Never fixed my sleep schedule, never found a full-stack developer, never improved my English. A look at the goals I failed to hit in 2024.
What was 2024 like for me? (Part 2)
In my last post, I wrote about the things that worked out. Now it’s time to talk about my failures and setbacks.
Which goals and tasks did I fail to close out in 2024?
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Fix my sleep schedule. I still go to bed and wake up at different times. I think this is closely tied to the fact that 19 times out of 20, Nastya and I watch a movie or show in the evening. That viewing is usually paired with a late dinner too. As a result, if you’ve eaten before bed, your body spends the whole night processing that food instead of properly resting. You wake up feeling heavy and already a bit tired. I want to learn to spend my evenings differently and watch far fewer movies and shows. I also wanted to cut out dairy and refined flour, but I haven’t managed that yet either.
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I failed to build a local team of camera operators for Almost Studio. We worked with 2 people, but they weren’t a fit; a third candidate is currently training in the office. We need to find at least 1 more person for this.
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I also failed to make the podcast studio profitable. We closed every month in the red, counting only the studio rental income from other clients. For our New Lifestyle school and my blog, though, the studio pays for itself tenfold.
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I failed to find a full-stack PHP developer. While we’ve been focused on my personal website, our online store and educational platform are simply frozen. That’s a bit sad, but I understand we’ll find the right person sooner or later.
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I still haven’t learned to properly rest or reward myself for the work I’ve done. I still couldn’t put together a real wishlist of things “for myself.” When Nastya asks me, “what should I get you for New Year’s or your birthday?” it’s still hard for me to come up with or choose anything. I wanted to take a full week of vacation in 2024, but I don’t think I even had two days off in a row. Workaholism is basically my whole personality :-) Even right now, writing this on December 31st, kind of proves the point.
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I wanted to start organizing offline events in Kyiv. I even looked for an event manager for this. I still haven’t taken that step. I think in 2025 we’ll finally start running live meetups and seminars in the capital.
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I didn’t reach my target weight of 88 kg. I’m still hovering between 93 and 94 kg. Even though I went to the gym all 12 months, the weaknesses described in point 1 kept me from getting my body to where I wanted it.
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I wanted to reach a total audience of 1 million people this year, but in December we only just crossed 500,000 followers. That’s still a very solid result, but I know we could have grown much faster. The reason, again, is my own disorganization and a certain level of chaos running through my work.
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I wanted to improve my English this year. Especially grammar. I speak fluently and understand spoken English even more easily. I run consultations in English for clients, but I know I make a lot of grammar mistakes.
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I wanted to meet new people and make friends with new couples this year. I understand that my workaholism worked against this.
There are plenty more things I didn’t manage to do in 2024, but listing them all here would take forever.
I just don’t dwell on what I couldn’t pull off — I keep moving forward. Even if we fail at most things, staying focused on what’s working lets us keep moving ahead.