentence – this happens to me at least once a year.

Usually it looks like this: “O f***, it’s February already! One month, one twelveth of the year passed! Did I accomplish 8.33% of my goals for this year?”. It could be February, it could be May, but the structure of my concern is always the same: X months passed, have I closed X/12 of my yearly goals?

Of course I know the variety of philosophies around planning, like setting “SMART” goals, or checking progress regulary (daily!), or have a coach / accountable person, you name it. Did anything worked for me? No, at least not in a long term. But writing down goals gives me one interesting insight: it’s like a snapshot of my current state, where I am financially, physically, mentally, what is my “natural” next step.

And it’s interesting to look at this list at the end out the year (or whenever) to see if anything has changed – for real. Because quite often we might be blindfolded by the noise, things that are not so important. You might for instance: changed the car, travelled to another top spot location, bought “something you always wanted to have”…

But, did you finally start working out? Or did you start learning new skills? (lauguages?) Or did you begin the process of switching career? And what about finding a hobby that you would love doing (and that is not searching the Net or watching Netflix)? Did you move by a fraction of the unit of measure you use towards your preferred version of you?

Compared to previous year(s) – would bonsai tree overtake you in terms of progress?