My 2016 Goals

2015 was a tough year for me.  And that’s without even considering what happened to the Seahawks at the beginning of the year.  My career has stalled.  My health has gotten worse.  And overall, I’m still a bit unclear about several things in my future.  In 2016 I’ll be turning 32 years old.  Wow.  I’m really hoping that this time next year I’ll have a much better handle on my life.

2015 Accomplishments

• Ran a 5K (with plantar fasciitis)
• Sold my first advertising deal on my website (though it got cancelled shortly after)
• Had my first $100 Adsense day
• Achieved over $1,000 a single month in passive income streams
• Volunteered every week for 7 months straight
• Increased my net worth by $75,000

In terms of accomplishments, there’s really not a lot here.  I spent most of my time invested in my full time job and had to deal with health problems from a chronic condition.

2015 Goals Assessment

You can’t start the new year without looking back (and being ashamed) of your goals last year.  So let’s rip off the bandaid:

Health / Social

• Volunteer at least once a month (Completed)

• Get to 150 lbs by July 1st, 2015 (Failed)
• Exercise at least 3 times per week (Failed)
• Go to bed earlier (10 pm) / Get up earlier (6 am) (Failed)
• Get to 150 lbs by June 1st, 2015 (Failed)
• Run a sub-30 minute 5K (Failed) (still around 40 min)

My health goals kept getting derailed because of my chronic condition.  It’s difficult to focus on losing weight when you just feel you don’t have control over your health.  Additionally, I learned this year that I had plantar fasciitis, a condition that makes it very difficult for a flat footed person like me to run long distances.  Next year, I’ll probably leave off all of the running goals, but I’ll want to come up with something else I can focus on to improve my health.

Side Hustle

• Write at least one article per month (Completed)
• Spend at least 3 hours per week on website building (Completed)
• Join a Mastermind Group (Completed)

• Build a Curator Website by February 1st, 2015 (Failed)
• Build an Investing Website by March 1st, 2015 (Failed)
• Watch all Adsense 10 videos April 1st, 2015 (Failed)
• Host an Investing Brown Bag for associates by July 1st, 2015 (Failed)
• Create investing book outline by July 1st, 2015 (Failed)
• Collect 1 year of content (365 posts) for Curator website (Failed)
• Create new personal blog / website (Failed)
• Write first half of investing book, while prepping for Brown Bag (Failed)

I did a little bit better on my side hustle goals, but the majority of things I set out to do, I barely even started on.  Investing was one of those things that just stopped being interesting to me.  The goal of that side hustle was to provide content to enlighten people out there who waste money gambling in the investing world.  The problem is, that information is miniscule in comparison to the piles and piles of investing bullcrap out there.

A couple of things I didn’t expect, or didn’t plan for at least, were the increased income from my side hustle.  Despite completing only a portion of those goals, I’ve started earning over $1,000 per month from passive income streams.  This was a big mental hurdle for me, as getting that 4 digit value makes my “side” hustle real and meaningful.

Purchases

• Buy a new work laptop (Completed)
• Buy a FitBit / Up3 (Completed)

These were relatively simple and were mainly listed to pad my completion “stats”.

Goal Learnings

Just by taking a quick glance at all the goals, you can tell that I failed the majority of them.  I guess in general, I was a little overly ambitious about what I could get done in my down time.  This year, I’ll try to have more precise and achievable goals and not try to do every possible thing that pops in my head.

My 2016 Goals

Without further ado…

Health

• Get to 160 lbs
• Complete the Focus T25 Exercise Regimen for a month

Side Hustle

• Track my passive income each month
• Achieve $2,500 in a month from passive income streams (rent threshold)
• Build a Curator Website
• Build an Amazon Channel Website
• Setup a personal blog
• Watch all Adsense 10 videos
• Read and Review an Adsense book
• Read and Review an Affiliate Marketing book
• Develop an Excel Course Curriculum
• Finish posts on VLOOKUP
• Research and write a post on Free Learning Courses for Excel
• Run a basic Excel course for the administrative assistants at work

Purchases

• Buy a House
• Buy a new Work Laptop

2016 Themes

In general, I really want to try and keep my goals simple and achievable this year.  I’ve taken away a lot of my health goals to focus on just a few things and made my side hustle goals much simpler and discrete compared to the prior year.

The goal to buy a house comes from the fact that I’m paying $2,600 a month in rent, which is pretty close to a mortgage payment already.  I have a lot of cash saved up to do this, so hopefully the housing market won’t be insane and I can pull it off this year.

The themes I want to focus on are:

Focus on learning

I’m not done learning yet and I’m far from it.  I need to continue investing in my learning and not be complacent with what I know already.  The blogging and book reviews will help with that.

Diversifying my Passive Income Streams

Right now I get most of my passive income from Adsense, which is notorious for being fickle with wide fluctuations.  I need to develop more assets, including ones that are not completely dependent on Google and Search in providing income.

Getting Things Back on Track

There were multiple times in 2015 where I just felt derailed.  Whether it was struggles with my health or discontent with my career, these road blocks had a tendency to throw everything off track.  Whenever I was in one of these lulls, things that once made me happy didn’t have much of an effect and my motivation to move forward disappeared.

This coming year, I will keep a stronger focus on what I want my future to be.  I know that there will always be road blocks and obstacles that have the potential to slow me down.  But I will keep faith that I will get through them, as I always have.  While I do feel very far from my long term goals, I’m finally starting to feel they are achievable.