One month before 2021 is over! It’s been a strange year – it seems like it’s gone by quickly and slowly at the same time 😛 Roughly during mid-November to December I started to ease off a few things and spend a bit more time relaxing, watching movies, playing games, and doing other things. I can see which goals I’ve definitely achieved and those that I won’t. I’m super happy with how everything has gone so far so I feel like a short break from everything was required.
I’ve started thinking about goals for next year and I’m already excited to get them on paper and start tracking my progress towards them. While most of the same categories will be the same, I’m planning on focusing on a few key goals rather than a lot of smaller ones.
November was a pretty average month. Nothing crazy happened, but slow progress was made to a number of my goals. I can see that some goals are definitely out of reach now we are so close to the end. But there are a few that can be worked on to finish off 2021 strong.
If you want to see my goals for 2021 and original starting points, with more explanation and background, check out my Goals for 2021 post.
Finances/Wealth
Grow Net Worth to $200,000
- On the 1st of December, my net worth is at $153,296 (an increase of 3% from November)! So happy to have passed the $150k milestone! Still a bit off my goal of $200,000 but really happy with how it has progressed over 2021
- See below for a graph of the growth of my net worth since properly tracking:
Grow Self Wealth Portfolio to $100,000 – DONE!!!
- My investment portfolio is now sitting at $102,929! I passed my goal last month and great to see it slowly increasing 😀
- Still have a whole month to see what this eventually gets to. The higher I can get it now the easier my next year goal will be.
Spend a Maximum of $30,000 – FAILED!!!
- In November, I spent $1,800 more than my goal budget of $2,500… definitely not great for the goal.
- In terms of savings rate, still managed to get a whopping 48.8%! Super happy with that!
- As at November 2021, I have spent $42,242…. It’s insane how much everything adds up. You will be able to see my complete spending history for 2021 in my 2021 Goal Review Post out next month!
- Yearly savings rate is 43.8%! That’s so good to see. I have had quite a few good months in terms of savings rate, and the extra income from Nathan’s Mobile PT really does help towards that.
- See below for a chart of expenses:
Grow House Deposit to $40,000 – DONE!
- Over November, my house deposit grew from $41,502 to $41,542. The higher I can get this the easier next year’s goal will be – currently thinking $60,000 but will do a bit more thinking and planning for that.
Health/Fitness
Increase Strength Across the Major Powerlifting Movements, Reassessed Every 3 Months
- Current lifts and goals are updated as below:
- Squat (reach 120kg – started at currently at 95kg – haven’t tested one rep max)
- Bench Press (reach 95kg – started at 82.5kg – currently at 87.5kg – 15 April 2021)
- Deadlift (reach 160kg – currently at 140kg – haven’t tested one rep max)
- Overhead Press (reach 70kg – started at 57.5kg – currently at 60kg – 15 May 2021)
- Gyms are open but I’ve been avoiding them as I’m trying to avoid any covid exposure before the Christmas holiday. I will be testing these at the end of the year but I’m not expecting much of a change due to lack of training.
Increase Lean Muscle Mass
- Current lean muscle mass is 69.3kg (+4.0kg from November).
- Weight is sitting at 94.3kg (+2.7kg from November)
- Fat mass is 21.4kg (-2.5kg from November).
- Perhaps there was a minor reading error with my scales for the Decmeber weigh in given those crazy changes in numbers above. Gaining 4kg of muscle after years of gym experience in a month is unheard of haha.. It doesn’t really matter too much these individual monthly measurements. What I’m really focused on are the first and final measurements of 2021 to see whether I’ve achieved this goal.
Nathan Challenges Life
Grow YouTube Channel to 1,000 Subscribers and Reach 4,000 Watch Hours (monetisation criteria)
- Current subscribers = 400! (+13 during November)
- Watch hours = 729 (-8 over November – noting that watch hours are recorded for the past 365 days)
- See below for November stats. I posted a very quick YouTube Short that got crazy views a few hours after posting, which brought in the large amount of subscribers. However, the content wasn’t really fitting to my channel or niche, so I don’t want to post them regularly even though sometimes they may receive a lot of views. I need to keep my channel focused on 30-day challenges. It’s just sad that a 3 second video can get 10,000 views, where my 3-5min videos get maybe 70-300 total views and take hours to make haha.
Publish 100 Videos on my YouTube Channel – FAILED
- Videos = 82 (2 during November).
- I’ve had to put a pause on my YouTube channel since about September. Not really enough time to juggle everything here and personal life stuff to commit enough time to create regular videos. I won’t reach this goal this year but I’m happy that I’ve now got 82 videos on my channel for poeple to find and watch.
Write 50 Blog Posts on Nathan Challenges Life
- No blog posts in November.
- You can see my other posts on my Medium profile, here!
- Current posts = 19.
- As noted above, I’ve also not put much time into writing new blog posts due to lack of timing/more interest in other areas.
Personal Development
Create Nathan’s Mobile PT and Gain 5 Regular Clients – DONE!
- In November I posted multiple advertisements for a casual PT, and even though it’s 10 December as I write this, I got my first resume submitted to my email for the position. Lets just say that it’s very promising 😀
Read 30 Books
- Currently at ~27/30.
- Currently reading Code Breaker and Will.
- I post all my book reviews on my Goodreads profile – check them out!
Experiences
I have been thinking about the things I want to do and try. So for 2021, I’m going to keep a list of things to do throughout the year to make sure I get them done. See below for my current list of things – I may add to this list as time goes on:
Test drive a Tesla– DONE (June)!Get my motorbike licence– DONE! (January)!Get my full motobike licence– DONE! (November)!- Attend a Jiu Jitsu class – I’ve put this off due to COVID concerns.
- Organise a cycle-touring holiday/trip – I’ve done a bit of research into a few areas, the problem is having the right equipment. I will revisit when the weather is warmer.
- Attend a CrossFit class (Weather is getting nicer – need to book in on a free weekend!).
- Break a Guinness world record (There are two ideas I’ve thought of, I’ve applied for the documents for one of them, and I’m tossing up the other as it will take up a lot of time – I’ll have a think about it soon. It takes roughly 12 weeks to receive documents to start the record, then more to submit).
- Complete an obstacle course race – not completed just yet, there are quite limited numbers around me, may need to travel to NSW to complete this (hard at the moment as I don’t have any leave).
Go to an escape room– DONE! (August).
Summary
December was some what of a slower month as 2021 comes to an end. A few more weeks to work on a few things but also knowing that I won’t be able to get all of it done.
I’ve started thinking about my goals for 2022 and I’d recommend doing this more than anything else. Try to find something you’re really interested in and want to achieve. Then break it down to smaller goals and steps for next year. Trust me, reviewing goals every few months will be indescribably better than not doing it.
Be on the lookout for my next post with a yearly summary of my progress towards these goals 😀
Nathan
Nathan Challenges Life 