The Path from Dreams to Goals

2020 was a year of mixed emotions. LinkedIn feed turned from job vacancy posts to job search posts. News from the relatives was almost always about someone getting the coronavirus. Most of them recovered except for an unfortunate few. On a personal front, it was a good year for me. Being a newly married couple, I spent more time with my husband. Also, there was no commute to work, so we had extra time, which otherwise would have been spent on traffic. We're from Bangalore, India, and if there's one thing Bangalore is famous for, it's traffic. Don't believe me? Google it and see for yourself.

My 2020 goal was simple. Eat more at home. Somehow, without me putting any effort into it, that goal came true. We all were in a lockdown, leading to me cooking at home. My colleagues mocked me that the whole world conspired to fulfill my 2020 goal.

When I recently met them, they jokingly told me to think twice before finalizing my 2021 resolutions because of what happened in 2020.

So here I am, jotting down my dreams for 2021.

1. Hit the gym regularly

I've been pursuing this goal already for the past 1.5 months. I can see visible changes in my mood and health. In recent days, I'm more cheerful and more productive. I realized a key thing with this goal. I started hitting the gym ten days before the new year started, and have been pretty much regular. I believe the reason for consistency is I did not wait for the new year to start pursuing this goal. The new year had nothing to do with me taking the initiative towards my health. And I think that's what made it stick.

2. Eat more nutritious food at home

Again, this is a recurring goal from the previous year. As I'm working from home, it is easy to juggle time between work and personal things. The lockdown allowed me to try new dishes and learn from my previous mistakes. Also, few months into the lockdown, we hired a home cook who has been cooking amazingly for us. So this goal should be a breeze to achieve in 2021 too.

3. Write habitually

Yaay. Now coming to the goal which I'm looking forward to the most. Writing is my newfound hobby. Being a non-native English speaker, the habit of writing helps me to improve the language too. In the first week of the year, I tried other writing platforms and finally found that my heart belonged to Vocal. I've been writing for Vocal since, and plan to do so for as far in the future as I can see. I have already published more than ten articles in January, with one featuring as a top story. A little pat on the back myself for this.

4. Work-related learning

I work as a Software Engineer full-time. I switched my domain recently and have been loving it ever since. I went through a rigorous interview preparation to get this job since I had close to no experience in my new domain. Switching to a new area of expertise involves dedicating time to learning a lot of unfamiliar things. Pretty much everything I've learned over the past few months is new, and I'm looking forward to continuing this goal in 2021 too.

5. Read 20 books or more

I'm an avid book reader. Being a non-native English speaker, books help me in improving my vocabulary and learning English. In college, one of my friends introduced me to Goodreads. Since then, I've been setting book reading challenges every year, and it has become a tradition now. Reading books helps you widen your perspectives. Once, I sent an email to one of my favorite authors, telling her how much I loved her book. When I got a response from her, my happiness knew no bounds.

6. Spend quality time with family

As I mentioned earlier, I spent more time with my husband during lockdown instead of dying slowly in traffic. We had no other commitments, as all the meet-ups, social, and family events were postponed due to covid. We spent time for ourselves without being in a hurry to rush someplace for some social event. And, with the safety measures in place, we visited our parents during festival time. When we spend more time with the people we love, miracles do happen. So, spilling over this goal to 2021 too.

7. Disconnect and plan a trek to the Himalayas

It is a new goal in my life. My husband and I have been planning this for a long time now, that the goal seems as mighty as the Himalayas itself. My husband, being a trekker and nature lover that he is, has been mesmerizing me with his trek stories since the day we met. We have a tentative plan to go to the Kedarkantha peak, disconnecting from the world, and ultimately camping under the star-studded sky. Fingers crossed to make it happen this year.

8. Win a Vocal challenge

I'm saving the hardest goal for the last (Harder than climbing the Himalayas). Yes, winning a Vocal challenge. I'm preparing myself gradually, putting my heart and soul into achieving this one. It's been so long since I won something, but I won't rush into it. I will learn from my failures, re-learn, and come back better than before. It is a special goal unlike the other ones because, achieving it would not only give me happiness, it would validate me as a writer.

And with that, I've taken my first step into converting my dreams into goals. By penning them down. Here's to turning the goals into reality.