2026 Bingo

I often feel like I am not making nearly as much progress, in my life and my projects, as I would like, and I think I'm not alone in that. I have tried different goal setting and motivational techniques to try and stay on track, with mixed results.
One thing I found works, somewhat consistently, is gamifying the process. I recently saw someone make a "Bingo card" with their goals for the year, and I thought that might be a good idea. It both allows for a clear collection of goals, and makes an easy way to track the overall progress.

I sat down, and I created my own set of goals. They are carefully curated, and selected to align with the direction I want my life to go. After much consideration, and several iterations, I ended with this 4x4 Bingo board:

My personal goals are mixed between experiences I want to have, things I want to learn, financial targets, and milestones I want to reach. They are all supposed to be ambitious, while still being realistic to reach over the next 11 months or so. But since it is set up as a game, there is no reason it has to take that long. If I can hammer through all of these in 9 months, or even shorter, I will count that as a big win. The goal of Bingo is to fill your card before anyone else, so strapping in, and working towards that is important.
If you are curious or have any questions about the goals, feel free to reach out. I am happy to talk about them.

Keeping track

Obviously, some of these goals are not completed all at once (Ex. read 12 books). To keep track of those, I have created another tracker, to follow the progress towards the goals, where that makes sense.
I printed out both the Bingo Card and the progress tracker. They are hanging on my whiteboard, next to my office desk, so they are always easy to see, to remind me to work towards what matters, instead of playing games, and slacking off. Obviously there has to be time for that as well, but I want to be better at doing things that push me forward.

The idea is to color in a box on the tracker, every time I make progress in one of the goals. That way I can always see where i need to put in more work, and where I am well up to speed. As of writing this, I already finished one book (A Christmas Carol) and went for one 5km walk. When I publish this article, I get to color in a box under "NorthLore Posts" as well.
I will try and come back and update the image above as well, so anyone reading this in the future can see the progress I am (hopefully) making.

Accountability partner

Another way of keeping on track with goals and plans, is to be held accountable by someone else. Making promises to myself is fine, but no one really cares if I keep them or not. An Accountability Partner is someone else I "hire" to keep me accountable. That person will then check in with me on my progress and interim goals, as well as help me set smaller objectives to guide me towards the overall goals.
I haven't found a person for this position yet, so for now I am using my Discord, as well as this website for that. But as you may have noticed, hiring a real accountability partner is on the board, as one of my goals.
Preferably it would be some not too close to me. Using a family member might put a weird dynamic in that relationship. But it does have to be someone close enough that I respect them, and listen to their feedback. It is also crucial that I feel a responsibility towards the person. If I don't care about living up to their expectations, there will be no effect in hiring them in the first place.

Your Goals

I invite all of you to also set goals for the year, and I want you to be ambitious, but realistic when doing so. Create goals that conform to the S.M.A.R.T. criteria, and make sure to let people know about your goals, and have someone keep you accountable.

Set goals and Gamify

Start by making a list of things you want to experience and milestones you want to reach. The more you have, the more options you have, for curating a list of what really matters. Some of the goals you write down, might turn out to be things you feel others would see as good milestone, but that you don't actually care about yourself. Delete those goals. The goals you set should be for you, and you only. Not for anyone else, or for fame or recognition.
When you have a long list of goals, go through each one, and consider why they make sense to you, and why you want to work towards them. Curate the list to your liking. When you have made sure the goals on the list are what you really want, you can chose to gamify them. You can choose to make a bingo card, like I did, find other ideas online, or make up your own game. The important part is that it is fun and makes sense, to you. There are plenty of generators online that can help with setting up a 'game board' for your goals, or you can use a spreadsheet or text editor to make a game board yourself. Feel free to reach out, if you need help with the setup or formatting. I will gladly offer my assistance.
There are plenty of options, so find something that works for you. Have fun with it; that really helps the motivation stay high. When you have your goals, and the format, it is time to make sure the goals are smart:

S.M.A.R.T. Criteria

The SMART criteria is a set of 'rules' to help set good goals. Sometimes, people set new years resolutions to "get in shape". Then they sign up for a gym membership and call it a day. That is not very smart, and it doesn't conform to the SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound.

Specific: It should be clear what the goal is, and when it is completed. "Get in shape" is too fluffy. What does it even mean to 'be in shape'. "Train to be able to do 50 pushups in a set, and run a 5K under 30 min" is much more clear, and there is something concrete to work towards.
Measurable: You should be able to measure your progress and track it, to know if you are indeed making any. You can't really measure "being in shape". What is the base line? Do you want to lose weight, or build mussles? However "Get below 85 kg" is easy to measure and track. I know where I started, and I can do weekly weigh-ins to see the progress.
Achievable: It should be a challenge to achieve, but not impossible. "Run a marathon every month" is not achievable for me. But "Walk 24 * 5km" should be. Twice a month, I have to do a 5K walk. That seems like a fair ask, I would say.
Realistic: Don't set goals that you know can't be reached. I was considering saying "Walk 52*5km". It is not impossible to walk 5km once a week, but I know that I would never get that done. I would fall behind, and never be able to catch up. 24 times is more realistic, and gives me space to overachieve. That is a morale boost, instead of a morale basher.
Time-bound: There has to be a deadline. For the 2026 Bingo or new years resolutions, the default would be "This year". When setting your goals, think about if you want longer or shorter goals, and make the time limit make sense.

Let's goal together

Now that you have made a collection of good, sensible goals, I invite you to share them on Discord, in the "Achievements" channel. By sharing your goals, you make a pledge to anyone reading them, to do your best to follow through. You also open the opportunity for others to help you to stay on track, and motivate you. And more importantly, celebrate when you reach a goal, or make progress towards it.

I hope you will be playing along, and look forward to seeing your Bingo Cards and other goal games.
Good luck, and have fun!

TLDR; Milestones reached