Happy introspection week, as I like to call it! We’re here again in the no man’s land between Christmas and New Year, and it’s time for me to take a look at my goals for 2022, what I achieved, and the goals I’d like to set for 2023.

Last year, I did a whole month-by-month breakdown of my publications, research presentations, and so on. Not that much has happened this year so I won’t be doing that now. I did have work appear in three publications, which you can see in my publications list. But mostly I was concentrating on my PhD a bit more as I’m now halfway through, and want to limit my extra-curricular activities like radio, podcasting, publications and so on, so that I can dedicate enough time to my research. However, there are a few things I would like to do.

But I digress – first, let’s take a look at my goals for 2022 and how I did:

 

Goals For 2022

  • Progress to the fourth year of my PhD
    • I did this!
  • Complete WECAN (The Workgroup of European Cancer Patient Advocacy Networks) Patients in Publications Open Access Course
    • Also done!
  • Gain a “train the trainer” or adult teaching/training qualification
    • Yes! In January, I started a Level 3 Award in Education and Training (AET) and I completed this in the autumn.
  • Continue to write and be published
    • I definitely continued to write, and discovered I’ve written over 180 poems/prose pieces during the first three years of my PhD! As mentioned above, I was published in three places.
  • Go to Florida
    • Yes! I finally managed to get to Florida with my partner, to show him my favourite place in the world, and it was the best holiday ever.
  • Make time for reflection, relaxation and introspection
    • Difficult to say as this isn’t quantifiable (and as such isn’t a great SMART goal, past-me). I did this a little but would like to do it more.
  • Stay healthy
    • As far as I know! Again, not a great goal because I can’t actually control it, but it’s not been too bad this year.

 

Goals for 2023

I’m really pleased that I reached pretty much all of my goals last year. Here are some thoughts on what I’d like to do in 2023:

  • Progress to the fifth year of my PhD
  • Pass probation in my new job
    • Yes, I am starting a new job in January! More on that another time.
  • Speak regularly on the Wisdom app
    • I’ve had a sudden influx of followers on Wisdom recently and I’m nearly up to 1,000 followers! I’m not sure how that’s happened but I would like to provide people with more content there. If you’re not familiar with Wisdom, it’s an audio app where you can listen to other people’s live talks, host your own, and also ask and answer questions, with answers given in a sixty-second recording. I’m particularly enjoying answering the questions, but I haven’t done a live talk in a while so would like to do that more regularly.
  • Increase my confidence travelling alone
    • I’m going to be travelling via train by myself fairly regularly in my new job, which I’m not really used to, so I want to feel more comfortable doing that.
  • Continue to write and be published
  • Blog here more regularly
  • Take some trips
    • We have Florida booked again, and we also have some gift vouchers floating around that we’ve given to each other – for the zoo, for Gordon Ramsay’s Street Pizza place in London, and another gift voucher that can be used for numerous things. Great Yarmouth is also calling to us again!
  • Work on accepting my genetic condition and the tests and risks that brings, and use mindfulness to find peace instead of hopelessness
    • This is a biggie, and I know I’ll be cursing myself this time next year because it’s immeasurable! But I touched on this in my blog post a little while ago and my feelings haven’t changed, so I’d like to be able to recalibrate my expectations in life somewhat so that I can feel content despite the threat of cancer. It’s a big ask but I think that through writing and being mindful I can improve my mindset just a little bit.

 

Here’s hoping for a good 2023!