Old Year, New Year

02 Jan 2018 | Life

2017

I took the last week of 2017 off from work to take some time for myself. I spent quality time with family, friends, and Netflix. Watching so much TV was not intentional, but I accepted it as needed entertainment time. Ultimately, I spent 2 days reflecting on the past year, using worksheets from Anuschka Rees and Get Busy Living. To recall the events of the year, I referenced my Google Calendar, Facebook Events, and Instagram. Those three services pretty much cover everything that goes on in my life.

Reflecting brought back some painful moments as well as some amazing ones. There were many firsts and lots of experiences that moved my life in the direction I wanted. The positive in the year greatly outweighed the negative, even though there was one intense and relationship-testing negative.

2018

How to approach 2018? I don’t normally make resolutions. The past few years I’ve attempted to make goals, but they usually get derailed when my routine changes (traveling, getting sick, etc.). A year-long goal or resolution seems set up for failure, and how tedious would it be to constantly have a singular intention as an active part of your life for an entire year? Situations change, people change, and goals should change. That’s the lesson I’ve learned as a programmer through Agile. I think monthly and/or quarterly goals make more sense. Even with a year-long goal, monthly or quarterly check-ins can help the goal stay on track or pivot.

My process to create goals started with defining a few major categories I wanted to focus on. Reviewing 2017 made a big difference because it helped me put everything into perspective.

Categories:

1. Community
2. Health
3. Travel
4. Family/Friends
5. Hobbies
6. Personal Development

Under each category I listed out general things I wanted to focus on, or a specific goal if I already had one in mind. Next up - how do I distill this down into specific achievable goals? I considered fleshing out these things into specific goals and treating the resulting list like an Agile backlog. Do I pick one from each category and have 6 ongoing goals at a time? Do I pull out the must-haves, the most important goals, and then tack on minor goals as various goals are accomplished? Do I really need to spend so much time thinking about this approach when I can treat the approach itself as Agile and modify how I select goals throughout the year?

Do I stick to my pen and paper journal to plan and track all this? Should I go digital and everywhere-accessible by using Google Docs? Should I make this public and put this in a blog section on my personal website or GitHub account? Various parts of this have been in all three mediums.

Goals

My first draft / first iteration is here, set in stone to both hold myself accountable and to help me accept being “good enough”.

Major Goals

1. Lose 30 lbs by the end of 2018.
   1. Eat low carb in January with 1 cheat day per week.
   2. Follow a regular exercise plan.
2. Go on a 50+ mile bike ride each month.
3. Go travel somewhere for fun each quarter.

Minor Goals

1. Learn to read Hiragana and Katakana by mid-February.
2. Write/blog regularly.
3. Drink a certain amount of water per day.
4. Floss daily.

So far I’ve started on both minor goals #1 and #2. Major goal #3 is taken care of with my February trip to Japan. I’ve started on Major goal #1 today with a low carb diet. That goal lends itself into being broken down into sub-goals but I know I can easily go overboard and off track with that. I need to check myself if I start to get too crazy about it.

For proper goal setting, I’ll use a SMART goal worksheet to define each goal and create a detailed plan.