2018 Goals: How did I do?

In 2018, I set out some goals for myself. Let's recap and assess how I did.

The goals:

• Land a role at a product-oriented company using modern JavaScript ✓

• Build foursatellites.com ✓

• Utilize Gatsby / React for foursatellites.com ✓

• Earn X amount in addition to my base salary ✓

• Match or exceed yearly compensation target ✓

• Pay down student debt ✓

• Save nest egg Emergency fund ✓

• Teach FEWD @ General Assembly ✓ ✓ ✓

• Build relationship(s) with non-profit(s) ✖

  • establish a reoccurring retainer for 10-20/hrs/month ✖

• Earn the title of JavaScript Engineer ✖

• Publish my poetry manuscript ✖

Assessment

Many of my goals were financial in nature. You could say "money was on my mind".

I am pleased with what I was able to accomplish this past year financially, but it did not come without consequences. For example, I hit my targets for both annual income and extra income.

There is always a cost, even for achieving our goals.

But I did so by spending a significant amount of time toward those goals outside of work. Teaching @ GA for instance, a typical day consists of:

• working a normal day from 9-5
• go directly to my classroom, run a three-hour class two nights a week
• That class needs to be planned and prepped for (3+ hours/week)
• Homework needs to be graded (3+ hours/week)
• Office hours for 2 hours a third night that week

Thats 40hrs + 6hrs of class time + 2hrs of office hours + 3hrs of prep + 3 hrs of grading = 54 hours/week minimum.

As you can see, this strategy worked in the short-term, but longer-term it breaks down as the extra hours of "on-ness" pile up and take their toll.

Hello, Burnout, my old friend.

The hidden cost (and sometimes not-so-hidden cost) of that work is felt in lost time and sleep, and the negative impact on my physical and mental health. 54 hours does not really seem that bad. But consider that your schedule is like that for 30 of the 52 weeks in the year. That you leave the house at 7 o'clock in the morning, and you sit down and decompress for the first time all day at 10 p.m. that night.

And you might be thinking, that even is not so bad. What is this guy complaining about?

You have a point. It's a good problem to have. To have too much work. And I am privileged and lucky to be in that position, especially with the nature of the work itself. I completely acknowledge that.

The point where I start to become my worst enemy is where the part of me that 1) feels that since I can and am able, I should - that part silences and disregards 2) the part of me that is tired and over-worked.

While I was able to achieve some of my goals, the goals I set out to achieve - such as establish a relationship with a non-profit, or obtain the title of JavaScript Engineer, or publishing my poetry manuscript from graduate school were possible - but not likely due to the costs exerted by the realization of my other goals.

Not so surprisingly, what this translates to: I need to re-evaluate how I determine my goals, but also how I go about achieving them. I treated myself like a money-making machine - whose sole purpose was to make money.

That's a terrible thing to do to yourself. That was a mistake. I need to change that in 2019, and every successive year from now on.

2019 Goals

• Bring writing back to the center of things

• Wear my failures / successes with greater humility

• Spend less time working. Period.

• Spend more time on activities that will enrich my internal landscape and foster my other strengths

• Take time for self-care

Conclusion

All in all, I think that 2018 was filled with both success and failure.

I succeeded in some of the ways I set out to succeed, but I lost something worthwhile in the process.

I give myself a: C- for the year.