End of 2021 Goal Challenge FINAL RESULTS

Well, the goal challenge has come to an end. Actually, I could have tried to cram some more work into the remainder of this day and then report the outcome a little later on. But, I decided to enjoy the last weekday of the family being off of work and school. Maybe we’ll watch a movie together, or something like that.

So, I’m done with what I’m going to do for this challenge. And the big question is . . . Did Jana complete all of the goals she had on her to-do list to complete within this week and last?

Drum roll, please . . .

No. I did not. And that’s okay. Actually, if you read my progress post, entitled Progress on End of 2021 Goal Challenge, then you probably guessed already that I wasn’t going to quite hit the mark. Here’s what my goal progress looked like back then:

1. Record my audio book for Playground Instruction for the Growing Adult.
2. Get my audio book out on my Teachers Pay Teachers and Etsy stores.
3. Get the audio book prepped and submitted to Audible/ACX.
4. Get 8 10 new products up on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. (Thus far, I have created 2 out of the 10 digital products (a pack of ten digital rewards stickers for parents/teachers to give to their students and a pack of six themed notepads for children. However, I haven’t loaded them up on the store just yet. They’re currently sitting safely and snuggly in Canva but will make their appearance very soon.)
5. Read The Ultimate Blogger’s SEO Blueprint ebook. DONE
6. Review the updated course material for the Printables by Number course that I purchased. DONE
7. Start planning for my updated blog site. (Really wanted to have my blog site updated before the end of 2021, but it looks like this goal will take place in 2022 sometime – hopefully in January.)
8. Prep for my cold visiting strategy where I’ll actually go to a place of business or organization (daycares, schools, and tutoring centers) that can utilize my products and services, introduce Degrees of Maternity, and leave my promotional packet with the person I visit with.

And let me just say in my defense, especially to my Accountability Partners, that I did get “some” work done on the items above. It just looks a little different than what I actually had on my original list. Let me explain with the following briefing:

1. I got absolutely nothing done on items 1 – 3. I really wanted to, though. This was actually my original priority goal for this challenge — to get my audio book up and distributed on Teachers Pay Teachers and Etsy. And to get it prepped for ACX and submitted for review. But, this is such a big deal type of goal that I couldn’t do justice to in this short amount of time with all the other priorities I had going on. Plus, you know that I wanted to get my downtime in too. It’s winter break and I just wasn’t willing to give up some prime R&R for all work and no play. So, I absolutely had to forgo this HUGE goal and move it over to priority work first of January (after this challenge). If I’m going to put up my first audio book, I want to devote the time needed to do a quality job. And since this whole process is new to me, I decided not to rush it. (I hope you’re not too disappointed in me, Accountability Partners.)
2. I completed item 4 and then some. Well, I had already completed 2 out of the 10 products I needed to get up on my Teachers Pay Teachers store (as noted in the last progress check-in). However, those two products (rewards stickers and notepads) never made it to the store. I decided to spruce them up a little more and get them in the store after the challenge. Instead, I completed a whopping 13 new products and got them all up on my store yesterday and today. Talk about cutting it close. Anyway, I created a whole two product lines of Book Report Helpers in the following themes: Beautiful Flowers, Construction Work, Interesting Insects, Safari Animals, Sports Fun, and Sweet Treats. You should check them out to see what my version of a “Book Report Helper” looks like, if you’re curious.
3. Items 5 and 6 had already been completed at the time of the last progress check-in.
4. Item 7 honestly didn’t get any real plans laid out for it. It was slightly visited with some brief thought processes mulling around in my head about it. Actually, one of those prevailing thoughts was that I’m not a techie and so I really need to get some professional help with updating my blog site. The absolute worst thing that could happen as a blogger is for me to lose all or even a portion of my content messing around with my blog site. So, sometime during the first quarter of 2022, I’ll be asking the awesome Happiness Engineers at WordPress if they help those in the blogging community with doing major renovations to their blogging residences.
5. Item 8 is mostly completed. I have all the materials for the promotional packets updated except for the introductory letter. And I’ve initially determined five locations that I’d like to visit with my promotional packets. (This effort will be ongoing as I determine additional places to visit.)

All in all, this goal challenge was great! I allowed myself the flexibility to keep the pressure off but still manage to GET WORK DONE. I’ll have some carryover into 2022, but that’s nothing new for me. I figure some progress is better than none. And, there will never be a shortage of things (carryover and new) to do. Job security. I like it.