Last year I set myself four goals:
- Graduate with a first class degree
- Make and publish an app
- Jump out a plane and reach terminal velocity.
- Do something that I’ve never done before
And of those I only achieved 1 and 4. I made the list to give me something to focus on over the year thinking I could accomplish more as a result but despite only managing half of the goals I had an excellent year anyway and did lots of things I never originally planned to do. I made some mistakes this first time round but I think with some improvements it could be very useful. So first I’ll look at what I think went wrong and how to improve it and then get to this years targets.
Review
First and foremost I didn’t put enough time into the 2016 list and as a result I did not have much motivation to stick with it. What I did achieve I would have managed anyway had I not bothered to put them in writing. I want the goals to stretch me aswell as to motivate me to continue the things I am already doing well. This time round I’ve put a bit more thought into it. I first made a minimal list of things to do in my lifetime. There’s a lot I’d like to do but if this list is to be useful it can only contain the items that are really important to me. From this I’ve picked those goals I think I can accomplish or progress in the coming year knowing what little I do about whats coming my way.
Secondly I forgot about the list for most of the year and only really remembered it a few months ago when I started hearing Christmas songs playing again. To keep it fresh in my mind this time I’m going to reflect on it at the end of every quarter. This will also allow me to stay flexible about my goals when challenges and opportunities arrive.
Right onto the list. It’s a mix of things I can complete all in one go and those that I don’t expect to be able to accomplish completely but there all something I want to work on in 2017.
Goals
1. Write more
I’m a slow writer but I’d like to improve. I have a backlog of travel stories to catch up on at the moment and I’d like to be able to write about some other bits I have been working on. I’m aiming for one post a month at first and we’ll see how that goes.
2. Beat Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
We had this game on the Nintendo 64 and I got stuck trying to carry a lost princess out of a giant whale. Its been bugging me for nearly eighteen years now. I’ve played a lot of games in the interim and I must be more capable than my six/seven year old self so I’m making this the year I finally escape that damn whale. Ideally I’ll get a RetroPie setup and will be able to beat it on a proper TV.
3. Go full speed on a racehorse
I don’t know if I’ll be able to manage to do this safely just yet and I’d definitely like to get some more practice before I try. Mostly this year I’ll be improving my position, particularly in two point and learning more about stable management so that I’ll have a better chance of convincing someone I know what I’m doing.
4. Make something as an April fools day joke
Lots of my ideas are a bit silly and hard to justify working on when there’s something important to do but April fools day provides the ideal opportunity. I know what I want to do but I don’t want to give it away just yet!
5. Learn to meditate
Clever people on the internet always seem to be saying regular mediation is a good idea and I’d like to give it a go. Dhamma Dipa seem to run a donation only, intensive courses in Vipassana meditation and it doesn’t appear to be a scam. I think it would be worth carving out the 10 days required to give it a go.
6. Learn to make jam
Every other country I go to seems to have better jam than we make in England. Maybe I just need to buy better jam but I’d rather learn how to make my own.
7. Start writing a cookbook
Incorporating the previous goal I would like to write a student cookbook at some point. A proper cookbook requires more experience than I’ve got yet but I’ve cooked most of my meals in dirty student kitchens and I’ve got pretty good at working with limited equipment which the student cookbooks I’ve read don’t seem to understand. This will probably take longer than a year but at eight recipes a month I’d hit over hundred recipes by December which would make for a good start.
8. Travel some more
Spending only 5 days in every country in the world would take around three years and that would only give me enough time to see one big city in each. To be in with a chance of really seeing the world in my lifetime I’m going to have to take whatever opportunities I get to have a good look around.
Right that’s my plan. I’ll be looking back at this list again at the end of March. If I remember I’ll add a link to it here.
Happy new year!