26th Mid-Year Checkpoint

Every year on my birthday I go through a reflection on the past year (Looking Back on Year 25), and set goals for the next year (Looking Forward to Year 26) using my goal setting process.  With a late Spring birthday, the new year presents the perfect opportunity to check my progress on the year and realign my daily habits to accomplishing my vision for the year.  

Reflecting on the first half of my 26th year kicked off by surrounding myself with friends and mentors where we all dove deep into our goals, habits, and what we are hoping to accomplish in 2021; I recapped this experience in my blog post, The Power of People and Ideas.

Below I are reflecting on what my original goal was on May 22, 2020, my progress as of January 2020, my “Bonus Wins” or wins that I didn’t plan for, and what I am going to do to refocus or align my actions and goals to better fit my values.  

Relationships

• Original Goal – Marry Ellie on 9/5/2020
• Progress – Accomplished (reference blog post)
• Bonus Wins
  • Bought house in Cincinnati
  • Mixed business with family/friends (NY, WV)
  • Book Club
• Realignment and 2nd half focus
  • Writing letter weekly to Encourage the Heart

Community

• Original Goal – Invest over 300 Hours into my Community
• Progress – Through reflection and discussion with mentors I came to the recognition that quantifying my community involvement by hours was not how I wanted to measure my community impact.  Instead I need to refocus on specifically getting more involved with specific organizations that I care about.
• Bonus Wins
  • SigEp Ruck Leadership Institute Facilitator, Summer 2020
  • SigEp Ruck Leadership Institute Facilitator, Fall2020
  • Appointed SigEp Wright State University VP of Recruitment Mentor
  • University of Cincinnati College of Engineering & Applied Sciences Professional Mentor
• Realignment and 2nd half focus
  • Continue my involvement with SigEp
  • Begin Youth Volunteer Opportunity in the community
  • Begin Public Health Volunteer Opportunity in the community

Mental Health

• Original Goal – Read 36 Books, Complete 120 Pages of Journaling
• Progress – 16/36 Books, Reflection that quantifying my journaling as a number of pages goal added pressure to needing to journal longer which was doing the opposite of why I wanted to journal in the first place.
• Bonus Wins – N/A
• Realignment and 2nd half focus
  • Call out what I am reading in advance every month creating more intentionality and focus.  
  • Journal goal focused on # of occurrences (16x a month)

Physical Health

• Original Goal – Run 1,000 Miles and Complete 20,000 pushups
• Progress – My physical fitness was rooted in arbitrary numbers that sounded impressive but were ultimately not motivating for me.  My physical fitness motivation has always come through the desire to compete. 
• Bonus Wins
  • Set and reset multiple running personal records in my 1 mile, 5k, 10k, and longest distance 
• Realignment and 2nd half focus
  • Complete my first marathon with a time of 4 hours.  Stick to a running plan using RunWithHal

Education

• Original Goal
  • 8 Grad classes with a 3.5 GPA
  • Join a public health student organization
  • Duolingo Spanish Level 2
  • Doulingo German Level 4
• Progress
  • 4 classes completed with a 3.86 GPA
  • Joined the Public Health Student Association 
  • Average growth in Spanish and German with no movement within Levels
• Bonus Wins
  • Completed a program to receive a certification Certified Specialist in Business Intelligence (CSBI)
• Realignment and 2nd half focus
  • Increase language focus (podcats, movies, forcing my hand to speak more)

Adventure

• Original Goal 
  • Have 12 new experiences/locations
• Progress
  • Traveled to Morgantown, WV for work
  • Traveled to Huntsville, WV for work
  • Traveled to Westchester, NY for work
  • Traveled to and hiked around Lake George, NY
  • Traveled to and hiked around Saratoga Springs
  • Traveled to Plattsburgh, NY
  • Biked on a railroad in the Adirondacks
  • Traveled to and hiked in the Ozarks in Missouri
• Bonus Wins
• Realignment and 2nd half focus
  • Currently adhoc, make more intentional choices every month

Professional

• Original Goal
  • Recruit a public health professional as a mentor
  • 52 blog posts
• Progress
  • 16/52 blog posts
  • Multiple “coffee chats” held with professionals in public health
• Bonus Wins
  • Completed the Cerner Rising Star Program
  • Mentor 6 new team associates
  • Project leadership opportunity
• Realignment and 2nd half focus
  • Build a stronger list of what I am looking for in mentors and opportunities with the intent to ask someone to be a part of my “board of directors”
  • Be more consistent and opinionated in blog posts about current events

Financial

• Original Goal : Donate 10% of my income, Spend less than 10% of my income on “wants”
• Progress : Current giving at approximately 4%
• Bonus Wins
  • 805+ Credit score
  • Bought a House with a 2.875% mortgage rate
  • Upped my 401(k) to 10%
• Realignment and 2nd half focus
  • Improve my targeted giving up to 10% and correlate with more organizations I care about
  • Budgeting monthly and ZBB weekly line by line

In an unprecedented year, I am proud about what I was able to accomplish throughout the first half of my 26th year. I can’t wait to continue pushing towards May 22nd, 2021.