How are those goals progressing?

When I set my goals for the year, I tried to set very concrete steps for achieving. Inspired by a friend's suggestion, I tried to identify a better habit to replace each bad habit. I said I'd do regular check-ins on the goals I set for the year, and it's another month, so how am I doing? Goal: Reduce the outrage. Step: Listen to the Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me podcast once a week, limit the amount of time I read news during work breaks. Progress:I was tempted to skip some weeks of Wait! Wait!..., simply because beloved scorekeeper Carl Kasell decided to retire, and I wanted to save some episodes. But I decided it was better to listen to Carl's final episodes as they were released. I listened every week. In addition to Wait! Wait..., I listened to the new Dresden book as an audiobook twice. I'm also listening to a lot of music. Goal: Write more regularly. Step: Spend the reclaimed break time writing. Find other ways to motivate myself to write rather than twiddle the keys. Progress: I didn't do as much writing as I would have liked. Most of my lunchtime writing was re-reading and revising, rather than writing new stuff. But that's good, too. Goal: See friends for fun more, as opposed to all of my social interactions being driven by various projects. Step: I tried to just plan a few things. Progress: I finally saw people... at an editorial board work party. I still think doing more fun things with friends is a good goal. Goal: Paint, draw, and make music. Step: Go to the Drink 'n' Draw gathers. Set aside some time to sketch each week. Progress: Michael and I were out of town for the Drink 'n' Draw, and the other usual Drink 'n' Draw folks all had other conflicts. I haven't gotten any drawing down this year other than the map for my fantasy setting for my novels. I'm still not willing to drop any of the goals, even though I haven't been making progress on these last two. (This post originally published at FontFolly.Net.)