From Tracie: You Didn't Meet Your Goal. Congratulations?

Monday, December 22, 2014

You Didn't Meet Your Goal. Congratulations?

Last year I set a goal and tracked my reading for the first time on GoodReads, and ended up passing my goal by one book, ending on 101 books read for the year. It was great fun, so I did it again this year. But with life changes (especially working full time), dealing with loss and grief, and extra traveling in the last quarter of the year, I haven't read as much as usual this year.

GoodReads sent me an email that said,
"Congratulations! You read 84 books this year!"
Which, in my mind, read like this,
"You are 16 books behind your goal. Congratulations on failing." 
I might have a tendency to assign a passive-aggressive tone to automated emails. This probably ties in with my aversion to making resolutions or publicly expressing goals.

I still have a few days left in this year, so I might hit a little higher than 84. And, really, 84 books read in a year is not a bad thing. It is possible that GoodReads really did mean "Congratulations!" with the most I'm-happy-for-you kind of feelings an automated email can have.

I thought really hard about reading 16 Little Golden books or early readers, so I could hit my goal of 100 in one day, but I'm pretty sure that would be cheating. I do love to hit a goal, but cheating is not my thing. I guess we will see which desire will win next week when 2015 arrives, and time is up.


Posted by Tracie Nall at 12/22/2014 06:25:00 AM

7 comments:

  1. Janine HuldieDecember 22, 2014 6:42 AM

    I think you did great, but then again my goal was much lower as I do love to read, but just knew with my life and schedule that I wouldn't be able to read as much as I would like to unfortunately. But still I am impressed and 84 books is a huge accomplishment in one year's time ;)

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  2. Vidya SuryDecember 22, 2014 8:17 AM

    84/100 is damn good, Tracie! :) Pure case of an almost full glass! So celebrate! Hugs!

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  3. TiaMariaDecember 22, 2014 1:00 PM

    You still read more than me, which is pretty awesome. Especially since I theoretically had more time than you did. And yes, I also assign passive-aggressive voices to emails. It's a thing.
    I'm gonna tell you to do what you tell me to do, which is to celebrate the good and let the rest go. 84 is definitely something to be proud of, and you can start all over again in a week *hugs*

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  4. Tamara CameraDecember 22, 2014 1:25 PM

    That's so funny that you ascribed it a passive aggressive tone! I think 84 books is a great feat, but of course when going for 100, and I might feel the same way.

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  5. RoshniDecember 22, 2014 5:29 PM

    Considering that most people nowadays don't even read proper books, I would say that the congratulations was quite sincere...even though you're right about it being automated!! :D

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  6. Lollipop GoldsteinDecember 22, 2014 8:00 PM

    See, I hear 84 and I think -- that's amazing! That's more than a book a week. No small feat.

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  7. Jo-Anne's RamblingsDecember 23, 2014 9:36 PM

    I never meet my goals so I stopped setting them

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