In 2009, I set a bunch of goals for myself in different areas of my life. Now is time to see how well I did.
Financial Goals (2.5/4)
- Reduce credit cards with a balance from 4 to 2: Ended with 3 cards having a balance –> Fail
- Save $1000 in a high interest rate savings account for Emergency: Saved up to $700 and then used it to by a ticket to travel to Nigeria –> Partial Success (Was used for an emergency, but didn’t hit the mark of $1000)
- Open a Suzy Orman Save Yourself Account to which I put $100 a month for 12 months and I get $100 at the end of the 12 months: Success
- Open a T Rowe Price Mutual Fund Account (RPBAX and PREIX) so I could catch the market as it was coming back up: Success
Review: I was able to venture into investing by setting up mutual funds (which appreciated) and put money away into the Savings Acccount from TD Ameritrade. However, I didn’t curb my debt as much as I should have. My debt was exacerbated by the fact that I had to use a credit card to pay for expenses to travel home. I can’t complain though, I hadn’t been to Nigeria in 7 years (because of school schedule) so it was worth it. However, I wouldn’t have had this issue if I had built up enough of an emergency reserve in the first place. Zone in on credit card debt in 2010.
Career Goals (2.5/6)
- Write two academic papers: Success
- Submit papers written with lab mate: Success
- Write proposal: Partial Success (completed the proposal but part of my project changed hence a revision was required)
- Defend proposal. Fall 2009 : Fail
- Comprehensive Exam. Winter 2010 : Fail
- Dissertation. Spring 2010 : Fail
Review: One thing I have avoided doing my whole graduate career, is the writing of my proposal. Each time I visualize writing it, it just picture a terrible chore and I lose motivation immediately. It’s part of the reason why I never got to finish my proposal on time. If I had finished earlier, then my project would not have been revised and I would have moved on to the rest of the checklist. This pushes my graduate career back by about a year, but this is an area to zero in on in 2010.
Health Goals (1.5/3)
- Don’t drink soda: Success
- Complete P90X: Partial Success (only did 45 days)
- Sleep 6 hours: Fail (I struggle with this still)
Review: I succeeded in stopping my over-consumption of soda. I started off P90X very excited and as time went on I slowly digressed. It began with missing one day, then 2 days in a row and then trying to catch up. Finally, I stopped and gave the excuse that I was focused on writing my proposal. File this under the B.S. I tell myself. The problem I encounter with exercising is that I have always been skinny (due to a high metabolism) and this hasn’t helped me to be motivated at all. It’s like telling an athlete to budget. It’s relevant, but one doesn’t see the immediate need because there are no alarms yet. This is something I have to work on in 2010 as well. As far as sleep goes, that has always been an issue with me because I can be an insomniac (my friends would call that an understatement). I am still not sure how to deal with this. Suggestions anyone?
Personal Development Goals (9/24)
- Read 1 book per month (4 out of 12)
- Listen to 1 motivational tape per month: (5 out of 12)
- How To Master Your Time by Brian Tracy
- Success and the Self-Image by Zig Ziglar
- The Science of Personal Achievement by Napoleon Hill
- Powerful Time Management Skills from Franklin Covey
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko
Review: This is an area where although I got below 50%, I was pretty excited. A lot of the material I was trying to consume was hard to read and rather than fill in the space with fluff, I decided to slug through it (especially Four Pillars of Investing). I will be toning down the amount of material in 2010 and to ensure that I understand what I am reading, I will also start doing some reviews on here as well.
Lessons and Outcomes
Some things worked quite well (savings and personal development) and others not so well (credit reduction and career advancement). I reached for the stars and I landed on grass instead with a below average score.
- This is the first time I have kept track of my goals from the start to end of the year. It has been a very helpful experience
- As I focus more attention on one goal, another will most likely suffer e.g. while I was focused on writing my proposal, I stopped listening to audio tapes and reading non-fiction. While this would signify progress, it also meant I wasn’t taking the breaks I needed to take
- While I stopped drinking soda, my coffee consumption went up.
- Even with the plans I made, some things were still difficult to do e.g. working on my proposal.
Overall, I had issues with balancing one goal with another: savings vs debt, reading academic vs non-academic material, curbing an addiction vs creating another. Were my goals too high? No I don’t think so. How else could I have kept myself aiming high if the goals weren’t remarkable for me? I do understand that these goals might not even be close to relevant for others, but hopefully you can look at the areas of your life you want to touch and outline a plan.
OVERALL GRADE: 15.5/37 (42%) —-> FAIR
We’ll see how I do in 2010. I will put this up at a later time, also giving the opportunity for anyone interested to map out their strategies for the rest of 9 months.
