Looking Back On My 2022 Goals

This is a follow up to Finder's Challenge from last year - "2022 New Years Resolutions: Write the ten things you would like to accomplish in 2022. By each on a scale form 1 to 10 (10 being the one you are most confident in achieving give each a score). Save to be read next year at this time."

My original posting can be read here: https://theprose.com/post/451285/my-goals-for-2022

1. Get back on track with healthy eating habits by using The Daniel Plan and The South Beach Diet. (5)

End of year update: Honestly, I did not do this. Although I cut back on some sweets, so my belt size is in one of those awkward in between phases.

2. Make more time for God, including but not limited to setting aside moments for prayer, continuing to write Bible and gratitude journals, attending church more regularly, listening to more sermons/messages, and finishing a complete reading of The Old Testament and the devotional "A Little God Time For Teachers." (8)

End of year update: This is a goal that I will never feel I did well enough on. I need to work on praying more and attending church more regularly, but I did learn a lot by doing a program called the Grow Journey through Crossroads Anywhere, and I did write a decent amount of Bible and gratitude journals this year. I have some catching up to do, but I can still likely finish The Old Testament and the devotional "A Little God Time For Teachers" before this year ends.

3. Finish more video games, including Persona 5 Royal (7)

End of year update: I didn't finish Persona 5 Royal, but enjoyed completing the Horizon Zero Dawn games immensely, and I added a lot of great games to my backlog. I played a lot of virtual hockey too.

4. Read 200 books (in all honesty, this count will include children's books and graphic novels). (8)

End of year update: I read 566 books this year per my Goodreads count. The majority of these were children's books I read to my students. Next year I would like to add more "grown up" books to the count.

5. Complete my Prose novel "The Ultimate Hero Network? A Short Story Collection." (7)

- Shameless self-promotion: https://theprose.com/book/3184/the-ultimate-hero-network-a-short-story-collection

End of year update: The story is definitely not anywhere near being completed, but I did make some progress on it. I won't likely finish it next year either, but we'll see what happens.

6. Make progress towards my goal of becoming a voice actor, and doing so by recording more audio versions of my writing and posting it on Audiomack, completing another haunt season next Fall, getting re-involved with a murder mystery theater troupe I had joined in 2020, taking acting classes, and ideally starting a career that will get me closer to my goal of "making it." (7)

- Another shameless self-promotion: https://audiomack.com/roses311sublime

End of year update: I still need to get back into doing murder mysteries, taking acting classes, and practice recording my voice. I did complete my 8th haunt season though.

7. Be a more patient, involved, loving family man (10).

End of year update: This is a goal that I will always want to improve on, and patience is something I need to work on, especially when it comes to parenting a teenager :-)

8. Deepen my bond with my wife (10).

End of year update: This is another goal that I will always feel like I can do better with, and I want to work on this in 2023 and beyond. I do love and appreciate all that my wife does more every day.

9. Improve in my job as a Pre-K teacher and also improve in serving as a children's ministry classroom volunteer at my church. (10)

End of year update: I had a really wild and challenging 2022 school year that pushed me to my limits. I definitely grew from it, and learned how to grow through challenges. This is another area where I want to grow as far as exercising patience.

10. Look back on 2022 when it's over and be able to confidently say that I leveled up. (10)

End of year update: Looking back at the end of this year, I feel like I didn't accomplish enough, yet I definitely feel like I've grown a lot since last January. I learned a lot of great practices throughout this year that I want to put a deeper focus on in this coming new year and beyond. I may or may not make a new list of goals for 2023, but the one thing I will definitely do is keep learning, improving, and trying to do better each day. Special thanks to anyone that has read anything I wrote this year (including this piece), and Happy New Year everyone!