My Goals for 2024

As I did with this year’s goals, I’m keeping my 2024 goals simple. Although I’m in a much better position overall now than I was at this time last year, I want to direct my efforts into a few key areas that will make a huge positive change both next year and over the rest of my life. With that in mind, here are my goals for 2024.

1. Heal as much of my remaining pain as possible. Since my dog Sawyer died on April 19th, 2022, most of my attention has been on healing from the excruciating pain that that caused me. While I haven’t healed it all, I’ve managed to heal most of it over the remainder of 2022 and everything thus far of 2023. That has allowed me to recover some of the courage I had during the high times in 2021 and do things I could never have done while I was still drowning in sorrow. It’s also cleared the way for me to focus on some of the deeper pains that have been with me since I was a little kid. I’m certain that healing that original pain will be the most freeing experience of my life and let me step into the man I’ve always wanted to be.
2. Improve my finances. It’s been a long time since my financial situation has been as strained as it is now. Fortunately, I’m in good shape for this month and at least the early part of next year. All the healing work I’ve done and the boundaries I’ve set since late 2021 have put me in a position to greatly expand my financial opportunities in 2024. At least some of this will include moving forward on a few projects that I had intended to start this year but never did. I also plan to contribute more money toward investing, which is something I began doing this past January. I look forward to recovering financially from the major drains of the last few years and getting back to the stable place I was in for most of the past decade.
3. Be more present. Although being in the present moment was a big part of my early self-improvement journey, that has largely fallen by the wayside over the past few years. In that time, I’ve become much more absentminded, easily distracted, and likely to miss precious moments due to a lack of sufficient attention to the now. This also makes me feel frustrated and anxious more easily, in addition to making me more inclined to follow someone else’s lead in an interaction instead of staying true to myself. I hope that practicing presence will mitigate all of those negative effects and bring back some peace that has been sorely missing from my life.