Month-in-Review Highlights: November 2022
The setting sun beaming through the clouds over Lake Geneva on the last day of November 2022. Lausanne, Switzerland.
I postmortem each month shortly after it ends, reflecting on what happened in general and, more specifically, in the context of my goals. Though I don’t share all my insights here, I have made it a practice to share at least one key highlight or insight. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)
Hit a few major 2022 goals in November—the most major of the major ones, to be completely frank and self-congratulatory—though when I reviewed my progress against plans this month, I celebrated my big wins and took stock of what would invariably, given this point in the year, belly flop.
A few examples, as illustration:
To deepen my appreciation and understanding of the books I read, I started the year creating a diagram and notes for each, with the plan to do this for each book read throughout the year. Problem? I read a lot. I average about 40 books per quarter, or 160 books a year. I kept up the diagramming for the first half of the year, then transitioned into doing it only for certain reads. I learned a ton from the experience, and I bring that learning to all books I now read—and to my own writing—but I can’t manage diagramming all of them. And that’s okay.
I had big goals for Observing Leslie this year. Among them: Optimizing the site. I’m not a techie, but I wanted to improve the overall experience for my visitors and had all sorts of technical things I wanted to do. I tried early in the year but got completely over my head quickly. Frankly, I’m here to write and communicate and exchange ideas, not play with web technology. I’ll try to fix what I can when I can, but I won’t hit some of the overly technical goals I had in the plan for the year. If some aspects of this site’s format or functionality frustrate you, I’m sorry! (And let me know, so I can try to fix them.)
Another goal for this site: Creating more of a community from it. I love that I get so many visitors from all over the world, I wanted to increase the overall dialogue and stay in touch with people who stopped by and enjoyed a few posts. Though not a Facebook person—I prefer Twitter—so many people are Facebook people that I thought I should put goals around the number of people connected to the blog’s Facebook page. More importantly, I had goals around getting more people to subscribe to my monthly Letter, which I love writing and sending (because often people reply!). Alas, perhaps Facebook senses my ambivalence: I won’t hit those “fan” goals on the site. And though I’ve rejoiced in adding new people to the Letter’s send-to list each month, it looks like I’d set an unrealistic target number there. (That one, though—far more than Facebook—bums me not to hit. If you know anyone who might enjoy receiving it, please spread the word!)
Consider this little list the highlights of the lowlights, as I have a few other faceplants from which I’ll spare myself the public eye (and you the reading).
Only one more month to go in 2022!