Dance, Writing, Friendships, And Language
This is part of my 2024 personal goals review. By splitting the review into smaller blogs, I make it easier for readers to skim the main blog and easier for me to reference specific section directly from any focus area.
✅ Share Thoughts via Writing
I exceeded my target of writing 52 blogs by publishing 77 in 2024. I only sent 52 substack newsletter weekly updates. The rest were minor pieces or ancillary information.
I tracked my writing time and analyzed my efficiency before and after using ChatGPT to speed up my process. I'm still analyzing the aggregate data.
I followed deliberate practice. I tracked writing time, blog length, and completed review steps for each post. Although my writing feels improved, I lack clear metrics to confirm this. However, my SEO traffic is steadily increasing, indicating progress.
❌ Reader-focused writing
I didn't survey my readers this year. While I started analyzing LinkedIn posts data, I didn't complete it. I didn’t do a comprehensive review of audience preferences.
✅ Prioritize Some Friendships
My wife and I categorized friendships using principles from The Good Life and prioritized spending time with close friends. We deepened connections with a smaller circle of friends.
Increased work travel shifted more of my work, writing, and hobbies to weekends, leaving less time for hosting.
My wife and I discussed and agreed to mark this a success because we spent the (reduced) time with the top priority friends.
We could have planned better by reviewing our friend list or scheduling weekends in advance
🌓 Uplevel In Marathi
I started the year by reading one page of a Marathi book each night. However, late nights and an overly long pre-sleep routine made it difficult to maintain this habit. I consciously stopped and am now searching for a more effective yet convenient way to learn Marathi.
🌓 Dance Progress
Since 2019, I have been learning dance as a long-term hobby. Although progress has been slow, I enjoy the process of learning.
In 2024, I completed 29 dance lessons on Steezy, totaling 14.5 hours. My original goal was 20 hours or 104 lessons, but I adjusted it mid-year to 52 lessons after discussing priorities with my spouse. Despite this adjustment, I didn't meet the revised target due to work travel, an injury, and shifting priorities.
Related: