Like everyone else, I’ve been thinking a lot about New Years resolutions lately. Its been almost 2 – wait, 3 years since I’ve been out of school, but it’s getting harder to distinguish the time. In the past year and a half I’ve moved 4 times, and I’ve finally found a place I want to stick around for a while.
The past year held a lot for me – moving to Maine, going to Iceland with Lily, getting a scooter, finding a job I really enjoy, and getting an apartment that I want to stay in for a long time. It’s a really great feeling to be at a place where I’m comfortable with almost every aspect of my life. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot more I want to accomplish in next year though, which brings me to the list.
It may be a little more ambitious than most,think when I think of how much has changed in my life over the past year, I think this list is 100% doable if I work at it.
So without further adieu,
- Stretch every day in January – I’ve heard that stretching in the morning can really help your body get moving. I’d like to try doing this in the morning before work for an entire month and see how I feel. I’m also trying to eat a full breakfast in the morning to help myself get going, and I think the two of these combined might make a world of difference for my productivity in the morning.
- Learn about personality types – I had a long talk with my good friend Hannah about this last new years at a house party in Cambridge, MA. She was nannying at the time for a couple who did a lot of training based around the psychology behind personality types, and it really caught my curiosity. If you don’t know anything about personality types, I’d recommend checking out the Wikipedia page on the subject – it’s some pretty interesting stuff for sure.
- Learn to sail – I’ve always wanted to learn how to sail. In college I was disappointed there was no sailing program, in Boston I was planning to take lessons right before I ended up moving. and this past season I was so busy getting settled, I never really got around to it. This year is my year to really get into it.
- Professional Development – I do a lot of work with the Drupal content management system for building websites. I the last year I’d say I probably tripled my knowledge of working with the web, and this next year I’d like to take that to the next level. Sure, there are a million things I’m interested in learning, but things I specifically think I should be able to accomplish this year include learning drush (command-line scripting for drupal), contributing to the Drupal community, and attending Drupalcon Denver in March.
- Get in shape and exercise regularly – pretty basic, but Lily have committed to eating healthier and exercising regularly this next year.
- Be less self-oriented – It seems so easy to be self-interested and caught up in your own life, especially when things are going well, but it’s also a really unattractive and unuseful personal trait to have. This next year I’d like to focus a lot more of my attention on what’s going on around me.
- Start a retirement plan – last but not least, it’s one of those things I should probably start caring about and establishing.
That’s all I’ve got for this list – of course there’s plenty more I’m interested in doing this year and plenty more unexpected things that will come along the way, but this is at least a good start.
