Every year from November until about the end of January, I reflect and contemplate what I would like to accomplish in the next year, how I did on last year’s goals, where I am at in my three year plan, and where I am at in my five year plan. Upon reflection, last year I think I did so-so in achieving my goals. I did an excellent job achieving my work and education goals at the sacrifice of my personal and lifestyle goals. I did not achieve all of my personal goals regarding the podcast and social media. I achieved almost none of my lifestyle goals through no fault of my own but via the actions of my loved ones. I have to be honest that when I think about all of the work goals I have achieved over the past years, I feel extremely proud. When I think of all of the PhD milestones and goals I achieved last year, I am joyful and celebrate myself. However, when I think about how inconsistent I have been on social media I feel a mix of disappointment and pride. I am disappointed because it took me so long to figure out how to problem solve it and proud that I feel I have solved the problem and improved my engagement and activity level. It’s not 100% where I want it to be, but it is getting there and I can see how to make the difference between where it is at and where I want it to be. The podcast is something different and more complex. It started out as an idea in early 2018 and became a reality in May of 2019. I know that is has only been out for about six months since we launched, but if feels like so much longer. In many ways I surpassed a lot of my goals. With the podcast it feels difficult to see what I have and what I do not have with regard to goal achievement, and our lives have changed so much in the past 3 months. It has been a complete and total upheaval that I did not plan for or necessarily want. I don’t feel I was even consulted on a lot of the changes, and that’s hurtful and frustrating. I could have never predicted how 2019 ended for us.

This inability to predict how things will go has become an unwelcome but necessary part of my planning. I feel resentful of it, and it makes it hard to set goals and know if I have achieved them. A big issue I am facing currently is whether I want to stay in Japan past this year. Another thing is the podcast, I know that I have the goal of ensuring that we have a show recorded every week. That goal is clear. What is not clear is what to do when it comes to which countries to focus on building our audience in. I would never have guessed that we would be super popular in Ireland. This is a happy thing, but not a thing I could plan for. So instead I plan to share it on social media and tell people I meet in real life that I podcast.  When it comes to social media, the main source that I enjoy is Twitter. My social media plan for 2020 is to do my best to not have months go by that I don’t tweet. I want to tweet every day but that is just not realistic with work and my PhD, but I do want to get better about sharing all of my good news with our Twitter friends and I really do consider a lot of our mutuals on twitter to be good friends. My PhD goal for 2020 is to get my proposal written. My super PhD goal for 2020 is to get my proposal approved, which is a looooooong shot! My work goals for my practice are really simple. I will basically keep on with the keeping on. For my family, I would like us to spend more time together in which we are having fun. 2019 felt like one of us was always on fire and I really don’t want to repeat that. I want a chill year. I also want a predictable year in which my family members keep their word and follow through on their commitments. So what are y’all’s plans and goals for 2020? Whatever they are, I hope they result in you having more good days than bad.