By Gaby McLish

In January 2024, I set out to read 40 books throughout the year. Was this a lofty goal? I didn’t think so, but it turns out it was much more difficult than I had imagined. In 2023, I read 24 books. As I reflected on the year and looked ahead to 2024, I knew I wanted to set a larger goal. I thought to myself, “I read 24 books without even trying, so how hard could it be to read 16 more?” The answer: HARD. Despite my best efforts, I didn’t read 40 books. While it’s difficult to set a goal and not reach it, I’ve found it to be a great learning experience as I reflect on how this happened. Below is a list of reasons (okay, so maybe some of them are excuses) on why I didn’t reach my goal.

 Choosing a Goal
I somewhat arbitrarily picked the number 40. If I had stopped to think about how much I was increasing my goal by, I probably would have picked 30. Why? When we choose goals, we need to make sure they’re attainable. Think SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) is what they teach us in graduate school. Adding 16 more books is not a smart, attainable, next step. That’s like saying, “I ran a marathon, so now there’s no question I can run an ultramarathon.” However, most people who run marathons don’t make it to the ultramarathon mark. Why? Sixteen more miles is a lot more to add at once. When choosing a goal, we need to remember to think about where we are and the attainable next step.

Distractions
When trying to reach a goal, there are always persistent distractions. It’s easy to say you’ll find time to read after work or on the weekends, but those hours often get consumed by other things. I wasn’t scheduling my time, and as a result, I wasn’t reading as often as I thought I would. I should have realized that in order to make room for something, you have to prioritize it. Scheduling specific reading times might have made a huge difference, but instead, I thought I could simply fit reading into whatever free time I had, and that didn’t work. I always hoped that I would be a reading-before-bed person, but I should’ve realized that I have more free time in the morning and scheduled it as such.

The “I’ll start tomorrow” Trap
I fell into a cycle of procrastination. “I’ll read more tomorrow,” I’d tell myself, only to fall into the same pattern again and again. It’s the classic trap of thinking that tomorrow will be different, but the reality is that small actions today add up over time. I didn’t need to read 50 pages a day to hit my goal, but I often found myself putting off reading because I felt like I needed to do it all at once. But the truth is, 10 minutes here and there adds up. Even if I’d only read a few pages a day, I would’ve been much closer to my goal. This applies to any type of goal, and in fact, I talk about it constantly; micro goals or chunking are the keys to success when it comes to working toward a goal.

Making a Plan
Finally, I have to admit that while I set the goal to read 40 books, I didn’t really create a plan to achieve it. It wasn’t enough to say, “I’ll read 40 books this year.” That’s like saying, “I’ll run a marathon one day” without ever lacing up your sneakers. Goals need actionable steps, and I forgot to break down the big goal into manageable chunks. If I had created a reading schedule or even set a monthly reading target, I might have been more successful.

So, what did I learn?
While I didn’t reach 40 books in 2024, I’ve learned more about goal-setting, about myself, and about how I manage my time than I could have imagined. I talk about goal-setting and chunking every day, but this was a great reminder that everyone can benefit from checking in on their goals and making sure they know how to achieve them. I learned that you can’t force enjoyment out of a book, and sometimes it’s okay to abandon something that isn’t working. I learned that distractions are inevitable, but it’s up to me to prioritize what matters.

So, while 2024 was not my year to read 40 books, it was certainly a year of learning and growth. Happy reading (and goal-setting) in 2025!