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.)

I managed to pack July with all kinds of good stuff!

First and foremost: I hit a big milestone in a personal project. Sure, I’d hoped I’d hit it back in June, but a reckoning in May had me quickly revise my perspective for an end-of-July project plan—and I made it happen.

I’ll give myself through the end of August to breathe a little before tackling phase three of the project in early autumn. I just hope that when I dig back in, I’m not hit by the same negative surprises I had when I started phase two.

I had vacations with my immediate family as a goal for this year. After one false start in May with my mother, I got to see her in July before she started a riverboat cruise in Europe—and I’ll get to see her on the other side of it as well before she heads back to the United States.

Though I still hope to see my brother and his family somewhere at some point before the year wraps, I haven’t yet heard from him on dates and possibilities. (My dad has already said a vacation with him will have to wait until next year.) Fingers crossed.

Also, despite—I kid you not—two false starts, I succeeded in July to start my volunteering with the Croix Rouge Vaudoise. I really enjoyed the experience, from the opportunity to meet someone else interesting and in my community to passing a very nice moment in company with somoene, and all with a side benefit of practicing my French. I look forward to continuing now that I’ve finally managed to get started.

Finally, simply because I referenced it in my last goals postmortem as a method of holding myself publicly accountable, I should add that I did manage to move forward on the business structure and accounting tasks I mentioned last month that I hadn’t even yet started, despite their prominence on my 2022 goals list. Sure, I can’t quite check them off to the done list yet—but at least I’ve finally gotten the gears rolling.

And though I didn’t have watching the Tour de France on my goals list for the year, I did get to see it pass by my apartment in early July. As documentation, here’s a snippet of a video I created as documentation: