Well, it’s that time of year again: I’m taking a look back at how I did in 2023 and then diving into 2024 goals. It’s probably worth noting that these goals are aspirational, so (as usual) I’m grading myself on a sort of curve, where earning an A means I accomplished the goal, and lower grades indicate roughly how close I got.
2023 Goals Review
Here’s a link to last year’s goals post for reference.
Read 20+ books
D-. I completed ten books this year, so there’s a good argument for giving myself a straight F on this goal. However, I did do a bit more reading than that implies, as I started and then dropped several books I wasn’t enjoying. Notably, I got more than 500 pages into Stephen King’s Under the Dome before abandoning it — I hated the villains so much I just couldn’t stand hundreds more pages of them being horrible before the story reached a conclusion. I made substantial progress in a few others before ditching them as well, and I also read a few technical books for work that don’t count on Goodreads. Plus, I only read 7 books in 2022, so: progress! I’ll give myself a gentleman’s D here.
Highlights from this year included China Mieville’s The City & The City (a gripping mix of literary sci-fi and crime drama), the rest of Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis series as well as her Bloodchild short story collection (she may be my favorite fiction author at the moment), and Dr. Julia Shaw’s book Bi (the best book I’ve read on bisexuality so far, by a considerable margin).
Cover 2,000 human-powered miles
B. Strava says I covered 1,735.6 miles this year. So, while I didn’t quite hit the goal, I came closer than I have in previous years. It’s worth noting that I did lose roughly half a month to Covid in February, although it’s unlikely that I would have covered enough ground in that time to get to 2,000 anyway.
According to Strava, I spent 259 total hours exercising in 2023 (that’s roughly 11 days).
Have visible abs in summer
B-? This one is a bit hard to grade. On the one hand, yes, you can see visible abs in the picture I have pasted below, which is from June of 2023. And there is a clear difference between this and the “before” picture I took in January, which frankly I’m not going to even put here because it’s embarrassing.
On the other hand, that’s not exactly shredded, and this was taken immediately post-workout, so it’s not a reflection of what I looked like all the time.
Overall, though, I definitely felt good about it, and while I’ve let them lapse a bit – mostly due to diet – I may try something similar again this year.
Meaningfully improve my coding/technical skills
D. I did not accomplish the specific tasks I set out to do this year (finish my PB classifieds app and the data engineer path). However, I’m not going to call this a total failure, as I did still improve my skills in other ways, including refining and publishing my Google Analytics script for GA4.
Fix my sleep hygiene
F. I did do this, but then later reverted to the old sleeping-with-headphones in times of stress. I want to accomplish this in 2024 but I clearly need to rethink how I can do it.
(Part of the problem here is that I often need some relaxing entertainment to unwind before sleeping. On busy and stressful days, there often isn’t any chance of that until 10:30 pm or later, so if I want to sleep at a quasi-reasonable hour I end up trying to get it listening to a show or podcast while lying in bed).
Stand for work meetings under 1 hour
F. I was consistently doing this for a while, but somewhere along the way I fell off the wagon. I don’t remember exactly why; my guess would be sickness. But whatever it was, once I got out of the habit, I didn’t pick it back up again.
Learn to play a little guitar
A. I actually did this! As it turned out, I didn’t find Rocksmith to be all that helpful. but I learned enough chords to play at least riffs from some songs I like, and make up one of my own. However, I haven’t played much recently because my guitar broke. I need to find somewhere that can fix it.
Learn more carpentry and home repair skills (by doing)
A. I did this as well. I did not build a carport this year, which had been in my plans, but I did build quite a few significant things, including:
- A large custom shelving system for bike gear and other stuff for our mudroom
- A large custom bookcase/shelving system for our living room (which is now home to most of our books and houseplants)
- Two set walls for the basement video set, out of mostly pallet wood
- A custom shelf, table, and remote box for our new A/V setup
- A small carrier to carry bike gear in a more organized way in my truck
- Repairs to our steps to replace the rotting planks
2024 Goals
This year, I’m going to introduce some bulleted sub-goals. So that’s fun. I’m also not going to re-explain the “why” behind goals I’ve had before.
Read 20+ books
Why: All the usual reasons.
How: Get back into the habit of reading before sleeping on weeknights
Cover 2,000+ human powered miles
Sub-goals:
- Learn to wheelie
- Finish top 5 in Mountain Mayhem (if it happens this year)
Why: All the usual reasons.
How: By sticking to a coach-designed training plan this winter that should get me into riding season in better shape than ever, and then maintaining or increasing that fitness so that I can do well in Mountain Mayhem in the summer if possible.
Improve my diet permanently
Sub-goals:
- Have visible abs this summer
Why: It’s pretty obvious that diet is the weak point in my overall health. In the past, I’ve done things like “no sugar for a month,” but that is not sustainable and it hasn’t had much long-term impact.
How: Smaller and more (hopefully) maintain-able changes. My plan to start: buy healthier snacks and only snack on fruits and vegetables after 9pm, even on weekends. There may be some exceptions here for things like hummus or yogurt, especially as vegetable dips.
A lot of my worst eating now happens between 10 and midnight, so sleeping earlier in general may also help. But that’s not always easy to do.
Maintain a regular strength workout routine
Why: Most of my fitness work is cardio-related and will continue to be, but I want to maintain a basic minimum of strength work to complement and balance that.
How: Very short (<10 min) workouts 2-3 times per week right after a cardio workout seems sustainable, at least for the winter. I have a routine that I’m doing currently, so I will continue to do that 2-3x per week, probably switching some exercises in and out over time.
Find some queer community
Why: I still don’t really have any close queer friends, and almost all of the queer folks I knew at work got laid off this year. I also stopped doing the Trevor Project volunteering (for time-related reasons primarily). Anyway, from therapy I know it’s important for long-term acceptance to find some queer community, so this is something I need to work on.
How: By looking for friends via apps, probably, and also by trying to find some opportunities to get involved somehow locally. I have just filled out the Equality Maine volunteer application, so we’ll see what happens.
Add a valuable skill to my resume
Why: I’m being a bit vaguer this year, as things are in a bit of a state of flux at work currently and it’s not yet clear what skill would be best to add. I will certainly continue my technical learning and programming projects, but I want to leave the door open to other things, too.
How: Since the goal is vague the prescription is also vague, but I learn best by doing, so by the end of 2024 I hope to have a project on my resume that demonstrates a skill or combination of skills I’m not capable of right now.
Bonus goals:
- Master ten chords on guitar. First step to this one will be getting my guitar repaired…
- Stand during meetings under 1 hour. Need to try to get back into this habit.
- Learn new carpentry skills. Maybe by taking a class? Or just watching a lot of videos?
- Finish a few short stories. I often have ideas. I rarely follow through.
- Stop sleeping with headphones during the week. This one might be tough, and frankly it’s not a huge priority as (per my watch) it doesn’t seem to actually affect my quality of sleep. However, still probably best to break the habit.
Charlie Custer 