Third Month Of The Year. Do You Feel 1/4th Of The Way To Your Goal?

It’s the beginning of March, the third month of the year

It’s shocking how quickly the year has passed by thus far. I only feel like a couple of weeks ago, I wrote my two cents on 2024 as a new year.

But, it’s important to take a step back and acknowledge our current trajectory.

Are we progressing as expected at this point?

Have we done enough these past 3 months to feel on track with whatever expectations we set for ourselves?

Now, I’m not talking about arbitrary externally validated goals. Whether that’s a monetary compensation number, a numerical count of followers reached, or whatever else.

I’m talking about how we view ourselves or how we see our actions aligning with our words and thoughts.

Are we being walking the walk just as much as we talk the talk 3 months into the year.

And if we aren’t walking the walk, what does that mean?

Again, I am against self-loathing and self-punishment, but I think it’s an important discussion to have. Why do we think we aren’t prioritizing the goal we set out for ourselves?

Is it because this isn’t actually the goal we want to achieve and instead only a goal we think we should achieve?

Is it because we keep procrastinating or delaying ourselves?

What can we use to leverage against ourselves?

What are we doing that gets in the way of ourselves?

And what does that tell us and teach us about ourselves?

Again, there’s nothing wrong with the truths we understand about ourselves. There’s nothing wrong with not actually wanting the thing we tell others and ourselves that we want.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.

I think it’s more about being a reflection or commentary about how we truly feel about something.

And by forcing ourselves to have these types of discussions, we can better figure it out ourselves.

Maybe we truly do want to accomplish whatever it is that we say we want to accomplish. Perhaps we were truly preoccupied with something that required our attention more - a family medical emergency, a business deadline, a personal breakthrough in another facet of our lives.

Whatever the case may be, recognizing the 3 month mark or quarter year mark helps us come face to face with the temporal nature of the year, the sense of urgency in what we set out to do, and hopefully the time and space to reaffirm to ourselves what it is we hope to accomplish by the end of 2024.

For me, I’ve made it to my programming midterm. I’ve learned coding for roughly 8 weeks now. And I feel pretty good about it.

I have been a little inconsistent with my health goals, because my time has been a little reduced since family has started visiting. I’ve been prioritizing hanging out with family instead of exercising or working on other personal projects, so that’s to be expected. And I’m okay with only accomplishing the coding goals.

Spending time with family fulfills my relationship and family goals so I’m happy with that trade-off compared with my original 2024 intentions.

For my business goals, those have been a little slow, so I need to make sure I prioritize them more in the 2nd quarter, especially since by then, I should be wrapping up my coding project soon.

I also want to finally commit to posting on TikTok and trying my hand at social media. It’s hella awkward and I’m more private myself but it’s something I want to try to get used to doing or feel less anxious about because whether it’s business or learning how to feel more comfortable sharing myself with the world or connecting with people online, I think having a social media presence is a part of that process.

Ultimately, there’s no right or wrong in this recap of the year so far but I think it’s a vital process to sit down and discuss with yourself what exactly you hope to accomplish. Additionally, it’s vital to evaluate whether you are making strides towards that goal.

Yes, goals can change.

Yes, timelines can change.

Yes, things can come up to derail your plans.

Those aspects are out of your control. The things that I think are important are whether you (or I) are acting in a way to take advantage and control the things I can do.

Whether I am choosing to sit and watch TV after work versus the personal project that I want to achieve.

Whether I am scrolling on social media for an hour versus changing into gym clothes to get a quick workout in.

Whether I am surfing the internet at the end of the day to “squeeze in some down-time” versus going to bed on time so I’m rested for the next day.

Actions have consequences and I want the consequences, positive and negative, that I designed for myself.

I don’t want 2024 for end without achieving at least some of the things I sought to accomplish and knowing whether I am heading the right direction by checking in with myself regularly along the way is my way of figuring that out.