UPDATE: Status on Goals for 2016

As of November 14th, 2016

With a month a half left in the year, I took the time yesterday to review all the goals I set for myself this year to see where I was at.

With some goals, I fell flat on my face and failed.
With other goals, I completely gave up because I wasn't even close.
Lastly, it's important to note that despite missing a few, I managed to pull off quite a few!

I've categorized this update with three different statuses:

1. SUCCESS - Successfully accomplished goal
2. FAIL - Failed at accomplishing goal
3. PIVOT - Pivoted the goal to something else
   

Status:

• Hit 7,200 minutes of GMAT prep - SUCCESS
• Take the GMAT with a target score of 700 - FAIL
• Finish Wall Street Prep's Excel Course – FAIL – due to laziness
• Complete Tough Mudder 2016 – SUCCESS
• Hike with mom on 12 different trails (1x/month) – PIVOT
  • We did 2 walks in March. On the first one, she took me on a walk for like 2.5 hours and I got scared to ever ask her again. I realized that what I really wanted was quality time, so I've made an effort to be home for dinner once a week all year, and to fill December with 3 or 4 outings to Christmas events with the family.
  • New Goal for December w/ both mom/bro:
    • Annual Christmas Concert - Fairview Church
    • Christmas Unplugged: Comedy + Carols - City Lights Church
    • Vancouver Christmas Market
    • Broadway Church - Singing Christmas Tree
• Play Cards/Bananagrams with my mom (1x/month) – FAIL –
• Go for a movie with my bro 1x/month – PIVOT – to sporadic weekly chats for quality time
  • On a similar note to the mom goal, my brother gave me feedback that he didn't really like going to movies, but instead was okay to just chat occasionally at the end of the day to catch up. We never really talked, so this is a huge improvement from previous years. Also, set a new goal, as per above.
• Learn/cook 12 new dishes w/ Teresa (1x/month) – PIVOT
  • Singaporean Mee Goreng (J)
  • Wonton Noodles (J)
  • Korean Spicy Tofu Soup (J)
  • Traditional Greek Salad (J)
  • Italian Spaghetti Aglio E Olio Peperoncino  (J)
  • Scalloped Potatoes (J - 11/19/2016)
  • Honey Garlic Chicken Wings (J - 11/19/2016)
  • Fried Rice - (J - 12/3/2016)
  • It's mostly been either her or myself trying it, but not both of us cooking together. Turns out that doesn't work lol. So I've changed this to "Jay trying to cook 12 new dishes"- I need recommendations!
• Learn 12 worship songs on piano, measured by 36 hours (2160 minutes) of practice  - SUCCESS - ended up with 150 hours
• Write two rap songs – FAIL
  • Struggling through writing and recording one song, after years of not flexing that muscle.
  • We'll see about the second one lol.
• Get through 1/2 of my 2 year Bible reading plan – FAIL
  • Stopped in June when I stopped tracking my habits
• Publish 12 blog posts (1x/ month) – SUCCESS!
  • 10 as of today, including this one
  • Update: 11 as of 11/18/2016!
  • Update: 12 as of 12/22/2016!
• Get promoted to Sales Executive – PIVOT - I didn’t apply because I got into Business School
• Diggas in Paris win 6Pack Championship (and corresponding t-shirts) – SUCCESS
  • Tier C – Feb 25, 2016 - WON
  • Tier B - Nov 24th, 2016 - LOST
  • Team Sorry Sorry - December 13th, 2016 - WON
  • !!!PROGRESS!!!
• Contribute to teaching Sunday School for every 1/3 services – SUCCESS
• Contribute to music worship for every 1/3 services – SUCCESS
• Read 12 books (1x/month)  - SUCCESS
  • Paul Sohn – Quarter Life Calling*
  • Gary Keller – The One Thing*
  • Jocko Willink – Extreme Ownership*
  • Marvin Karlins/Jack Schafer - The Like Switch*
  • Marc Cosentino - Case In Point
  • Victor Cheng - Case Interview Secrets
  • Angela Duckworth – Grit*
  • CS Lewis – Out of the Silent Planet
  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance*
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude
  • Victor Frankl’s – Man’s Search for Meaning
  • Walter Kiechel - The Lords of Strategy
  • Adam Grant - Originals
  • Note: Some of these books I chose to quit reading if I had gotten halfway and wasn't feeling it. Although it's important to finish what you start, sometimes you have to realize you're not getting value out of it. I've put *s next to the ones that I enjoyed.
• Incorporate 1 MeDay/month (days where I do nothing at all, except maybe get a massage) – SUCCESS
• Increase donations to 11% of income – FAIL
• Hit President's Club FY16 – FAIL - …lol. No comment.
• Eat complete breakfast FIRST THING every day from February 1st to December 31st: 2 eggs, 1 banana, 1 slice of bread, and an apple/orange (my routine has been shot for the past 6 months with my new role) – FAIL
• Do 30 push-ups a day, FIRST THING from February to December 31st – FAIL, although I've started again last week.
• 12 Skype dates with international friends (I never use Skype, so this would be a game changer for me haha)  - SUCCESS
  
• Visit Montreal in the summer. – PIVOT to New York
  
• Treat 12 CEOs/VP Sales to lunch/dinner to learn from them – PIVOTED to sth else 
• Avoid driving 1 day/week – SUCCESS - giving me back 2 hours in my week!
• #1 Channel DM in the country for FY16, again – SUCCESS
  

There's still time...

Although I've usually just done an annual goal-setting session, along with an annual recap, I felt it important to check in before the year ended to see if I could turn goals that would have otherwise failed into successes!

What else can you do before the year is over?