Day 719: Goal Brainstorming

personal

Right after I turned 27, I wrote about how setting goals felt unnatural and there was a strong resistance to it because it felt like reverting back to a goal-oriented approach to life rather than simply being.

Two and a half years later, that discomfort has faded. I feel pretty excited about setting goals and the best part is that it feels like I can hold them lightly with the recognition that they don’t really matter. In other words, I feel more confident in being able to play the game and recognize that it’s a game rather than getting sucked into it.

I have so many things I want to explore this upcoming year, and I’m going to list a bunch of them here as a way to start the process of narrowing them down. These aren’t fully thought out (that is, the specifics might change) and I don’t intend to pursue all of them — this is a starting point for brainstorming and getting a feel for the kinds of things I’m interested in devoting energy towards in 2022.

Business

  • Reach $10,000 MRR with Browserflow

Fitness

  • 10% body fat
  • Middle splits
  • Handstand
  • Muscle up
  • Front lever
  • Back lever
  • Climb V6

Art & self-expression

  • Dance: be able to keep up in a dance class and feel confident dancing in social situations
  • Drawing: be able to make cute little sketches and feel comfortable expressing my ideas visually
  • Woodworking: I know nothing but it seems cool and I want to learn!

So… clearly I’m very interested in fitness-related things right now. These are goals that are centered around skill development, but there are a whole bunch of categories that I want to spend more time on but don’t necessarily have goals surrounding them:

  • Meditating and meditation retreats
  • Making friends in LA (or wherever I end up)
  • Dating
  • Writing

Setting goals for things like the above feel unnatural and a bit forced. For example, I don’t really have goals around meditation. Sure, I can think of ways to make a goal out of it (e.g. attain jhana, meditate for > 1 hour a day for at least X days, spend Y days on retreat), but these things are more about process/lifestyle rather than trying to hit a certain target.

It’s funny to note that my goals and interests have remained incredibly consistent throughout the years. For example, I got into calisthenics in 2015 and I’ve wanted to be able to do a handstand since basically that time but I haven’t been committed enough to actually see it through. Maybe 2022 will finally be the year?