Midyear Goals Review

I was reading back through some old posts last night, and it occurred to me that I should go back and check on what I had hoped to accomplish this year, and see how I was doing against those goals. Without having actively tried to address these, I was pleased to see that I have done a pretty good job of accomplishing them. If that tells me anything, it is that what I selected as goals were things that actually mattered to me..

• Fishing - Good. I have been out several times this year with the family, and will get out more.
• Canoeing - Bad. Have not done this yet again, but did go kayaking once on the Sassafras with Dave, so that counts a little bit I guess.
• Hiking regularly - Good. Have been out a number of times, primarily on my own, and often as part of geocaching outings. As the heat of summer fades, I expect to get out as much as possible.
• Fight my inner introvert - A work in progress.
• Wargaming Napoleonics - Pretty good. I think there is light at the end of the tunnel on getting involved in this period again. We played a game of LaSalle a while ago, and it went well. It seemed to meet what I was looking for in terms of a nice balance between playability and proper period feel. It was fun enough that I have begun to purchase more figures for the period and re-basing much of what I have.
• Not get hung up on hobby planning - Hard to answer this one. I haven't gotten hung up on "what I should be doing", but part of that is because I have not been very active in hobby stuff at all over the last few months. Summer is always difficult with family commitments and outdoor stuff. Historicon was energizing, and I do want to get back to painting soon. Historicon also made me appreciate Day of Battle again, as the game I ran was a lot of fun, and I hadn't played it for a while.
• Live in the moment - doing ok, but a work in process. This is another one of those goals that is a reminder, but not something you ever really finish.
• Take a real vacation - Haven't done this. Need to think about it.
• Overnight backpacking trip - Accomplished this (and blogged on it ad nauseum).
• Dedicated painting area - Done. It is nice to have this, and it does help in providing the flexibility to steal a couple of minutes of painting here and there which might not otherwise be easy to do if constant setup and take down were required.
• Painting itself - I did not really have a specific goal for actually painting itself, but if I did, it would be a dismal failure. I have not touched a brush in months. I am fine with this, as there has been a lot of other good stuff going on. Painting for me is almost always more of a non-summer activity anyway.
• Simplify my life - Hmm. Maybe life just isn't meant to be simple.

I also had a set of fiction reading goals that are simpler to measure:

• Read 10 books by authors new to me - Good. I have 9 already.
• Read 10 books published in 2010 - Good. I have 6 so far, and am halfway through a 7th.
• Read a couple of classics - Done. I have read 3 by Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Anything else is a bonus.
• Read 30 books - Pretty good. There was a reading binge in the spring followed by no real activity in the summer. I have read 14 books to this point, which would put me in the low 20's and well off my goal, but books do come in bunches for me, and this was directional - it's not about hitting a number.

So, two-thirds of the way through the year, that's where I am...