Goals Progress Review (October 2018)

At the beginning of this year, I set some goals to myself. With nine months of the year behind us, I thought it would be useful to review my goals and see if there is something I can do to reach more of them before the year ends.

I will start with the financial goals:

1. Grow passive income portfolio to €11000; – at the end of September, my portfolio of stocks is worth €7823 and my P2P lending portfolio stands at €618. Therefore, the total value of my portfolio stands at €8441 which unfortunately puts me on the back foot for this goal. I have to admit that the goal was too optimistic but on the other hand I wouldn’t want it to be too easily achievable. Current status – behind target.
2. Receive €240 in passive income; – After my last monthly summary (for September) I had €195.87 received thus far. This is ~81% of the goal but it also includes a big month (May) so other months are smaller in terms of passive income. With 3 months left, I would need to receive ~€15/month which should be achievable but it will be a close call. Current status – on track.
3. Start having a budget; – As I wrote in my previous goals review at the end of April, I was tracking my expenses for a few months but didn’t see much value in it so I stopped doing it. However, I started doing it for October from the other way around. I set up a budget before the month began by creating a spreadsheet in Google Sheets. I tried to guess how much our family will spend on which category, how much money will be saved and earned etc. So far, it is looking good and I think it will be useful going forward, especially with the recent addition to our family. Current status – on track.

The next category is my fitness goals:

1. Run a marathon in 3:45; – I finished my marathon on the 9th of September and came close to my goal but haven’t achieved it. I finished the marathon in 3:47:00 which is still a big improvement from last year when I finished marathon in 4:06:59. Even though I failed to complete this goal, it doesn’t feel like a fail :). Final status – Failed.
2. Finish Lithuanian Triathlon Cup in top 50%; The cup finished on the first of September and I can see the final results. I participated in 6 of the 7 races of the cup this year and I ended up on the 43th place out of 204 men in Olympic distance category. This means that I finished in top 22% of the field! There were some participants who only completed one or two races so I don’t consider to be among strongest 22% of triathletes in Lithuania but that’s another topic :). Final status – Completed;
3. Finish “Xtrasa” cup in top 40%; – This cup was over in Spring and I already had this in the bag when I reported my interim goals in May. I finished the cup in the 39th place out of 289 participants in men’s category. This puts me in top 14% of the field so I am happy to say that the goal was reached. Final status – Completed.
4.  Complete Half-Ironman distance triathlon; – The last fitness goal for the year was to complete a Half-Ironman distance triathlon which I did on the 5th of August. Not only I completed it, I broke my personal record as well and finished the race in 5:39:43. Final status – Completed.
   

The final category is called “Personal development”. These are the goals I set to myself at the beginning of the year:

1. Read 12 books; – So far I have read 9 books this year so I am on schedule if I keep the momentum until end of the year. I think I should thank this blog for the motivation. This may be the first year in a while when I read more books than I bought. Current status – On Track.
2. Write 52 blog posts; – I actually abandoned this goal at the beginning of the year, as I wouldn’t like to throw out just any post for the numbers sake. So far this year I wrote 37 posts which is still quite a lot to me, as I only started about a year ago, so I am still proud of the progress and consistency. The most important part is that I enjoy having this blog, reading similar blogs and establishing relationships with the DGI community. Current status – Behind Schedule.
3. New IT certification; – I will have to admit that as the year end approaches I still don’t have any new IT certification and don’t have anything planned yet. I will need to think quick when I come back from my paternity leave at the end of this month if I want to cross this one as completed. Current status – Not Started.

Summary

Looking at the above, we can conclude the intermediary results. Out of 10 goals:

• 3 goals are completed;
• 3 goals are on track to be completed;
• 4 goals are behind schedule, failed or not started.

With 3 months of the year left, I still have time to at least complete the ones that are on track and hopefully achieve one more goal from the list. Some of them are definitely going to fail but I am pretty happy with the results nevertheless.

Have you set any goals for yourself this year? How is it going so far? Please let me know in comments below!