It’s day eight of our 31 Days of Goal-Setting! As a reminder, we’ve moved on to Part Two, which is about considering different categories of potential goals – which is just another way of saying, considering the different aspects of our lives – and asking ourselves how we’re doing compared with what we’d like to be accomplishing.

Today’s question is, How are you doing when it comes to your family and/or intimate relationships?

I realized, once I started writing out my own responses to these questions, that my public answers for this set of questions will be quite short. There’s a lot that I wrote in my diary but am not comfortable sharing on a social media site.

Areas of this question might include your significant other and/or children, your parents and siblings, your extended family…tomorrow’s question is about friendships but if you want to count your very close friends as “chosen family”, you will get no argument from me.

Again, you are evaluating against your own standards. To give an example, I am estranged from my father and haven’t spoken to him in nine years. For some, that would be awful. For me, it’s pretty much my ideal “relationship” with him.

(I do want to be better at talking with my mom and sister; I love them both, but I don’t talk to them as often as I’d like.)