But I also think that sometimes you have to do a thing you do not like doing before you start to like it. I did not like running at all the beginning. I was training for a charity race for a cause that was important to me and did not want to be the only one in my family who couldn’t make the whole 5K running. But now I like it and want to do it. I think maybe it’s Cal Newport who writes about how passion is not something you necessarily know ahead of time; passion sometimes comes after you get good at it. And you might not like it at first or want to do it. Math was kind of like that for me in high school – it was fine, but nothing that I would do beyond homework or meeting other requirements. Definitely not something I would do on vacation. But in college, when I saw how I could help people through tutoring, I became more motivated and now it is my career and a source of joy in my life. I wish people would stick a little longer with stuff that feels hard. There’s joy on the other side.

@Coree – five performances for the year already does seem like a good start!

I’m waiting on confirmation from one friend on when she’s coming for a visit, and booking a trip to Paris with another once I get my teaching schedule for the autumn.

And just plodding on with various articles. Everything has deadlines which is fine, I’m an obliger, I’ll make a deadline (or get close, academic deadlines are never hard and fast) but I can’t write without a deadline.

@Elisabeth – I agree that it’s good to get at the spirit of the goal. I would totally give myself credit for the cider tasting sans kids as a “nice” thing to do with the brother. I probably listed my strength training goal as something like lifting weights at the Y 2x a week but working out with a virtual trainer is probably a better way to do this.

I aim to only make goals that a) interest me and b) I think I *could* complete. Things are going well in 2023, but even when I don’t meet a goal for a year, I always do a post-mortem (http://elisabeth-frost.com/?p=10483). Sometimes I realized the goal wasn’t something I was passionate about doing, but other times, I just did something in the spirit of the goal. For example, if I listed a goal of seeing a live musical and didn’t actualize that goal, I would write down: went to see a play, or went to the movies 3 times. Last year I had a goal to go out to a nice meal with my brother and his wife when they came to visit; we didn’t end up making that happen, but we went to a cidery and enjoyed a tasting flight sans kids. Same outcome (quality time with my brother involving some form of food), but a different way of getting there.