The past couple of years I’ve been doing this whole near year’s resolution thing. I don’t necessarily agree with it in principle, because the fact of the matter is that most people (including myself) do not stick with their goals throughout the year. There are often life changes that impact the feasibility of them, and sometimes the goals themselves are life changes that are not possible. The majority of my goals this year are redundant, but to continue with tradition and be able to look back on them next year will be nice. So, here we go:
Travel to Europe at some point during the year. Possibly California and Washington state.
This was a goal last year that I wasn’t able to achieve. There was a loose plan to travel with a friend through Europe, but we were unable to get our schedules together. This upcoming year I already have plans to see Germany in September, and possibly London in February, although both aren’t booked yet. I modified this from last year as I want to go to Europe, and I don’t consider Mexico or Canada abroad. Last year I made several trips to Boston, went to Virginia to see a friend, upstate New York, and took a week long trip to Indiana. In addition to going to Europe I would like to see the west coast, but we’ll see about that one.
Make the decision to go to graduate school, and take the GRE.
It has always been “in the plan” to go to graduate school, but I’m still up in the air if I want to go for something that is in the field of software engineering, for literature or possibly even a business administration degree. I am leaning towards going back to school for an MBA as it seems more aligned with my long term goals, and I can always go back to get the others later if I am bored.
Keep eating healthy, be more active, and ride the bicycle more.
Last year I was able to achieve part of this goal and I lost a little over forty pounds just by changing my eating habits. Since I enjoy cooking I want to learn more about nutrition, eating healthy, and how to cook up some meals quickly at the end of the day. The activity part is where I need to focus on since I’ve done the diet pretty well. I was in a softball league in the spring of last year, rode the bicycle a little in the spring months, and did some hiking. I am considering martial arts if I am able to find something that jives with my schedule. I was able to do this all last year without going to a gym, and I’d like to continue on the same path.
Write more words, play more video games and enjoy life.
I would say that this was mostly a success. I started posting on this blog for a semi-regular basis, and at one point started drafting notes for a science fiction novel I’ve been itching to write for nigh on a decade now. The past couple of months I’ve been playing Battlefield 3 with some old friends, and the same ones are trying to get me to sell my soul and play some Star Wars: Old Republic, but I am pushing back.
Learn the guitar well enough to jam out with some friends.
Over the Thanksgiving break I went down to see a friend in Virginia, and we both picked up Rocksmith for a song. I started learning the guitar by playing this video game, and found out that my MacBook makes a really great amplifier with GarageBand. I’ve always wanted to get back into music, and my goal is to get decent enough so that I am able to have some fun with friends that jam often.
I figured since I am already working on these goals it makes sense to include them so I can show some progress this time next year. Because life changes very often I don’t see a point to include something that is out of reach, or will require a huge dedication of time that I am not certain I can allocate. Next year, as long as the apocalypse doesn’t happen, I am hoping to be able to continue the tradition and add some more goals (as well as check some off).
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