Another year has flown by. This year has easily been the worst best year of my life. Some of the best things in my life happened this year, but even with all that I had an awful year. Paying attention to Trump’s America has been terrifying. The vast majority of my empathetic and mental energy was directed towards fighting Trump in order to help the people he is screwing over. As a nation, we’re entering the midpoint of one of the worst presidents ever, and that makes this year awful.

But since by definition, my universe revolves around me, I’m labeling it as the worst best year of my life (rather than best worst year) since 2017 resulted in many great improvements to my life.

In terms of the 52 things I set out to do this year, I did much better than 2016. The “finished” category was the highest this year, which means I actually finished quite a few items. Second was the “started” category. I apparently at least tried a good number of items as well. And thankfully, the “failed” category was lowest of all!

Here’s the data for comparison between years (the formatting is screwed up, I know):

╔══════════╦══════╦══════╦══════╗
║ ║ 2015 ║ 2016 ║ 2017 ║
╠══════════╬══════╬══════╬══════╣
║ Finished ║ 25 ║ 14 ║ 19 ║
║ Started ║ 9 ║ 13 ║ 17 ║
║ Failed ║ 18 ║ 25 ║ 16 ║
╚══════════╩══════╩══════╩══════╝

It seems I was more realistic about what I would actually want to do as compared to 2016. I finished and started a great deal more of the list. While I’ll always have things that never came close to happening (stretch goals FTW!), that number is decreasing over time.

Looking back on 2017, I was most successful in the “Media” and “Experiences” categories. I’m not surprised about Media, but I wasn’t expecting Experiences to be so high!

Finance went amazingly as well, even though nothing there was completely “finished”. We saved more than ever before and made great progress towards an early retirement, despite only completing one of the five goals.

Work comes next, and I did well in that category this year. Most of my goals changed dramatically as I discovered more about what I enjoy doing for a career, so I accomplished more than what the completed list would otherwise indicate.

Writing and Health and were the real losers this year. I didn’t write nearly as much as I had hoped (although I still wrote fairly regularly) and I didn’t exercise as much as I should have. Those two categories will be my main focus for 2018. Here’s hoping that I come back with good news a year from now!

With that analysis finished, let’s see what’s in store for me this year:

Health

1. Run 104 miles
2. Bike 104 miles
3. Go bouldering or rock climbing once a month
4. Be able to do 10 pull-ups
5. Be able to do 50 push-ups
6. Be able to do a 200lbs bench press
7. Meditate daily
8. Journal daily
9. Reach target weight of 165lbs

Media

1. Read 4 fantasy books
2. Read 4 science fiction books
3. Read 2 biographies
4. Read 4 non-fiction books
5. Read 1 horror novel
6. Read 1 book of poetry
7. Read 1 classic
8. Read 1 philosophy book
9. Read 4 books from other categories I don’t usually read
10. Watch 10 movies from the IMDB Top 250
11. Watch 10 other movies or documentaries
12. Watch 5 television shows
13. Play 5 new video games

Experiences

1. Go to a Seahawks game
2. Go to a Sounders game
3. Go to a Mariners game
4. Visit Vancouver, Canada
5. Use my Alaska Airline miles to go somewhere far away
6. Eat at 10 new restaurants
7. Cook 12 new vegan recipes
8. Go to the Dota 2 International
9. Go explore Fremont
10. Go snowboarding
11. Go to the Museum of Pop Culture
12. Go to a musical event
13. Find a local organization and regularly volunteer there
14. Join a sports team or group
15. Take an improv class
16. Go out on the lake

Writing

1. Write 500 words every day
2. Write one Medium article every week
3. Write one book

Finance

1. Keep IRA and HSA maxed out
2. Get three months of regular expenses in the emergency fund
3. Max out 2017 IRA
4. Increase my 401(k) contribution by at least three percent
5. Stick to the budget four straight months
6. Save at least half of the emergency fund value in an opportunity fund

Work

1. Get promoted
2. Get an AWS certification
3. Launch an open source project
4. Write a work-related blog post once a month
5. Attend a work-related meetup once a quarter