Goal Setting for the New Year

Below you can find the 'End of Year Review' template I use to reflect on the previous year and plan my goals for the next.

Credit to Ali Abdaal for the basis of this template.

Please feel free to use this template in your own goal setting.

🥳 Annual Review 2021

📆 What Happened this Year?

Jan

• Positive Covid Test

• Life with baby Noo

• Started Dietetics Placement 3

• First YouTube video ‘paramedic to dietitian’

• Walks in the snow

Feb

• Placement in Royal Glamorgan Hospital with Steph

• New floor in hall

• Loki and Nieve get to know each other

Mar

• Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda Placement

• Poo-splosion

• Gnoll Country Park meet Nieve with my family

• Streamlining job interview

Apr

• Finish placement

• Purchased new camera Sony A7C

• Nieve & Loki’s first mountain - Pen Y Fan

• Gnoll country park with Brys family

• Waterfall Walk

May

• Grandad’s 80th

• Tom’s funeral with trip to the woods

• New carpets

• Start digging out the garden

• Final Dietetics Exam

Jun

• Margam park with Bry’s family

• Great photo of Loki by the river

• Mum’s bday Nieve and the grandparents

• BBQ at Bry’s parents

• Loki photo on the beach

• Day out to Barry

• Loki’s 2nd Birthday

Jul

• Nieve’s first time swimming

• Last Paramedic shift

• Family day out to the pub - wrong pub

• Walk down the bay with Catherine & ice cream

• Lunch out in Cardiff

• Tredegar park with my family

• Exam board - Passed Dietetics with 1st

• Started new job as Dietitian

Aug

• Brunch out in Pontcana - cooked breakfast

• Inflatable assault course in the bay with work

• Morgan’s 18th

Sept

• Dinosaur’s in Bute Park

• Picnic in Bute Park

• Holiday to Matlock

Oct

• Skip for the garden

• Brompton Electric

• Nieve starts to learn piano

• New job as Chronic Conditions Dietitian

Nov

• Built the cupboard shelves

• Fireplace beam

• Birthday shopping with Noo

• New laptop at last

• Holiday in East Devon

• Day out to Exeter - Excellent vegan waffles

• Sidmouth - Cool sea walk and gardens

• Lyme Regis - Friendly breakfast and coastal walk

Dec

• Nieve’s first birthday!

• Trailer Gate - Nieve’s new wheels

• Met Dunc & Mark in Cardiff

• Work Christmas party

• Christmas lights at Bute Park

• Started business resources

⭐️ Summarise The Big Events

• Life with baby Noo

• Finished placement

• Nieve & Loki’s first mountain - Pen Y Fan

• Thank you for all the good times Tom

• New carpets

• Last Paramedic shift

• Exam board - Passed Dietetics with 1st

• Started new job as Dietitian

• New job as Chronic Conditions Dietitian

• Holiday in East Devon

🥰 Stuff I'm Grateful For From The Year

👩‍❤️‍👨 People

1. Steph - Our helpful chats on placement

2. The Cardiff CCM team - Friendly & supportive

3. Eli & Elettra - The Eco Trio

🕺 Experiences

1. Completing my dietetics placement across Cwm Taf

2. Outings as a family

3. Being a father is pretty great - it gives life a much deeper meaning

4. Our holiday in East Devon was very enjoyable, the accommodation was perfect and the outings were just right

5. My last paramedic shift was very low key and without mention - I suspected it could be but didn’t know it at the time

🏔 Accomplishments

1. Getting my 1st class degree in human nutrition & dietetics

2. Getting a job as a dietitian in Cardiff community

3. Being offered a progressional post within the CCM team

4. Carrying Nieve up her first mountain - very sweaty in the front carrier

5. Started making YouTube videos and developing business resources

🥩 Things

1. Brompton Electric - This has made getting to work a pleasure

2. M1 Pro MacBook Pro - I waited so long for this and it was worth it!

3. Nieves Queried Kidgoo - I haven’t used this as a trailer or runner yet but look forward to the adventures it allows us to have

4. Never underestimate the wonders of carpet - This made our house so much more cosy

5. Sony A7C - Started my YouTube channel with this camera and taken some great photographs

📚 Books

1. Listening to Atomic Habits again - might do this yearly!

2. The Stormlight Archive - Talk about value for money

3. Why Calories Don’t Count by Giles Yeo - Giles second book and a great read for anyone looking to lose weight or gather a greater understanding of diet culture

💭 Reflective Questions

What were the 'difficult' things this year? Any challenges?

• Placement was not easy. I enjoyed the community aspects but found the acute hospitals challenging. I disliked gathering information from patient records (bad handwriting) and jostling for position of busy wards.

• Certain patient assessments have presented some challenges but these have been a good opportunity to reflect and build skills.

• Getting the work/home life balance right now that we have a little one.

When have you felt proud of yourself this year? what were you doing?

• Finishing my last day of placement. This was quite full on with all the assessments so nice to have it done.

• Being offered positions following my 2 interviews. No more interviews for a good while now!

• Dading

If you had to teach one thing you learnt this year (that would improve one’s quality of life) what would that be?

• I guess my plan is to teach ,any of the things I learnt as a dietician student.

What kept you up at night with excitement this year? Was it worth it? Would you want to do more of it?

• Waiting for exam results. It was worth it as I got a 1st but I don’t want to do it again too soon.

• Job applications have had me feeling pretty nervous/excited.

How did you have fun differently this year?

• Playing with Nieve has been great fun

• Developing business resources has been fun

How did you suffer differently this year?

• I’ve been ill quite a few times this year. As a result I’ve decided to start a health log.

What people/kind of people did you spend less time with this year?

• Due to the ongoing pandemic I spent very little time with any of my class mates during our last year.

• I have not seen much of old friends apart from at Tom’s funeral.

What people/kind of people did you spend more time with this year?

• I met a lot of new people across my placements this year. A few memorable people include Rhiannon, Steph, Felicity, Jade

What did you feel guilty for this year?

• I feel I could have spent more time helping Bry whilst on maternity leave. It would have been helpful to discuss a routine sooner. This is something we will do for the new year as Nieve starts nursery. This will need to include a better routine for Loki so he gets regular walks.

What new habits did you create this year? Which ones would you want to keep?

• I have been able to exercise fairly consistently, especially given the arrival of Nieve. I’m trying to find the right balance between strength and cardio.

What did you spend a lot of money on this year and was it worth it?

• My bike and laptop were the two big purchases of the year. The laptop was a very long time coming and much needed. Although not cheap I’m sure this will last me a very long time and will help greatly with my new videos. The bike was a little bit more of a spur of the moment although I had been considering it for some time. I love cycling into work on it and I can see it becoming even more beneficial once I start taking Nieve in.

What did you spend a lot of time on this year?

• I’ve spent quite a bit of time digging out the garden. Now that the garden is ready for foundations this will require professional work. As I’m working full time I want to spend time developing my business and instead pay for people to do the labour.

What do you feel you’ve gotten a lot better this year?

• Slowly getting better at balancing out a number of commitments. I’ve been working towards new ventures over the past 3 years so feel from now on out I can focus on becoming very good at something as opposed to becoming ‘good’ at something new.

Which of last years goals did you not achieve? Why did you not achieve them? Will you carry them on to next year and if not why?

• Sharing Feelings - I would say I have made some small progress on this front. Having a daughter has certainly helped. This is something I still want to work towards improving.

• Exercise - I made solid progress and continued my commitment to regular exercise. My aspirations for this do change on a frequent basis and I will review what fits in well with life.

• Evening walks - I did have regular walks with Loki and Nieve in the summer but this was less appealing in the winter nights. As noted above Bay and I need to come to an agreement as to what will work best long-term.

• Family walks - We did not have as many family walks as I had hoped once I stopped working for the ambulance service. This will likely change as a goal once we start our new routine

• Video call family - Didn’t do this. In fairness they have been up quite often, at least once per month.

• I haven’t messaged the boys as often as I would have liked. I know what happened here. It’s not the same. However, it was lovely to see Dunc and Mark. Just having the 3 of us was more inline with the social situations I enjoy. Focus on organising small quality get togethers.

🔮The Future

🥳 At the end of next year what would you love to be doing/have done?

• Working for the NHS 4 days per week as a band 6 dietitian

• Running a private one-to-one clinic once per week

• Have produced a full set of videos for an online course (skill share)

• Produced a video every week on YouTube and have 1000 subscribers

• Bathroom and garden will be finished

• Won’t own a car, instead we’ll have a rental membership.

👍 What would you like to have achieved within 5 years?

• Started Masters course in health field

• 2 happy munchkins in school

• House completely finished with attic conversion

• Explored option of potential band 7 positions

• Moved into teaching role?

• Taking part in triathlons

🎯 Goals For Next Year

Affirm each goal by writing it down. Then make a note of the systems and habits you need to develop/undertake in order to move closer to achieving that goal. Review your goals quarterly and add more if you’d like.

😁 Hobbies

• Get back to skill level of previous year at piano by June.

• Practice for 10 minutes 3x per week

• The app will track this

• This seems very achievable

• Can be done as part of bedtime routine

• Get through at least 1 book per month.

• I’ve decided to pay for Audible app

• This will be my way of getting through books whilst walking

• Goal of finishing 1 book per month will be linked to audible membership

📝 Productivity

• Review & Reflect your home life and work goals every quarter.

• Review DAS in work - I’ve started this but don’t do it consistently. Do it as part of your clerking.

• Should I bring back weekly review? This became too complex with notion and was therefore unsustainable.

• Focus on creating a clear to-do list so you can check off your workouts and other repeating activities

• Instead of weekly review try monthly in which you assess the goals written here and write a brief summary on how they are going. Have a think about what format you would like this to be in, but keep it simple.

❤️ Health

• Get at least 8 hours sleep per night and wake up feeling refrshed.

• Buy new mattress, duvet and covers

• Reduce caffeine later in the day

• 1x ‘proper’ coffee per day

• No chocolate just before bed

• 9pm wind-down

🏃 Fitness

• Increase running pace back to comfortable 5:45min/km for 10k

• Consistently run to work once per week

• Run with Nieve and Loki on Saturday morning

• Consider getting watch again?

• Maintain regular strength workouts for the YEAR!

• 2x full body strength workouts after work on Mon & Wed

• Have weights out ready to use in my room

• Put weight session in reminders and sign off

• Go Swimming

• Go every other weekend

• Cycle to the pool

• Hike

• On alternate weekends to swimming

• Stretch more frequently

• Build the habit and start of easy

• Commit to just 5 minutes each evening

• Tie this to going to your bedroom at 9pm and listening to your audiobook

• Walk Loki to a schedule

• Rob - Tue & Sat

🥕 Nutrition

• Reduce saturated fat intake

• Swap whole milk for semi skimmed.

• Reduce red meat intake - Ask Bry to use this less for meals by swapping for veggie alternative.

• Reduce pastry consumption (see below)

• Reduce snacking

• Thanks to work I’ve found it reasonably easy to reduce snacking during working hours and just have one good lunch meal.

• Prepare your own lunch for work - Make soup from veg box on Sundays

• Reduce takeaway

• Spend money you would have spent on takeaway on stocks in FreeTrade

• Plan to have takeaway with Bry once per month when we go for a family walk

• Plan meals and cook regularly

• Clearly define which days you are cooking (Tuesday, Friday & Saturday?)

• And what you are cooking

• 2 week menu.

🤝 Relationships

• Go visit Max

• Set a date between Jan & Apr using annual leave

• Arrange this before the end of January

• Plan another staycation with Bry

• We have a good time on holiday together

• Set date before end of Jan

• Sort timing to give nice break between visiting Max and doing something for my Birthday

• Revisit the lessons from ‘Win friends and influence people’

• Check to see where I have this as an audiobook

• Write down each of the lessons

💷 Finance

• Start putting £100 in LISA per month

• Assess if you can increase ISA contribution

• No expensive or unnecessary purchases outside of

• House stuff

• New phone (after long deliberation)

👨‍🏫 Career

💼 Business