Since we just passed the halfway mark in 2025, I took a moment to take a look at my goals for the year to see how I'm doing versus where I'd like to be.
That is to say, I wanted to see whether I'm actually ”halfway there” at halftime, or whether I'm somewhere else.
The spital of life...
Sadly, the truth is that I am nowhere near halfway there.
Were my goals for the year just too ambitious? Should I have been more conservative, in terms of what I thought I could accomplish?
Of course, much of the time we set goals based on the assumption that we'll actually have the time needed to be put into reaching them. In essence, the goals themselves are reasonable enough, but perhaps we forget to consider that ”life happens” and suddenly we may go for weeks — or even months — without doing the things we thought we were going to be able to, because our time and energies are being directed somewhere else.
In a sense, you could say that "Murphy's Law" applies: if something can go wrong, it will!
When we set goals — in this/my case to save money and build wealth — it's easy to overlook such contingencies as major car repairs, roof leaks, burst water heaters, medical bills and whatever else. And these things all do happen!
On the other hand, that begs the opposing question of whether we should just avoid setting goals altogether because disasters and setbacks are inevitable?
When I sat and thought about that for a little bit, I realized that I would end up setting no goals at all if I had to consider every conceivable thing that could go wrong between now and when the goal was supposed to be completed.
How much "unexpected setback" should we realistically plan into our goal setting?
When I look at my progress in 2025 — and see how far behind I am — I must also take into consideration that 2025 so far has been a quagmire of setbacks and difficulties. Given everything that has happened and gone wrong this year, I should expect to be running behind!
In fact, anything better than "back to zero" is almost like a bonus, at this juncture!
Certainly, goals are nice things to have, but I think it behooves us to be flexible in terms of what we set ourselves up for. Very few people have a functional crystal ball with which to accurately predict the future — I know I certainly don't have one — so these goals ultimately become little more than "hopeful guesses," given the broader uncertainties of life.
And so, I'm going to embark on the second half of 2025 with hopes of being able to get back on track but I think I will avoid putting too much pressure on myself. I will get as far as I get, and as long as I end the year even slightly ahead of last year, it feels like a vistory, of sorts.
Is that a bit pessimistic? Maybe so... but my current approach is merely a reflection of the broader uncertainty weighing on the world, these days!
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