It’s hard to believe that we are more than halfway through 2022. It feels like only a couple of weeks ago that I sat down and made my list of goals for the year, and now I’m writing a mid-year progress report.

Thinking about how quickly the time is flying by is kind of scary. In some ways, it makes me want to make the most of every minute. In other ways, it makes me want to slow down and savour life a little more.  

Let’s have a look at the first six months of 2022…

2022 hasn’t been a great year for the world in general

Despite the positives of a return to somewhat normal life, 2022 hasn’t been a great year for the world.

It’s easy to be discouraged by all the negativity that continues to surround us. Between the war in Ukraine, record inflation, high interest rates, and the continued bad behaviour of a vocal minority who want to force their misogynistic and white-supremacist views on the rest of us, it’s all a bit much. And let’s not get started on monkey pox and the fact that COVID cases are on the rise again.   

I’m usually a pretty optimistic person but, I have to admit, it’s getting me down. It’s definitely a struggle to stay positive in the face of all the chaos in the world. I’ve often commented that, “If this is civilization, Gilligan’s Island is looking better every day!”

Ultimately, we have to put it all aside and focus on our little corner of the world.

But my little corner of the world is doing okay

How are your 2022 goals coming along? This year, to align with my overall focus of simplifying life, I reduced the number of goals I’m tracking. It’s a good strategy, but there still never seem to be enough hours in the day. Let’s look at how things are going.

Gratitude journalling

My primary goal for this year was to appreciate the simple things in life by building a regular habit of gratitude journalling. My Simple Living Sunday posts have helped me stick to this and I have been sharing updates every week.

I definitely need more discipline in this area. Sometimes I get to the end of the week and haven’t written anything down, but I always take time to reflect on the week and record a few things.

In the second half of the year, I’m going to try to be more disciplined and make this a daily habit.

Reading

This year, I set a goal to read one book a month which would be an improvement over the total of seven I read in 2021.

So far in 2022, I have read 8.5 books. One I didn’t finish, and one I started last year and finally finished this year, so I will give myself credit for 8.

Here’s what I read in Q2:

• What Retirees Want – A Holistic View of Life’s Third Age by Ken Dychtwald & Robert Morison
• When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole
• The Burnout Epidemic by Jennifer Moss – I only read half of this one before I had to return it to the library.
• You Are Awesome by Neil Pasricha – This is a book I started last year and finally finished a few weeks ago.

So, with two full books and two partial books read in three months, I barely met my goal of one book a month.

Please tell me your book recommendations in the comments below. I have been reading a lot of non-fiction lately but I’d love to get back to some lighter reading.

Lifelong Learning

With so many things to learn in life, I can’t imagine I will ever have a year with no lifelong learning goals. This year, I set two learning goals:

• Certified Professional Retirement Coach course. I finished the course work and passed the exam in the first quarter. To complete the certification, I need to do 12 hours of practice coaching. I’m stalled on that one because my coaching candidates aren’t ready to get started. (I may need to find some new coachees if they aren’t ready soon.) You can read more about this in Retire retirement! Plan your best years now!
• Plain Language Certificate I had set a goal to complete the remaining course work for this program but I put that one on hold for now to focus on the Certified Professional Retirement Coach work.

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Singing

My final goal is to get back into a regular routine of practising my singing. I have been practising regularly and staying on top of learning my music. But I still need to work more on my stage moves.

And a bonus highlight…

I did achieve another goal this quarter. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, but it wasn’t on my original list since it wasn’t really within my control.

Effective May 1, I reduced my hours at work to four days a week. Although doing this had been on my mind for a couple of years, the timing never seemed right to ask—especially during the pandemic when my co-workers, and my boss, were struggling to balance work and the additional responsibility of helping their kids keep on top of their school work.

At the end of March, I talked to my boss about it and it was approved. I officially started my four day work week on May 1. So far, it has been wonderful!   

So that is my mid-year progress report on my 2022 goals. Overall, I’m feeling pretty good about how I’ve done in the first half of the year. I’m glad I reduced the number of goals I’m tracking. I hope to find my motivation in the second half of the year and improve on some of those grades.

How are you doing with your 2022 goals? Tell me about them below.