At the beginning of last year, I did a blog post about my goals for the year. This year, I'm going to do the same but also evaluate how I did with last year's. This motivates me, makes me more accountable for my goals. and helps me be more serious about them.
Evaluating 2016 Goals
I've color coded the goals I set by whether I accomplished them and/or by how much I did/didn't accomplish them.
Green means I successfully completed the goal!
Yellow means I somewhat completed the goal.
Red means I definitely did not complete the goal.
Professional/journalism
As an aspiring journalist/gymnastics reporter, these goals related to improving my journalistic skills and gymnastics knowledge.
Get a summer internship
Technically I did get a summer internship. I was a remote intern for the gymnastics website FloGymnastics. However, when I set the goal, I did not have a remote internship in mind. I meant an internship where I actually have to go out somewhere to work. That is what my internship was originally supposed to be, but moving to Austin, Texas, for the summer just wasn't realistic. So technically I did get a non-remote summer internship, but since I did it as a remote one, I'm not counting it as a successful accomplishment.
- Be more active/consistent with my blog
Considering I blogged less in 2016 and was not consistent with my posts, I didn't reach this goal.
Improve my journalism skills (writing, photo, video)
I don't really know what I had in mind of how to accomplish this goal, but I definitely practiced different kinds of journalism and practiced the kinds I already know. For example, my Reporting II class made me write more news and community issue stories, which I'm not used to. Also, I got a new camera and got to improve my photojournalism skills. So I'd say this was a partial success.
- Learn more names of artistic gymnastics skills
I didn't track this goal at all, but I can't think of any new skill names I've learned, so I must not have achieved this one.
Watch more/learn more about men's artistic gymnastics
I don't remember watching a lot of men's gymnastics from the 2012 Olympics, but I watched a lot ― if not all ― of it from the 2016 Games.( If you have time and an interest in gymnastics, watch the men's all-around final from Rio. It was really good!) But I didn't really learn more about the men's side of the sport, so this was just a partial success.
Watch more non-artistic gymnastics/learn more about other disciplines
From what I can remember, I watched a little more rhythmic and trampoline gymnastics than before, so that's good. However, I didn't watch enough to learn more.
- Become more familiar with NCAA gymnastics teams
I don't know how I planned on doing this or what I meant exactly from this, but I can tell you I didn't become more familiar with NCAA gym teams. If I can only recognize the entire roster of one or two women's gym teams, then I've got work to do.
Learn more about international gymnasts
I only learned about a few more international gymnasts in 2016, and even then, I don't know that much about them.
School
Get A's in most of my spring semester classes
I know I got one B during spring 2016 semester, but everything else was an A, and I made College of Media Dean's List!
Get A's in most of my fall semester classesFinish taking political science and philosophy classes
Other
- Read 20 books
I only got to 17, so I was close but not quite there! (If I finished reading all of the books I was supposed to for fall semester, I would have reached it! But realistically, I did not have time for that.)
Be more active and exercise more
During spring semester, I did take advantage of my Fridays, which I had no class on, and got up and ran on the treadmill several times. Normally, I'd just go to the gym whenever I felt like it on Saturday (which wasn't often.) Also, during spring break and summer, my sister and I often went to a nearby park to play tennis, which we never did before.
Plus, I would go for short runs outside while my sister was shooting hoops by herself. Before last summer, I never wanted to run outside because I just hated the idea of it. But I got over it and knew there was realistically no other way I was going to run while at home.
Learn something new
Obviously, I learn new stuff in school all the time, but this isn't under school, so that's not what I meant. I'm not quite sure what I meant, but I did learn at least one new thing, like how to use my cake pop maker!
Try something new
I'm not entirely sure if this was referring to food ― I'm a picky eater ― but I did try new food! I tried alfredo pasta for the first time in Portland and then made it at school sometime during fall semester.
Eook a wider variety of meals
I did stop making quite a few of the meals I made in my apartment in 2015 and replaced them with new ones. I still mostly cooked the same 7 meals, though, so I'll count that as a partial achievement.
- Make cupcakes from scratch
- Clean my closet/get rid of clothes I don't want/wear anymore
I still have way too many clothes. And I'm not sure if it's getting any better.
Setting 2017 Goals
Some of these may be repeats from 2016, but I always have a lot of new ones! Now that I've done this once, I'm going to be more realistic with my goals and set goals where I know what exactly I mean. No more "I'm not quite sure what I meant by this," because that's not helpful whatsoever.
Professional/journalism
- Get a job
- Be more active/consistent with my blog
- Vary blog content more
- Get an article published in print outside of yearbook (not online)
- Learn more about gymnastics skills and the Code of Points
School
- Get mostly A's in spring semester
- Enjoy last semester of school ever!
Other
- Read 20 books
- Be even more active!
- Stop shopping so much
- Clean my closet/get rid of clothes I don't want/wear anymore
- Start saving money
- Reduce student loan debt
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