Goalposts that move are a pain. They feel unfair, like you’ve been duped into working toward one thing, when you should have been working toward something else entirely.
Or worse… that the progress you made wasn’t really progress at all. It was some larger step that you didn’t realize you signed up for.
Here’s the dirty secret though: Moving your goalposts is precisely what you have to do to keep growing.
As you improve, the goals you set will not really be challenging enough for you to keep.
As you learn, you realize the goal you set isn’t really what you actually want.
As you try new things, you realize and say “this isn’t as important to me right now.”
Weight Loss – My ‘I Improved’ Story.
I mentioned having a goal around fitness in a couple prior posts. Check ’em out: Post #1 and Post #2
Specifically, I wanted to lose a fair amount of weight at the end of year 1, with a slowly downward push in 10 years. My goal was to get to 230-235 by the end of the year.
After the annual ‘Fitness Challenge’ contest weigh-in from my CrossFit gym we do every January-March, I weighed in at a whopping 257.7lbs! The next day, I joined Noom.
I have already met my ‘annual goal’. Since it was only early March the goalposts had to move.
New goalpost: 220lbs, and once I get there, maintain it for 5-6 months while slowly adding more calories back into the mix.
Retirement Funding – My ‘I Learned’ Story
My retirement funding goals were mentioned same posts as my weight (from above). I was targeting a simple approach: fully fund my 401k and my IRA.
However, after watching a few lectures about retirement on my Great Courses Plus subscription, I learned there might be a better choice.
The speaker in those videos talked about 401k plans, and mentioned how some 401k plans also offer a ROTH option. I decided to check, and it turned out that yes, my 401K did allow for ROTH funds to be contributed, just as easily as I set the contribution for my regular 401K.
All I had to do was to put in a percentage and voila, the next pay cycle, I’ve got money going into the ROTH option.
So with the new learning, I decided move the goal posts. Instead of ‘fully fund both plans’, I moved to a new goal: Fully fund the 401K, with a mix of pre and post-tax dollars, then fund the regular investing goal, and finally do the IRA with leftovers at the end of the month.
Doing it this way, I mix up my taxable and non-taxable accounts, so that I have more tax options in retirement. Options are nearly always good, especially when it comes to sources of money in retirement.
Do I miss out on the tax write off on fully funding the IRA? Maybe a little, but assuming I don’t fall completely off the savings wagon, I should be good for at least a portion of that tax benefit.
Guitar Lessons – My ‘I Tried’ Story
This one hurts a bit. My uncle made these guitars, and they’re beautiful.
The thing is, the more I looked at it, me taking guitar lessons NOW or LATER doesn’t really have much of a difference in terms of my happiness.
I love my guitars. I play on them often.
I just don’t really care about taking lessons right now.
So, I’m moving the goalposts. For now, I’m calling ‘guitar lessons’ as a within 10 years goal, rather than a ‘do this in 2021’ goal. For now, self taught is good enough.
To recap, moving goalposts is a necessary part of goals. As you improve, learn and try, your goals must change with your new abilities and knowledge.
That’s just life. It moves from out from under you.
Every one of those things requires a great deal of talent.
However, it is not that magical ‘talent’ that makes you say “I just will never be as good at <<something>> as <<someone famous>>.”
The truth is: talent isnot natural aptitude or skill. Talent is the result of a great deal of work that appears natural to the outside world.
That’s the trick. Talent LOOKS natural, but it isn’t.
Everyone of those listed “no talent required” items relies on a great deal of work with a massive support structure. They require preparation, support, and unseen (and often underappreciated) work.
Example: Being on time
Someone had to get your kids out of bed, and logged onto school.
Your commute needs to be reliable.
Your home needs to be stable.
Did all that happen by itself? Magically?
Example: Making an effort or being high energy and having a positive attitude?
Someone had to give you direction, so you know what you’re trying to do. Someone had to make you feel like your efforts would matter.
Where’s all this work accounted for in the ‘no talent required’ posters?
Consider some of the most talented folks you know, whether or not you’re talking about music, athletics, or software development. How many of them sit around and not actively practice their “talent”?
Stephen King is one of the most talented and prolific writers on the planet. He told us how he does it in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. It’s a wonderful and inspiring book.
Wanna know the secret about how he stayed so prolific? He wrote a lot. He needed a support structure for his writing: a teaching job early in his life, a very patient spouse, and in the end he wrote a lot. That’s all it was.
From a distance though, he’s looks talented.
Talent is the result of a great deal of work, combined with a great support structure. Remember to nurture both.
Well, it’s been about a week, and some major items have happened on the goals front. From my one year goals, I have added a new column: Where I’m At. You don’t know how long it takes to get somewhere, unless you know where you’re starting.
1 Year / January 2022
Category
Goal
Where I’m At
Career
Credit Union. Principal Software Dev. Knowing what I’m trying to do, and who I’m helping. XXK a year? *
96%.
Blog, 200 Followers
21
Home
Condo: Owe $236K on it. Kitchen remodel completed.
Refi complete.
Health
Weight 230-235, 20% body fat? Maybe down to 2 blood pressure pills? Check if this is possible?
253lbs. (I wear it well? Ugh.)
5x a week Xfit occasional weightlifting, running for 4-5 miles weekly biking for 15+ miles biweekly.
5x Xfit. Weightlifting on Sundays. Biking for 10 miles
< Redacted > *
Dr. Scheduled
Travel
Walla Walla for a wine visit Long Beach a few times.
–
Finance
Retirement accounts funded to legal maximum
401K 85%. IRA, 75%
Investing $250 per month
$75
Full 2 months ahead in YNAB.
1.25
Family
Happy + Healthy. Zoe should be driving (Sasha, most of the time.)
Generally.
Personal
Guitar Lessons
Udemy courses purchased.
Stuff
New PC, Downstairs wine fridge
New PC achieved!
New Traeger
Spec’d out!
Kayaks
Spec’d out!
* I redacted as none-of-ya-bizness.
The big thing so far is the new PC. That had been on my list for quite a while, and I was 90% of the way there when I had made the list up, but I wanted a quick win.
Built it up myself. I’ll wait for the 3070 to come out to upgrade the video card.
Funnily enough, one of the best features of adding this column is finding out the stuff I DON’T know. I don’t know my current percent body fat. Last I had it checked (near the beginning of the year), it was 23.9%. I’ll have to get another test on the books.
The weight will be the biggest test. Trying to drop 20 lbs while maintaining and upgrading the muscle mass is going to be a big challenge. Fortunately, I have about 15 months to do it.
Unfortunately, I did break the streak. On 9/7, I took the dogs to the park first thing in the morning, and completely forgot about my hand release push ups. Streak ended up at 48 days.
Oh well. I’ve got the streak back to 6 days, and I’m doing 3×18 now, so very much passing the 50 push ups a day milestone!
In order to move the chain up a bit, I’ve been adding one rep every 8 days or so. Today I did 3 x 16, and tomorrow should be a level up day.
It still takes about 5 minutes. The first two sets go fairly quickly.
One thing that keeps this one up is it’s time scale. 5 minutes, maybe a few more if I pad the rest session. Knowing ‘alright, it’s only 5 minutes’ makes it easy to quickly get through.
It’s certainly had some positive benefits as well. Push ups in WODs in CrossFit classes are SO MUCH EASIER right now.
The kids make a bit of a show out of it too. Nothing like being in the middle of a push up, and have a 120lb 12-year-old boy sit on your back and say “Keep going Dad!”
I was listening to the Mapped Out Money podcast, and they mentioned a method for listing out goals, in sort of a road map. Personal goals broken out in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years. That method was about deciding what “life looks like”.
The idea within the podcast was to take what “life looks like”, and work back from there. E.g. Wanting to save $15K for a (I think it was a car down payment?) in 3 years, works to $5K a year, and $1250 every 3 months, etc.
So I thought I’d try it, and put it here to help hold myself accountable. I went ahead and padded my start by 4 months, to make everything start on January. Writing that down makes me realize how it was solely decorative to do that. Oh well, here goes:
1 Year / January 2022
Category
Goal
Career
Credit Union. Principal Software Dev. Knowing what I’m trying to do, and who I’m helping. XXK a year? *
Blog, 200 Followers
Home
Condo: Owe $236K on it. Kitchen remodel completed.
Health
Weight 230-235, 20% body fat? Maybe down to 2 blood pressure pills? Check if this is possible?
5x a week Xfit occasional weightlifting running for 4-5 miles weekly biking for 15+ miles biweekly.
< Redacted > *
Travel
Walla Walla for a wine visit Long Beach a few times.
Finance
Retirement accounts funded to legal maximum
Investing $250 per month
Full 2 months ahead in YNAB.
Family
Happy + Healthy. Zoe should be driving (Sasha, most of the time.)
Personal
Guitar Lessons
Stuff
New PC, Downstairs wine fridge
New Traeger
Kayaks
* I redacted as none-of-ya-bizness.
Career. I’ve only recently started at the Credit Union since February, 2020 and the slogging through COVID times makes me feel like it’ll be a bit before we get a ton moved along. I am hoping the blog picks up to 200 followers, mainly to increase the habit of writing.
Home: This one was easy. I just looked at my mortgage amortization table to see what I’d owe by then, figuring I’d make normal payments. We’ve saved for a remodel of the kitchen as well, and the plan is to have the remodel all the way done by then.
Health was the one I spent the most time specifically looking at defining specifically. I already check a lot of the boxes. I do CrossFit 5x a week. I’m close to 20% body fat (I think, I should get that rechecked.)
Travel: I don’t really have a lot of desire to travel too far right now. By January 2022, Walla Walla for a winery visit seems like a great idea, and I’ll go to Long Beach as often as I can, but big trips seem unwise.
Finance: I’m a personal finance nerd, so the first one is a no-brainer, and I’m absolutely loving YNAB so pushing myself to get to a 2nd full month completely budgeted will be a real stretch, but the investment account has never been the highest priority for me. Time to change that.
If you’ve never heard of YNAB, check it out here. If you want to subscribe to YNAB, use my referral link and they’ll give me a free month. It is really a game changer in terms of the way you think about budgeting though. It’s already paid for itself 4 times over by the way I use my cash-back credit card now.
Family: I didn’t have a lot of goals here. I just want everyone happy and healthy. I kinda think they should set their own goals here. I’ll probably tell them to do so.
Personal: I have never been very serious about my guitars. I think this next year I can get around to setting up some lessons.
Stuff: I’m not really a “stuff” guy. I like having less stuff, but there are a few things I’ve been genuinely thinking about. A new PC because my current desktop is 8+ years old (I build BIG PCs, so they tend to last.) A wine fridge downstairs, because I hate not having one down there (we have 2 upstairs, and keep ~80 bottles, but having table wine available in the dining room would be nice. The Traeger I have is 12 years old, rusting through, and the wife would like to be able to grill more. They have a combo smoker-grill I’ve been looking at. Finally, I think it’d just be too fun to get some inflatable kayaks so I can walk across the road and paddle over into Lake Washington.
3 Years / January 2024
Category
Goal
Career
Credit Union. Happy in my job. Knowing what I’m trying to do, and who I’m helping. XXK * a year?
Blog, 2500 followers
1 Book Written (Published?)
Home
Condo. Owe <$200K on it.
Health
Weight 215-220, 17% body fat? Maybe 1 blood pressure pill
5x a week Xfit occasional weightlifting running for 10-15 miles weekly biking for 25+ miles biweekly.
Travel
Wine trips to Chelan Walla Walla maybe Oregon?
Finance
Retirement accounts funded to legal maximum.
Investing account $600 per month
5 months ahead in YNAB
Family
Happy + Healthy. Zoe should be in College. Lydia driving?
* I redacted as none-of-ya-bizness
Not much changed in 3 years. I’m still planning on working at the Credit Union. I may be in my same Principal role, but maybe I take over a business unit? Or move into Architecture? Or take my bosses’ job… who knows.
I know I want my blog following to get bigger, and ideally, my writing to get to a point where I have put a book together. I don’t know how to do that yet, but I’ve read a lot of crummy books, so it can’t be that hard.
I really only bumped up some of the numbers on Home, Health and Finance figuring that was just a longer trail to the same thing. I’m hoping to have put more cash against my mortgage, so that I chip that down a bit more, and move more money into the investing account. Getting 5 months ahead in YNAB would be pretty darned incredible, but in 3 years, it seems doable.
Stuff seemed needless to think about (it’s just stuff, ya know?) I did want to do some more wine trips though, specifically through Oregon and Lake Chelan.
5 Years / January 2026
Category
Goal
Career
BECU. Happy in my job. Knowing what I’m trying to do, and who I’m helping. XXK * a year?
Blog, 15000 followers
1 Book Written and Published
Speaking at conferences?
Home
Condo. Owe <$160K on it.
Health
Weight 210 +- 1%, 16% body fat.
Generally quite active.
Travel
New Zealand
Finance
Retirement accounts funded to legal maximum.
Investing $1000 per month
Family
Happy + Healthy. Zoe and Lydia in College as students. Emerson Driving.
* I redacted as none-of-ya-bizness
Big changes in 5 years. I’m hoping to have a book written and finished, and with 15K followers on a blog, maybe have enough folks who may actually buy the thing. Regularly speaking at conferences too. I do so irregularly now, so in 5 years, becoming someone who is requested to talk would be great.
Health goals were simplified a bit. I’m not really thinking about specifics anymore. Just being someone you’d describe as ‘quite active.’ Investing is still moving forward at a solid clip.
I would like to visit New Zealand in 5 years to wine taste through their Sauvignon Blancs. That was about all I could think to add.
10 Years / January 2031
Category
Goal
Career
XX* K / year. Loving what I do.
2 Books Written and Published
Home
Condo – Paid for and renting out. Living in Seaview?
Health
Weight 190 +- 1%, 14-16% body fat.
Generally quite active.
Finance
Investing bulk of income.
Family
Happy + Healthy. Emerson in College.
* I redacted as none-of-ya-bizness
The 10 year goals are pretty high level. 2 books written and published. Probably working at the Credit Union, but regardless, loving what I do. Condo is paid off and maybe being rented out, while Heather and I live somewhere else (I mentioned Seaview, because that seems the most likely destination right now.)
It’s a pretty big jump on the weight side, but 20 pounds in 5 years isn’t THAT big of a drop, and I’ll be over 50 by then, so being smaller will definitely have its benefits. Financially, hopefully I’ll be investing most of my income.
Those are my goals. The nearer ones are more specific, and more easily actionable, and SMART folks will notice each of them generally has a number associated with it so I can figure out whether or not I’ve achieved it. The 10 year goals are pretty non-specific. Even something like ‘investing bulk of income’ could just mean 51%.
I hope this post inspires you to think about your own goals. I know I’m thinking about ’em.
Christopher Brown - Blog 