We’re nearing the end of March (and subsequently my 41st birthday on the 30th) and well, it’s been a year so far! From all kinds of personal stuff (we’re engaged to be married!) to the fantastic line-up of Nintendo games coming up this year, to the invasion in Ukraine, 2022 is shaping up to be one year to remember. With all that’s going on in the world, it’s hard to find our focus and I definitely found myself checking the news a whole lot more than I usually do, because checking news often isn’t exactly the best thing for our mental health. But I did manage to cut back on checking it only twice a day now and that really helps for my personal wellbeing. So, amidst all this chaos, what’s becoming of my annual goals for 2022?

It’s been a very good first quarter!

There, now I just spared you the need to read even further, by putting the TL/DR right here. For those of you who are interested in my reflecting methods, please continue reading! First of all, I always set ten goals for every year and check every quarter (and also every month) to see if I’m still on the right track and whether I should be spending more time/energy in certain goals. Here’s the list of goals I set for 2022. Including the secret goal of proposing to Bren! 😉

– [ ] 1. Outline and finish writing the first Kevar novel, by December 2022
– [ ] 2. Lose weight and get into better shape, by June 2022
– [ ] 3. Write at least one weekly blog article on JeffreyDebris.com, by December 2022
– [ ] 4. Write at least one weekly blog article on TheGreenDream.blog , by December 2022
– [ ] 5. Read 40 books, by December 2022
– [ ] 6. Write 500 words on any of my projects daily, by December 2022
– [ ] 7. Take up drawing again and practice weekly/daily, by December 2022
– [ ] 8. Practice daily journaling, by December 2022
– [ ] 9. Increase my meditation habits, by meditating longer or twice a day, by December 2022
– [x] 10. Propose to Bren, by March 2022 (22-2-2022, 22:22?)

Let’s check how much progress I’ve made with each goal so far. As you can see most goals are set to be done “by December 2022”, which basically means it’s an ongoing thing that I want to finish by the end of the year. But, there are some that have a deadline earlier.

1. Outline and finish writing the first Kevar novel, by December 2022

Last weekend I finally sat down to do some actual writing again! It felt so good. After I finished my novel Stempels, I kind of fell into a bit of a hole. The manuscript has been sent to a couple of publishers, but I don’t really feel that it will find an audience just yet. But you can’t really call yourself a writer if you don’t actually write. I did continue blogging, of course, but actual novel writing, well that’s been something I hadn’t done in some time. With all that’s been going on in the real world I felt a surge of inspiration to add several of these events into the storyline of the books I’m going to write and it feels so good to finally write scifi again, especially because it’s about the Kevar, so it’s basically going to be a bit like Warrior Cats in space. 😛 At least, that’s what it feels like because the Kevar are feline humanoids. The parts I wrote about them in my books just begged for more stories about them and these five books I’m planning to write are all about their bloody history and how they managed to find the spiritual world of Udrak III, which plays a pivotal role in my trilogy. So, yes, I’m definitely on track for this goal and glad I’m writing again! I can see I’m enthusiastic about this goal, because I wrote a lot about it already. I’ll definitely tell you more about the story, characters and backgrounds in later blogposts and also about my writing habits! Conclusion: On Track!

2. Lose weight and get into better shape, by June 2022

It’s my third week now of going to the gym every weekday and I feel all the better for doing it. My current habit is to get up at 6:15, wash myself and brush my teeth, meditate at 6:30 for 15 minutes and then head off to the gym for both cardio and weight training. I can really tell I’m in a way better shape than I was in October of last year when I started going to the gym again. I also lost some weight. At the start of the year I weighed somewhere around 78 kg and I was totally fed up with myself. I weighed myself this morning and I’ve lost some weight at least, with 75.8 kg this morning! Am I on track? Well, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that I bloody am! Bam! Conclusion: On track!

3. Write at least one weekly blog article on JeffreyDebris.com, by December 2022

Blogging has become my bread & butter when it comes to writing, to be honest. Whenever I feel I can’t write on my novel manuscripts, I can always fall back to just writing a blog about whatever I feel like, because this is my blog an I can do with it what I want! Of course, I do try to stick to a few subjects, but usually I always have something to tell about any of those chosen subjects. If you’re wondering which topics I like to discuss, they are (in no particular order, but probably by preference, because our brains are biased):

• Video games
• Books
• Writing and goal setting practices
• Mindfulness and lifestyle mumbo jumbo
• Other hobbies like LEGO and drawing

I don’t think I’ve missed a single week of writing a blog here or I’ve made up for it by writing multiple in one week, so I think it’s safe to say that this goal is on track as well! Conclusion: On track!

4. Write at least one weekly blog article on TheGreenDream.blog , by December 2022

We started our new blog this year and I’ve been reposting a lot of my blogs on the Green Dream as well. And cheap bastard that I am, I count them towards this goal, because why not? Of course, we tend to focus on slightly different topics on our new blog, most of them having to do with our live together, our lifestyle and sharing tips for greener living. We even started to integrate a webshop where Bren sells all of her lovely creations. Make sure to check that out too! Conclusion: On track!

5. Read 40 books, by December 2022

I’ve been reading a lot more this year than I did previous year, which is really a fantastic thing, because I love reading, I just don’t always manage to find the time and mainly focus to do it. I have been training my reading muscles, however, and I’ve also started listening to audiobooks when I’m in the gym, or on my commute to work. It’s a perfect way of utilising your time more effectively. I purely listen to non-fiction audiobooks, because I love to learn new stuff, or gain new insights. I use Goodreads to keep track of all the books I’ve read and want to read and so far I’m ahead of schedule! Conclusion: Ahead of schedule!

6. Write 500 words on any of my projects daily, by December 2022

Writing 500 words a day is super easy (for me). Having said that, I know I haven’t really been doing it, but rather have had bursts of writing every other day or so. In other words, I think I need to ramp this goal up a little bit, or maybe just think of different ways of approaching my writing habits. I love writing and it’s one of those rare moments when I can really achieve flow. Now that I’ve started writing on my novel again, I need to find a way of spending some time every day to write again and usually I do this after work hours by just spending a little bit of time writing every day. Of course, ideally, I would just spend my entire life writing and having that as my job. But we’re not quite there yet 😉 Who knows if our blog really starts to take off, or when my new novels manage to get published by a larger publisher? I’m not quitting writing any time soon anyway. Long story short, I think I need to reconsider this goal. Conclusion: Needs further evaluation

7. Take up drawing again and practice weekly/daily, by December 2022

A couple of weeks ago I started drawing a little bit and I really enjoyed spending time with Bren doing some sculpting with FIMO clay. In fact, I do think I might like that a bit more than drawing, but at the same time, I sometimes watch other people doing awesome stuff and I really think I should start doing some sort of drawing course to learn the ropes and new techniques. I’d love to be able to draw at least a bit more realistically than the comics I am used to drawing, so I can bring to life the characters I’m writing about. This is one of those goals I’m hoping to do more with as the year progresses. Conclusion: Needs further evaluation

8. Practice daily journaling, by December 2022

This one is a habit by now. Every day around 22:00-22:30 I sit down, write down some of my thoughts on the blank page for the day and put away my journals. It’s a great way of reflecting on the day, what’s on my mind and what’s going on in life and it’s helping me to make a bit more sense of stuff too, as journaling does for me. I did miss a couple of days every now and then, but I always made sure to write an entry the next day, to make up for not being able to do it the night before. Conclusion: On track!

9. Increase my meditation habits, by meditating longer or twice a day, by December 2022

Every since I started going to the gym I decided to up my meditation time from 10 minutes to 15 minutes and that has been working well for me. However, I do tend not to meditate during the weekends, I found, which is perhaps not a very smart thing to do, because I should really try to stay in the habit of doing it on a daily basis. On the plus side, I have been meditating in the evening every so often, sometimes with Bren, sometimes alone. Overall I feel that I am spending more time every day in meditation and I think if I can just remember to not skip over the weekends, I’ll have reached this goal by the end of the year. Conclusion: On track!

10. Propose to Bren, by March 2022 (22-2-2022, 22:22?)

It was an exciting time and I didn’t know if I would actually make it, but I did! I proposed to Bren and she even said ‘Yes’, which is a nice bonus. Otherwise I would have still managed to complete this goal, but I probably wouldn’t be as happy about it. I am so glad that I finally managed to take this bold step. Marriage was always a bit of a mixed bag for me, having seen countless divorces around me, but life doesn’t give you any guarantees and I really want to make our life official by marrying, so yeah, I completed this goal. 1 down, 9 to go, right? Hahaha. Conclusion: COMPLETED!

Overall conclusion

As I stated earlier, I am really feeling it this year. I’m excited about my goals, I’m excited about what Bren and I are working on with The Green Dream and I am really curious what the rest of this year will bring. Hopefully it will be a lot of good stuff, but I know I’m feeling great about what I’ve been keeping myself busy with. So, what do you think? And how are your own personal goals going? Please let me know in the comments below!

Happy planning!

Jeffrey