At the end of 2020, like many people I felt very run down by a difficult year. I work in data science for HCA Healthcare, and our team had spent much of the year building tools to help our hospitals effectively care for COVID-19 patients. This work was very fulfilling, but by the end of the year I had completely lost my way in balancing professional responsibilities and personal fulfillment.

One bright spot of fun in 2020 for me was discovering the designer and illustrator Amber Share. Amber is behind Subpar Parks, a series of artworks that combines her bright, joyful illustrations with one-star reviews of America's national parks, which just happen to be extremely funny. I signed up for her email list, and one of them announced a Kickstarter campaign for a new product she was collaborating on, the No Limits Planner. I've never been much into writing personal goals or using a planner, but for some reason I purchased one for my wife and another for me. The planner is thoughtfully designed with prompts that encourage you to write about your goals, aspirations, values, and more, along with places to track your progress and record thoughts about how life is changing.

As I stared at the blank pages before me, I made (what I think was) an interesting choice: I wanted my goals for 2021 to focus solely on my personal life, no work allowed! The goals and ideas I came up with are a mixed bag, some sound pretty ambitious while others seems hilariously basic. Some examples:

Reflecting back on the last year over the past couple of weeks, I've been pretty astounded at how good 2021 was in terms of personal fulfillment. Not only did I play through all the Beethoven piano sonatas, I also worked through a good portion of Claude Debussy's writing for solo piano and found a musical friend with whom I play regularly.

Weirdly, having the goal to play through a specific set of repertoire helped to motivate me to make time for playing the piano multiple days per week. I think this is weird because I like to play the piano, so you'd think I would just make time for it anyway. There's something powerful about writing down an aspiration and looking at it on a regular basis.

I suspect many people shudder at the idea of writing goals for their personal life because they're thinking about how goal setting works in their work lives. One of the problems with goal setting at work is that this exercise often originates in some notion of "accountability" or performance measurements. In other words, it can feel coercive and confrontational.

What I have found interesting is that goal setting in your personal life can be highly motivating because it's an explicit articulation of how your actions can help you enact your values. I value art and musical expression as an important part of the human experience; playing frequently and playing with others gives me a powerful outlet for making that value into a real, lived experience, not just for me but for my family and friends as well.

This is a habit that I intend to continue in 2022: setting goals for personal fulfillment and making the time and space to pursue them.

Jason Parker