Hello, hello, hello to all of my overachieving, high-performing, goal-setting, growth-mindset friends. We (The Human Solution) really do have a continuous-improvement-leaning audience, and I love y’all for it. You didn’t double-click on this blog entry unless you are the type of person who is committed to self-reflection and personal development.
Here we are, a few of months into the year, and how is everyone doing? Hangin’ in there?
How y’all feeling about your professional and personal development/investment? Energized? Sloggin’ uphill? Somewhere in the middle?
Admission. I don’t love New Year’s resolutions. But, truth time. Despite my “casually cool distaste” for New Year’s resolutions, I (of course) am not as casually cool as I pretend to be. I have a long list of things I feel I “should” be doing for my personal and professional development.
In a community full of personal development geeks, raise your hand if you are “should-ing” all over yourself, and sometimes feel like you have lost the plot a little. <Anna raises her hand>
In the spirit of common humanity (and non-judgment), here is a sneak peek into my list. I would love to hear about yours! Both what is on your list, and how it is going.
Personal Development
Mostly health and wellness goals on this list because they are easy to quantify and track, and my brain likes checking boxes and measuring things. 🙂
| Goal | Update on Goal |
| Drink more water | Meh. Shooting for 3-4 L/day. Consistently getting 2 L/day. |
| Eat more protein (OMG. The protein zealots are EVERYWHERE) | Meh. Shooting for 130-150 g/day. Generally getting over 100, but 130 is TOUGH, 150 is nearly impossible (for me). |
| Back to the basics of mindfulness: meditation & journaling | CRUSHING the meditation. 3-4 out of 5 days on the journaling. Now that I am writing this, wondering if the fact that I am “crushing” my meditation goal is not a good indicator of meditation success….filing that thought away for future consideration. |
| Get more steps in | I definitely fall into the “active sedentary” camp, which is code for “You go to the gym very regularly, but then spend a crazy amount of time camped out behind your computer.” Some improvement, but not hitting a 10K step daily average. Could do better. |
| Weekly 1:1 meal with each teenager (I have two) | We have missed a few weeks, but have been pretty consistent thus far. Consistency has been easier with my son because he is 14 and still needs me to drive him everywhere. So we have been having lunch on Saturdays after his boxing practice. My daughter is 17, and I feel like we get quite a bit of face time. She actually comes out of her room more (than my son) to randomly interact with me, but getting a dedicated 1:1 time with her is a little less consistent. |
Professional Development
| Goal | Update on Goal |
| Keeping up with AI | This one could be a full-time job, but my goal right now is to read a couple of articles a week and occasionally experiment with different platforms. The landscape is changing and evolving so fast that it can feel impossible to keep up, but I am at least making an effort not to be totally left in the dust. |
| Financial Literacy | I continue my self-assigned financial education journey. This year, my goal is to better understand the bond market and the “short side” of the market. I re-read The Big Short by Michael Lewis, and I am not sure if that makes me less confused or more confused….. |
| More Small, In-Person, Relationship Building Events & Gatherings. Less Traditional Large-Scale “Networking” | The theme for 2026 is smaller, more intimate, human-to-human interactions and conversations. That means attending fewer giant fundraisers and more deliberately curated dinners, meet-ups, and get-togethers. How is this going? Great. As an introvert who loves people, determining the “right” amount of people-ing has been a lifelong balancing exercise. Smaller, more intimate gatherings lend themselves to deeper and more interesting conversations, which, particularly for an introvert, are more energy-giving vs. energy-draining. |
| Work on My Personal Brand Presence | More notes on being an introvert. Despite A LOT of advice encouraging me to do so, I have always been very uncomfortable positioning myself as the face of my company brand. With the encouragement and support of my amazing partner-in-crime, Elise, I am slowly stretching the edges of my comfort zone and <gasp> appearing in more of our social media posts, etc. Don’t expect me to show up on billboards any time soon, but I am slowly working to feel comfortable taking up more space in our branding and marketing. Baby steps. |
Okay, I shared mine! YOUR turn!
What personal and professional development goals do you have for yourself for 2026? And how is it going?!?!? This is not a rhetorical question. We would love to hear all about them.
XO,
Anna
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