2023 Goals and Resolutions – Q1 Update

Long time readers will probably remember that I have been setting goals and resolutions since 2019 and posting quarterly updates to keep myself accountable throughout the year. 2023 was no different.

At beginning of this year, I set 13 goals for myself to accomplish. I wanted to accomplish some of the goals before certain months and I had six goals that I would work on them throughout the year.

This annual process has worked very well for me. For example, I probably wouldn’t be able to keep up my regular Monday publication schedule if I didn’t set out a goal for myself. Wanting to accomplish my goals keeps me motivated throughout the year. In many ways, setting goals and accomplishing them has helped me to stay focused on tasks ahead.

Let’s find out how I did in Q1 2023, shall we?

2023 Goals and Resolutions

Having turned 40 last year, my intention for 2023 is to improve my overall fitness and well-being.

I track all my goals and progress via a self-made spreadsheet. To make everything easier to track and see visually, I grouped my goals into different categories. To evaluate how I am doing, I would assign a letter grade for the goals that I am still working on.

Here’s what my goal tracking spreadsheet looked like at the end of Q1 2023:

Let’s go through each goal & resolution in more detail.

Financial Goals

• Dividend Income over $49,000: $11,921.82. A.
  After three months of the year, we received a total of $11,921.82 in dividend income. If we dividend $49,000 by four, we should have received $12,250 or more to meet this goal. In other words, we’re currently slightly behind on our dividend income target. I wouldn’t worry too much though as some of the fresh capital investments haven’t paid out dividends just yet. We should see a slight bump in the rest of the year.
  

• Grow cash wedge/LTSS to $25,000: WIP. B.
  It is our target to be financially independent by 2025. To do so, we estimate that we need a dividend income between $50,000 to $60,000 to sustain our living expenses. As we get closer to 2025, I’d like to grow our cash wedge in our Long Term Savings for Spending (LTSS) account.
  
  At the time of the writing, we are close to hitting this target, but we are expecting the amount to drop because we need to use money in the LTSS account for things like vacations, taxes owing, and other big item purchases we have planned in the next few months. Therefore, it will be important for us to continue to save money and put it in the LTSS account.
  

• Reduce # of stock holdings to 45: WIP. C.
  We continue to hold the same amount of stocks (49) as at the beginning of the year. We didn’t add or remove any holdings. We have not identified any holdings that we’re going to close out. At this point, if we change anything on our dividend portfolio, we want to be smart about it.

Blog Goals

• Continue publishing a blog post every Monday: WIP. A.
  I have kept up my Monday publication schedule. To do this, I have been writing posts ahead of time. Right now I have about 2 months’ worth of posts scheduled. Having something scheduled ahead of time gives me a bit of breathing room to come up with ideas and write posts.

Personal Goals

For my personal goals, the focus is better personal well-being and improving my overall fitness.

• Work out at least twice each week: WIP. A.
  I have consistently worked out at least twice a week so far in 2023. On average, I have worked out 3.75 times a week. Lately, it is a bit harder to find time to work out. On those busy days, rather than working out for 45 minutes to an hour, I tried to squeeze in about 25 to 30 minutes to do a quick workout.

• Read for 10 minutes before bedtime: WIP. B. 4 books read.
  I have tried to read for 10 minutes or more before bedtime but I haven’t been doing that as consistently as last year. After three months, I finished reading four books.
  • The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy – I have watched the film many times but never actually read the book. As usual with many of the book adaptation movies, the actual book was much better and had way more details than the movie. I enjoyed reading The Hunt for Red October.
  • The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before by Erika H. James and Lynn Perry Wooten – I enjoyed reading this book and learning how to better handle crises better as a leader. Both authors provided many examples throughout the book. My only criticism is that the book is a bit short and I’d love to see more examples of how different leaders handled the COVID-19 global pandemic in their organizations and the lessons learned from these experiences.
  • The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley – This was the second book by Lucy Foley I read (the first one being The Guest List). The Paris Apartment shared a similar writing style as The Guest List, as the story was told through different characters’ points of view. While I enjoyed reading this book, I found the plot “surprise” was too
  • Never by Ken Follet – This was the third Ken Follet book that I read. The first two were The Evening and the Morning and Lie Down with Lions and I enjoyed reading. In many ways, I thought Follet could have written more pages to wrap up the story and tie all the characters together. With the book at 800 pages, I was a little disappointed with how the story ended. The book was interesting in the sense that Follet laid out diplomatic and political scenarios of the different events that could trigger a global nuclear war but the first half of the book dragged out a bit.

• Reduce Body fat to 15%: WIP. B, 16.9%
  At the end of Q1, I was at 16.9% body fat and weighed 76.10 kg. This was a drop of 0.6% in body fat compared to the beginning of the year. I have continued intermittent fasting throughout Q1, probably around 98% of the time. The biggest change I made was to stop snacking on chips in the afternoon. If I had to snack, I would eat nuts, fruits, and other non-processed food items.
  
  I’ll continue to work on hitting the 15% body fat target.

• Complete a 30-day 100 push-up challenge: Completed. A.
  I completed the 30-day 100 push-up challenge in January. I actually started the challenge on December 20, 2022, and continued to do 100 push-ups each day until January 31, 2023.
  
  So in total, I did 100 push-ups for 43 days or 43,000 push-ups. Toward the end, I was able to do 40 push-ups in a row without much problem but my arms and shoulders were quite sore. It was a good challenge to do but I probably won’t be attempting another one any time soon.

• Improve sleep quality to >=80%: WIP. A
  I have managed to maintain an 80% sleep score via my Fitbit app for Q1 2023. So far so good. The trick for me is not to go to bed too late so I can get a good night of sleep.

• Finish landscape work by the fence: WIP. C, to be started still
  I have not started the landscape work by the fence so I gave myself a C letter grade. The plan is to start in a few months once it’s a bit warming.

Fun Goals

• Go camping with family in the summer: WIP. B
  We managed to secure a campsite at Goldstream Provincial Park this summer and we’re looking forward to this camping trip.

• Bring the family along on a business trip: WIP. C, no plan yet
  Currently, I don’t have any business trip planned, so we haven’t made any plans on having the rest of my family in joining me on the trip. We will have to wait and see what happens with this goal.

• Go to Disneyland: WIP. C, no plan yet
  Originally I was hoping to go to Disneyland in April or May to use up some of my Marriott night certificates. At the time of writing, we don’t have any Disneyland trips planned.

Summary – 2023 Goals and Resolutions Q1 Update

With one quarter in the books, I think I have done relatively well, accomplishing one of my goals already. For Q2 I will continue to work on my year-long goals and hopefully plan for a trip to go to Disneyland.