Me and my better half
Hi I'm Greg. Occasionally I do things.

Every year I set goals.

I used to think this was dumb. "Only the milquetoast underachievers set Resolutions," said I. Then my wife did it one year. So I tried it. And learned I was foolish. Writing down goals helped me stay focused on what mattered for the whole year. I don't hit them all. If I did, they probably wouldn't be very good goals. But it still helped a lot.

Yearly retrospectives helped just as much. Not only was it a great way to understand just how the year went, it helped clarify what the right steps would be for the next year.

You should try it too. But, it only works if you write them down.

    Goals

  • I recently had the privilege to encounter a new poem that relieved me of both my breath and my attention. That poem is called Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rilke. I had to read it…

  • Let’s GO 2022 was far more of a transition year than I realized. I got to spend a huge amount of time focused on family and friends. I had great work coupled with the flexibility…

  • Here we go 2022 is here! 2021 was amazing. I wrote about it, believe it or not. It turned out not at all how I expected, but I loved every second. It also made me think a bit…

  • A new decade has arrived (hey, there was no year zero) and after the batshit crazy end of the last decade, it’s somehow time to try to refocus and think about some objectives and…

  • 2019 is over and done! I reviewed it. I set some goals. I achieved some and didn’t achieve others. I feel good about it too; content with the activity of the year and not…

  • It doesn’t seem possible. It doesn’t feel real. But 2019 is here. So enter it with zeal. Practicing poetry is not a goal of mine this year, thank God for you, dear reader. But…

  • I already went over it, but 2017 was a banner year. A lot changed too. My wife and I joke a bit about the popular kids from high school that, it turns out, peaked in high school…

  • Well, shit. All of a sudden it’s 2017. Not sure how that happened, but it’s been an eventful and busy year. We added a porch to our house, I’m much deeper into photography than I…

  • We’re a week into 2015 and I need to write down my goals for the year. I’m hoping this will be a tradition every year, since writing things down makes them more real. So without…

  • When I got out of college, I set my first career goal. I think everyone does this at some point - it’s a natural and almost expected thing to do. Everyone uses the same…

    Reviews



  • Hey, this year ain't over yet! Can't wait to see how it turns out!


  • Well this has been a year! Some wins and plenty of L’s too. One way to think about goals is to consider them as stated preferences - almost an explanation of parts of how you…

  • 2022 Review! What. A. Year. 2022 was a year of big changes. Boats. Schools. Schedules. Looking back at my goals, I think I had the right ideas. With so much change this year…

  • And while Lenin read a book on Marx A quartet practiced in the park And we sang dirges in the dark The day the music died 2021 was supposed to be the year the pandemic died (Miss…

  • So 2020 happened. And a lot of it felt like this. But a lot of it was really great too. In the midst of a lot of angst and frustration and fear and loneliness, 2020 also…

  • 2019 was a really good year. It’s also the end to a pretty incredible decade. Decadal reviews are the thing to do right now, so maybe I’ll jump on the bandwagon, but for now here…

  • This last week of the year has been a delightful piece of time off with family and friends, and I’ve been using the time to duck my head around the incoming corner of 2019. But we…

  • This has been an interesting year. Filled with way more ups and downs than I expected. After what has happened and what I’ve learned, I’m really excited for 2018. But before I…