I’m not a big fan of the new year’s resolutions, but I am a fan of goals. And I happen to set them at the beginning of each year. So…yeah, anyway.

First, a review of some of the goals I had in 2021.

Read 21 Book–Check. Read 23 books. Adding an audible subscription helped in this regard.

Pay off my credit card debt–Check. I have been carrying way too much debt for way too many years. Stemming back to my dumb and single years. I attacked it finally this year, and had zero credit card debt as of October. I’m now using my card the way it should be, for the points and paid off weekly. This one felt good.

Next is a series of powerlifting related ones:

Squat 575 pounds in a meet. Check. Hit 579 at my meet in December.
Deadlift 575 in a meet. Nope. Did 545. I have the leg and hip strength for more, but not the shoulder health.
Total 1,400 pounds. Check. Hit 1,400.8. I didn’t say I was going to crush it. Considering my (lack of) training going into the meet, I was ecstatic to get this one.
Crack the top 100 in NASA Powerliftings rankings. Check. These have not been updated yet, but my coefficient score would put me 65th as of the last update, so I’m calling this one as achieved.

Some more fitness:

Weigh under 235 pounds–Check, sort of. I weighed in at 229 for my meet. I’m above that fairly comfortably now.
Walk 1,000 miles–Nope. I didn’t come close. When this goal was set, we still did not have high school sports back and I was working just the one job. The two-job life meant I wasn’t walking nearly as much. I still got to 616 miles, but no where near where i wanted.

All in all, I hit most of them, missed a few. I’ll take it. I’ll learn from it and I’ll adjust.

Now, for 2022.

My goals for this year so far are:

• Read 22 books. 22 for 2022. I actually have a head start here, as I have three leftovers from 2021 I should finish in this first work.
• Squat 585. At my age and experience level, adding five pounds is a battle.
• Total 1420. See above squat note.
• Pay off my car. I have 16 monthly payments left, but I’m going to pay this off this year. My original goal here was to pay off my student loans finally, but they extended the grace period on forbearance to May, so I’m going to attack the car debt first. Life is a fair bit easier when you are not making car payments. I try to remind myself of this when I’m up until midnight typing up track results or basketball stories.
• Walk 700 miles. More than what I got in 2021, but not shooting for the moon either.
• Airdyne 400 miles. I am adding this one though as a supplement to the walking. This one is inspired by Jim Wendler, who tries to get 30 miles a week in on his bike. I’m starting a tad lower, but starting it nonetheless.
• Do a mobility flow every day. This one is super simple and starts easy, building as the year goes. It is simply a series of movements done in a circuit, starting with one rep of each the first week, then adding reps each week. It is more about getting the body mobile and ready than it is a workout. Call it priming or whatever you want. I am at the point where I am going to have to actively work at avoiding injuries.
• Take two inches off the waist. The perpetual goal.
• Do a strict pullup.

I like putting my goals out there. Feel free to ask me how I’m doing on them this year. The accountability helps.

Head down, chin up, move forward.