I started the year writing about the challenges of goal-setting and the need for accountability. I made the commitment to report my progress for goal setting.

Here are the goals and an October and November progress update. Due to a loss in the family right as November began, I neglected to report on October. I’ll update for the last two months now. November was more about self-care and floating through survival than meeting goals.

Goal 1: Prepare for 2022 by increasing my knowledge base and improving my writing skills.

Strategies:

• Look into new skills that will make me more diverse and marketable
• Find free resources
• Create a “learning” budget I can use on courses
• Dedicate a set time for reading and learning.
  1. 15 minutes at the start of every work day
• Create themes for the month to focus the learning
  1. Repurpose my learning into a monthly blog

How did I do?

-I still have not set a budget. At this point in the year, why?

-Free resources: I initially did get better about reading articles, but got sidetracked end of October. I did not read in November.

-Repurposing my learning into a monthly blog: Nope.

Progress: I give it a D. I did do some reading, but there’s no budget or blog writing.

Goal 2: Reduce my dependence on Upwork clientele while finding opportunities for byline publication.

The majority of my current income stream is from off-Upwork clients. I did not hunt for any byline publication opportunities.

Progress: B because not scouting for new work outside Upwork.

Goal 3: Maintain income stream of <confidential> through 2021. That’s an average of <confidential> per month.

October

This month I was 123% above my target income, thanks to that new client I picked up a few months ago. I outsourced a few projects to help with anticipated travel.

November

I took an income loss this month, but was still 32% above my target for the month. I outsourced away almost one-third of my potential income just to stay on pace with clients.

The verdict.

Progress: A . Despite personal challenges, I maintained my monthly target income.

One more month remains and it is on track to be a good one.