Each of the past couple of years I've written down on my blog what my own personal goals are. This is a way to keep myself accountable for what I want to accomplish in a year and a way to measure how well I'm meeting those goals. Just as important as setting out goals is, so to is seeing how well you did. Today I'm here to look back at what my goals were at the start of the year and how well I did at achieving those goals.

GOAL #1: READ 30 BOOKS - Achieved

Stretch Goal - Read 2 books that are longer than 750 pages - FAILED (Longest book I read was 604 pages)
Stretch Goal - Read 3 books (not audiobooks) - FAILED (Read 2 books in 2017)

I already have an entire post recapping the 30 books I read in 2017. Over the last 5+ years I've continued to push myself to read more. And not only to read more but to diversify what I read. That happened in a big way in 2017. And although I didn't read the 2 epics that I wanted to (here's looking at you 2018) I did read a great diverse lineup of books that I hope to replicate next year.

GOAL #2: USE PRODUCTIVE APP WITH 250 DAYS OF PERFECT PERFORMANCE - Achieved

Stretch Goal - 300 Days of Perfect Performance - FAILED

Had Jenn and I not spent a month in Asia in November I think I would have hit the 300 days of perfect performance. If you're wondering what 250 or 300 days of perfect performance means let me explain. Each day I have a list of set goals that I track the app Productive. In the morning its things like using lotion, flossing, brushing, using mouthwash and taking vitamins. During the day it's making sure I do at least 10,000 steps and workout. And to end the day its washing my face, twice a week doing a face mask, and shaving every third day. It's just a way to keep me accountable on a simple day to day tasks that can get away from me if I'm not diligent.

I ended 2017 with 274 perfect performance days.

GOAL #3: RUN 1,000 MILES IN 2017 - Achieved

Stretch Goal - Run 300 times in 2016 - Achieved

Of all the goals I put out for myself in 2017, this one was the one I am the most proud of fully achieving. Running 300 times in a year is a feat in itself. But running over a 1000 miles (nearly 1100 miles) is something I don't think I can actually believe I did. To give you an idea, that's almost the equivalent of running from our apartment to Seattle, Washington.

GOAL #4: KEEP WEIGHT < 140 LBS AT YEAR-END 2017 - Achieved

Stretch Goal - Never go over 140 lbs for the entire year - Achieved

This one probably goes hand in hand with Goal #3, but I was able to keep my weight into the mid-130's for the entirety of 2017. At times (like in November on our Asia trip) I kept it even on the lower end of that scale, and then tipped back up during the holidays. Fortunately running 3.5 miles a day and keeping fit has helped me maintain a healthy weight that I feel good about and hope to continue next year.

GOAL #5: WRITE 15 CHEF JOEL & JENN POSTS IN 2017 - Failed

I wrote 9 of these, all that happened in the first half of 2017. I've sort of gone away from writing a lot each month, going to monthly recaps instead. Although we had some amazing eats in 2017, in large part thanks to Blue Apron and Hello Fresh I didn't write a lot of them up. Which is unfortunate because as I was looking back on the nine posts I did write, their fun look backs at the quieter times in our life.

GOAL #6: COMPLETE 30 DAYS OF MEDITATION - Failed

Stretch Goal - 90 days of meditation - Failed

This is the one goal that I kept trying to get myself to start doing and didn't do. In 2016 I did about a month's worth of meditation (10-minutes a day) and loved it. I have an app that I've been staring at for months called Oak that I hope to start using in 2018. With a long workout, and a longer commute this year, finding the extra 10-minutes (as crazy as that sounds) has been tough. Of all the goals I failed at, this one bugs me the most.

MOST IMPORTANT GOAL OF ALL: BE A BETTER HUSBAND - PARTIAL SUCCESS

This year has been an incredible year from beginning to end. With everything going on in this world, it's sort of unreal how in all the chaos we've had one of our best years as a couple. I didn't buy Jenn flowers as much as I wanted, nor did I surprise her as much as I should. But I hope/think that we were both there for each other when it counted most. I have some ideas of how I can keep being better, and hope that in 2018 I do just that.

Recap Goals of 2017 - How Did I Do?