Goals for 2016

Apparently I completely missed setting goals for 2015, because the last blog post I can find about goals was from March of 2014. Oops! Guess that means I didn't accomplish anything last year :)

Now now, that's not true. I in fact wrote two blog posts about life lessons learned (blog post 1, blog post 2), which are closely tied to my personal-improvement goal-setting of 2014 and prior years. I also actively pursued online dating, and have been in a relationship with a wonderful (and very patient) young woman for the past 9 months. For those of you who've been to my house and noticed my goals & timeline wall in my basement, well, eHarmony is checked off that list!

As I reviewed my goals from 2014, most of them were linked to personality traits - for example: anger management or maintaining a healthy life/work balance - and I believe I've accomplished the majority. A couple, such as punctuality and eating more healthfully, I've done less well at, so I'll continue to work on those.

For my 2016 goals, I'm leaning more heavily on the tangible, measurable accomplishments than previous years, though I still have at least a few personality-related improvements. Here we go:

• Aspire to live more like Elwood P. Dowd (see my "next decade" goals from Life Lessons part 2)
• Spend time with the people I want to spend time with, and learn to say "no" to other invitations
• Stand up for my right to "me time" and not overbook myself
• Continue to refine my budget, and be better at saying "no" to eating out; also, continue my trend of not buying alcoholic beverages when I'm out with friends (unless someone else is buying!), which easily saves perhaps $10 each outing
• Pay off more than half of my remaining car loan (~$13,000, so at least $6,500) by year's end
• Max out my 401(k) contributions for the year, or, purchase a rental property using that money as a downpayment
• Listen to 30 or more audiobooks, at least 5 of which are literary classics (aka, my typical Star Wars books won't count :). This should be very reasonable to achieve, since last year I listened to 60 audiobooks (and read 4 paperbacks). Considering my goal in 2010 was to read ONE book, I think this is good progress!
• Practice guitar at least once a week
• Exercise at least twice a week
• Lose 15 pounds - I'm currently at 155, and I'd like to be at 140 by year's end; this means eating fewer sweets :(
• Visit my friend in prison at least once this year
• Have an environmentally conscious yard, which will include lots of milkweed and butterfly & bee-friendly plants (this work is already planned for springtime)
• Have a clean basement by year's end; this means spending at least an hour each week working down there
• Try again to record a CD, which roughly means finish writing 1 song every month, and saving money from each paycheck for the recording process

Those are Jeremy's "official" goals for the year. Please help hold me accountable!

Goals for 2014

Since 2010, every summer I have set out a list of goals / areas for self-improvement for myself for the coming year. It made sense to do this in summer, because I worked at a school and my life revolved around the school-year. Now that I'm working in Corporate America, keeping track of this mid-year goals cycle is confusing even myself, so I think it's time to switch to calendar-year-based goals.

Time now to review my mid-year 2013 goals:

Set reasonable, achievable goals
Also, Stop stressing about how much I can't accomplish
Continues to be a roller-coaster of success. Honestly, I think I'm regressing. If you consider yourself a close friend, or even distant acquaintance, and are reading this: please, text or email or Facebook or call me every now and then, and remind me to stop stressing about my todo list. Seriously. Please do.

Sub-goal: Punctuality
Regressing here as well. My follow-on goal remains to take this beyond being on time, but instead aim to be early. Aka, plan for bad traffic and other unexpected hold-ups.


Avoid procrastination
I continue to do well. I also continue to struggle classifying my "todos" into "important and urgent", "important and not urgent", "not important but urgent", and "not important and not urgent". See Randy Pauch's lecture on time management for further explanation.


Focus on tasks that matter
I'm slowly getting better. Still not there.


Focus on people that matter
Continue to succeed here. Mostly.


Take one thing at a time
I constantly remind myself, "just do this one thing, focus on this one thing", because otherwise I thrash. I continue working on how to reduce the "clutter" that induces thrashing, like having too many separate todo lists, or physical todo piles, etc.


Accept that I cannot solve every problem
I'm getting better at this, particularly when it comes to listening to other people's stories and wanting to help, but knowing my own limits.


Strive toward better anger management
I continue to ace this. My friend John, who has served as my unofficial anger management counselor, has on a few occasions read some email drafts I wrote, and said there was nothing he would change. Rock on.


Move on from Minnehaha
As complete as it's going to be.


Eat more healthfully
Yeah... I should do that. Regression.


Take responsibility for my own actions
Doing well.

Sub-goal: be discerning about whose opinions I let matter
Still succeeding. And still work to be done (always :)

Second sub-goal: find my value in the Lord; aka, be myself, and do so unashamedly
Success. My value as a human being is not found by the measure of my job / career, income, number of friends, relationship status, number of blood donations, the movie projects I've worked on, and so on. My value as a human being comes from being a beloved son of the Most High God. And not only do I just say that, but I've witnessed myself actually live it out, which was pretty cool.

Regarding the "be myself": I still only know how to be myself, and I have been somewhat successful in worrying less about what other people think. Particularly when it comes to expressing my faith, and the eternal optimism that grows out of that faith, I'm successfully living out what I wrote about in my last goals post: "This is me. Deal with it."


Spend time with God
Mixed success. I have committed myself to attending both of my churches every week (I'm part of both Jacob's Well and Upper Room), and I volunteer frequently at both.

I sometimes ask God, "what do You want me to do?" and when I get answers, I have tried to follow through. After a conversation in early December, I felt God challenging me simply to read for 5 minutes a day in my Bible, which I have been doing since then. If you've known me for any length of time, you know the Bible and I have a love-hate relationship, and for many years I refused to even pick one up, because of the pain and hurt I saw from The Church using the Bible as a weapon. The fact that I'm now choosing to read anything at all in it, every day when I wake up, is quite monumental. There have been a few other "what do You want me to do?" experiences, too, that's just the most tangible.


Continue maintaining a healthful life/work balance
I'm getting decently good at booking "me time" in my calendar, and defending it.


Take more risks
Yes. Particularly with being bold in my faith (at work, in my prayers, with friends, even at church), I've seen a lot of growth in myself here.


Take a vacation
I need to do this.


Always speak my heart, and always speak what God is asking me to say
I continue to grow and do relatively well here.


Let go of some grudges
I still have a ways to go here. However, thanks to some EMDR therapy, I'm happy to say I'm now pretty much ambivalent toward my 9th grade year at North High School. If you know me, this is dramatic progress.


Gossip less
Trying.


Being where I should be
Mostly succeeding.


Know thyself
It boils down to: why am I feeling what I'm feeling? I'm getting pretty good at this.


Recognize when there is no one "right" choice
Continuing to improve.

---

For 2014, I continue to hold all the above goals, and I'm adding one more:

Chase after my own dreams, rather than getting distracted by other people’s dreams
Too often I have found myself longing (dare I say envying?) for the careers and lives of my friends. I'd like to be very deliberate this next year about discerning my own dreams.

Goals - August 2013 revision

Since 2010, each summer I set out a list of goals / areas for self-improvement for myself for the coming year. Let's review how I've progressed since my February update on my 2012-2013 goals.

Set reasonable, achievable goals
Also, Stop stressing about how much I can't accomplish
A roller-coaster of success. In the smaller, day-to-day type things, I'd say I achieved this goal. However, as you'll read in a future blog post, I made some epic-scale miscalculations / poor decisions about time-management between March and June, that effectively revoke my earlier statement. Let's call this one a wash (for now).

Sub-goal: Punctuality
Still measurable success. My follow-on goal is to take a step further: aim for being early rather than just punctual. Aka, plan for bad traffic and other unexpected hold-ups.


Avoid procrastination
I'll get back to this one. Ha. Get it? No, actually, I'm doing decently. I mean, everyone procrastinates to some degree. I would argue that the majority of my procrastination has been of the form: "project A is not urgent, but project B is, therefore, I must post-pone my plans for project A and instead work on project B right now." My next step is to identify which of the "urgent" things are actually important. See Randy Pauch's lecture on time management for further explanation.


Focus on tasks that matter
Loaded question. Mmmm... Still sorting through the emotions on this one. See a future blog post about my casting database work from March - June. This again relates to Randy's time management lecture.


Focus on people that matter
This I have done.


Take one thing at a time
Constantly reminding myself, "just do this one thing, focus on this one thing", because otherwise I thrash. I'm working on how to reduce the "clutter" that induces thrashing, like having too many separate todo lists, or physical todo piles, etc.


Accept that I cannot solve every problem
The first couple weeks in July have done wonders in this area for me. Trying to keep it up.


Strive toward better anger management
Rocking this one. My friend John has been a great anger management counselor, and I'm doing much better at biting my tongue.


Move on from Minnehaha
As I wrote in my mid-year update, moving on has been a very natural progression. Emotionally, I needed that slow transition. In July, my successor successfully rolled the back-to-school forms database for the new school year, which was our last major "transition" hurdle. Additionally, I added an "I don't work here anymore" auto-reply to my Minnehaha email, and no longer check it regularly. I call this a healthy success.


Eat more healthfully
I'm trying. Also my doctor insisted I keep a food journal (as related to my Crohn's; he called me out on all my excuses, because, well, I have a smart phone that can take notes, so, I don't have any valid excuses). Tracking what I eat has actually made me more conscious about it. Sugar is still present, but I'll think twice because I know I need to journal it.


Take responsibility for my own actions
I haven't consciously thought about this one in a long time. I'm definitely getting better at admitting fault, which is related (though not the original intent of this goal). Yes, I'd say I'm owning my responsibility.

Sub-goal: be discerning about whose opinions I let matter
Still succeeding. And still work to be done (always :)

Second sub-goal: find my value in the Lord; aka, be myself, and do so unashamedly
Over the past month I've been pushing hard on the first half. For years I have defined myself by the measure of my job / career, income, number of friends, relationship status, number of blood donations, the movie projects I've worked on, and so on. That is not how God sees me. And therefore it is not how I want to see and define myself, because each of those status symbols is transient: I could lose any of them at any moment. I saw this happen to one of my best friends a year and a half ago: he lost his career, his business, and most of his "friends" (fair-weather friends, and let's be honest, I'm judging pretty harshly). Point being: I am forced to acknowledge that I do not completely control my life. Therefore, I so strongly desire to find my value in something eternal, which is what Jesus / God offers me. That cannot be taken away by life's happenstances.

Regarding the "be myself": I only know how to be myself, so I desire to worry less about what other people are seeing and respond with simply: "This is me. Deal with it."


Spend time with God
Overall success. Pushing myself to do even better. I've committed myself to making it to at least one of my churches each week (I'm part of both Jacob's Well and Upper Room). Interesting story: on my way home from Iowa a few Sundays ago, my car stopped wanting to accelerate (broken O2 sensor) - I did make it home okay, but then didn't want to risk taking the car out that evening. I told my parents I was just going to stay home, but they knew I'd come home early specifically so I could go to my evening church service, and so they offered that I could borrow their car. Had that not worked out, my friend Joe also offered to make a special trip to pick me up in between services. Read whatever you will into the story. I read it as God affirming my longing to spend time with Him. (masculine pronoun for convenience only)


Continue maintaining a healthful life/work balance
Absolute fail March - June. Success otherwise.


Take more risks
Yes. As specifically relates to the fear of failure of asking someone out, I've done well at getting over myself. (still single and looking, though).


Don't ever settle
Continuing to do this one too well. Spending 3 - 4 hours looking for the perfect fold-up lawn chair, for example, may not have been the best use of my time. Four stores later, I ended up going back to the first store and one of the first chairs I looked at. However, I definitely feel I did not settle :)


Take a vacation
I've visited friends in Iowa a couple times, and have plans scheduled to visit friends in Los Angeles later this year. I do still need to get better at taking time for me, though.

Mini-vacations also count, I think. There was a moment on the 4th of July, I was with a group of friends sitting out on the grass relaxing, when someone asked what time it was. I realized: I didn't have my phone on me (it was in a bag a few dozen feet away), I didn't know what time it was, I wasn't connected to the world, and that was okay. You might call this "living in the moment". I desire more moments like that.


Always speak my heart
I'm going to re-frame this one, to not only speak my heart, but continue getting better at speaking what I hear God asking me to say.

---

For 2013-2014, I continue to hold all the above goals, and I'm adding a few more:

Let go of some grudges
Years later, there are still grudges I hold in my heart, that I need to let go. Specifically: several "friends" who took advantage of me financially, certain past and present Minnehaha employees with whom I butted heads, a former pastor, and the list probably goes on. I really need to get over this.


Gossip less
Years ago, my co-worker Cathleen commented to me her respect that I didn't gossip around the workplace (something like that; I lack an eidetic memory). This has stuck with me, and weighed heavily the last few years as I've found it less and less true anymore. I suppose one might argue that there are different types of gossip, some more or less harmful than others, but for once, I'm not interested in the semantics.


Being where I should be
Earlier this summer, while I was at a friend's going-away get-together, another group of friends repeatedly texted asking why I wasn't hanging out with them at Merlin's (our go-to restaurant/pub). I replied that "I'm where I need to be right now", and would join them later. In this case the decision was easy: because my friend would soon be facing sentencing, and we didn't know how long he would be going away, there was no question that I was where I should be. Granted, punctuality is another goal of mine, but there are times when you need to drop everything and simply "be" with a person; my goal is to continue that discernment, to know in-the-moment where I am supposed to be, and live it out.


Know thyself
I desire to know myself even better than I do now, and, more specifically: to understand my motivations. At any given moment, why am I feeling what I'm feeling? If I'm elated, is it because I'm finding value in something eternal or transient? If I'm depressed, is it because, despite what I might have tried to tell myself, I set unrealistic expectations and was let down?


Recognize when there is no one "right" choice
Wild guess: most choices aren't between "right" and "wrong", but between "right" and "right". And that is okay. My goal is to be more comfortable in that lack of a dichotomy.


Thus concludes my list of goals for 2013 - 2014.

Goals update for 2012-2013

Last October I set a[n ironic] goal for myself of setting "reasonable, achievable goals." Let's see how I'm doing:

Set reasonable, achievable goals
Also, Stop stressing about how much I can't accomplish
Measurable success. I'm still overly-optimistic in my list-making, but I actively give myself grace, by accepting my daily list of tasks is not a "must get done" list, but rather a smorgasbord of things I could during my day. As former coworker Keith frequently reminded me, "if it gets done, it gets done."

Sub-goal: Punctuality
Measurable success. Still a ways to go, but making headway towards leaving and arriving on time!


Avoid procrastination
Measurable success. I love when I get into a "get things done" mood, such a natural high.


Focus on tasks that matter
Marginal success; I still have a hard time saying "no."


Focus on people that matter
Measurable success. I need to become even more discerning, but feel I've done pretty well allocating time thus far.


Take one thing at a time
Success. The multi-tasking I do choose to do, I'm able to handle, and the moment it becomes too much, I back off and remind myself "just do this one thing."


Accept that I cannot solve every problem
Lies!

Okay. I'm trying.

Marginal success.


Strive toward better anger management
Mostly successful. I still catch myself writing an exasperated Facebook comment every now and then, but when it comes to "stupid people emails," I'm rocking it. One time John (my friend who volunteered himself as my anger-management mentor) even said there's nothing he would change from what I'd written!


Move on from Minnehaha
Marginal success. Overall it's been a natural progression - Cray is taking most of my time, so there's not a whole lot left of me to give to MA. I still miss the half of my job that I loved (building cool web tools and scripts), and I suppose I will miss that for a while.


Eat more healthfully
Sure.

I mean, marginal to measurable success. I'm cutting down on the sweets, let's call that forward progress.


Take responsibility for my own actions
Owning it. Success.

Sub-goal: be discerning about whose opinions I let matter
Success.

Second sub-goal: find my value in the Lord; aka, be myself, and do so unashamedly.
Fail on the first half, success on the second half. I am definitely more comfortable in my own skin, I'm owning my beliefs, I'm owning my actions. At the same time, I continue to judge my self-worth based on the wrong metrics (job, relationship status, cool things I've done, number of friends, etc). That needs to change.


Spend time with God
Success at first, fail in recent weeks.


Continue maintaining a healthful life/work balance
Success at first, fail in recent weeks. This is my highest priority to change.


Take more risks
Mostly success. I just started ComedySportz's intro level improv class, and that is pushing me to stretch myself in the risk-taking arena.


Don't ever settle
Success. If anything, I might be doing this one too well.

---

I'd like to add two goals to this list:

Take a vacation!
Self-explanatory :)

Always speak my heart
The most obvious example is not waiting to tell someone how you feel about them (specifically I have in mind ἔρως or φιλία). A less obvious example might mean standing up for what I know in my heart to be true, whether that's about God's love, stopping the spread of gossip, words of encouragement, or something else completely - I'm rather bad at coming up with examples.

Goals - October 2012 revision

Last summer I set some lofty goals for myself. By New Year's I'd not made much progress. Let's see how I'm doing on that list:


Play guitar more often, even when I don't "feel" like doing it
Failed.


Learn basic chords on my banjo, even if I do not become an expert
Failed.


Continue working toward my CD album
Failed.


Finish post-production on The Vacationers, Paperclip, and start working again on Far Away
Failed. Vacationers has been in a constant state of "almost" for six months - soundtrack almost done, editing almost done, color almost done, etc. Paperclip still is in rough cut. Volunteers are wonderful human beings, but by the very nature of them being volunteers (meaning: I have no budget to pay them), I am on their schedule, not mine.

My life was too busy to work on Far Away.


Read at least 1 more book
Success. Several audiobooks were "read."


Let God start leading and stop trying to force it
Minimal success, and still a constant battle. In my "old age" I'm working toward a more zen-like lifestyle. But I worry. A lot. Too much.


Prioritize friends over work
Success. Even better, I have found a good balance between spending time with others, and taking time for myself.


Keep diving straight into deep questions
Moderate success.


Explore the wonders of Netflix
Success.


Discern my calling to Los Angeles, and what I hope to accomplish
Decided "not yet." I am at peace with this.


Be honest with myself
Absolutely. (and even independently confirmed by a psychologist).


Become a more persuasive speaker
Failed.


Eat healthier and exercise, even if it's "just" going on more walks
Marginal success.

---

Goals for 2012-2013

Set reasonable, achievable goals
(I know it's ironic.)

Setting "reasonable, achievable goals" means being specific, and focusing only on outcomes that are actually under my control. For example, rather than goal-ing to "get hired at ___" (an outcome over which I have no ultimate control), instead I might say "apply for a job at ___", an action I can control.

Setting "reasonable, achievable goals" also means being realistic about what I can actually accomplish in my limited waking hours. I'm a list-maker. I even make lists of lists I need to make. And as a result I constantly disappoint myself by not finishing everything on my lists. I need to curb my todo list optimism in order to prevent feeling overwhelmed at the end of each day.

A sub-goal of setting "reasonable, achievable goals" is to change my habitual tardiness into punctuality (because saying I will be somewhere at a specific time is, in a sense, a "goal," and should therefore be something I create under the influence of being reasonable and achievable).


Avoid procrastination
I spend too much time making and re-ordering unrealistic lists of things to do, rather than actually doing things. Also, I put off difficult or time-consuming tasks, which inevitably stresses me out more later. This may be the second most difficult challenge I face on this list (the first most difficult being setting reasonable and achievable goals).


Focus on tasks that matter
I desire to prioritize todo items that actually matter, then forget about everything else on the list that is not important and does not matter (inspired by Randy Pausch's speech on time management).


Focus on people that matter
Similar to the above; focus on the people that matter most, and be discerning about where I spend my time. Both this goal and the one above involve learning how to say "no."


Stop stressing about how much I can't accomplish
My coworker Keith was fond of the phrase "if it gets done, it gets done". Que sera, sera. This goes against my nature, but I feel is an important goal toward which to strive. Sort of. Being completely laissez-faire is not good, however neither is getting worked up from self-imposed expectations and deadlines. Yes, sometimes there are things that simply have to get done, but usually it's not as urgent as I think it is.


Take one thing at a time
Multi-tasking can be a great asset, but it can also cause thrashing. And so, while some tasks naturally lend themselves to running in parallel (for example, laundry and vacuuming), far more often I am most efficient tackling projects serially, focusing on only "one thing at a time."


Accept that I cannot solve every problem
An alternate way of saying that: not every problem is one I am required / expected to solve. This relates to the previously mentioned 'learning to say "no."'


Strive toward better anger management
Stupid people, and more specifically "stupid people emails", make me angry. I need to take this under control. My new process is as follows. Before responding to a stupid-person email, first:

1. Check my motives. Am I angry at
   • the person?
   • the circumstances?
   • myself? (aka, I’m too busy and don’t want to waste time on this)
   • other extenuating circumstances?
2. Wait at least one hour before sending anything; cool down
3. Call someone and talk it out.
4. Try to put myself in the other person’s shoes, see it from their perspective.
5. Think about what I want to happen. What is my desired result? What will writing this email do, what will it benefit, what will it hurt?
6. If absolutely necessary, write the nasty email, then delete it without sending.

Remember that eating some humble pie will win brownie points in the end; I don’t have to admit fault, but I can apologize that the situation has escalated, and suggest courses of action / resources.


Move on from Minnehaha
I am ready to be done. Yes I will still have friendships I want to maintain, but as for employment, it is finally time to move on. This has been a slow process since April; now that they've finally hired a replacement, I am/will be working to teach him all about all the custom code I wrote. This will likely last into the beginning of next school year, because there are some things that only need doing at the beginning of school. But aside from those tasks, I would like to get everything else transferred over to him as soon as possible, and have one less time commitment in my life.

You may note, this is the only concrete, action-item goal in my list here; that's part of setting "reasonable, achievable goals". However, moving on from Minnehaha also involves a considerable amount of emotional energy - the school was my home for 10 years, and leaving that behind is not easy.


Eat more healthfully
Subway counts. And I'll try to cut down on the sweets. Gotta watch my weight after all. No, that part is a joke. But I do really need to eat better.


Take responsibility for my own actions
When I make an important decision, I first logic it through on my own, then consult my parents and friends (depending on the weight of the decision, sometimes multiple conversations with each person are involved).

A life-altering lesson I learned in September, though, was that at the end of the day I don't need to justify myself to anyone other than myself, and God. I love and respect my friends and family, but I will never be able to make everyone happy, especially when their opinions/advices do not mesh cleanly. At the end of the day, I need live with myself without feeling I settled, and without feeling regret.

A sub-goal here is to stop worrying so much about what other people think; or, perhaps more accurately: "be discerning about whose opinions I let matter." Getting others' input is valuable; then the onus is mine alone, and I need to trust my instincts.

A second sub-goal is to find my value in the Lord; aka, be myself, and do so unashamedly.


Spend time with God
This includes time spent in worship, in prayer, or reading my Koran, Bible, or other theological books (Winnie the Pooh counts).

In addition, listen to the Spirit's leading.


Continue maintaining a healthful life/work balance
Step 1: phrasing it "life/work" rather than the other way around.
Step 2: take time for myself, don't overbook myself.
Step 3: continue to allow time in my schedule for the unexpected, for helping a friend, for something spontaneous, and, most importantly to me [right now], for developing a relationship when I enter into one again.


Take more risks
Be courageous.


Don't ever settle
Don't settle for anything less than what it ought to be.

Goals update for 2011-2012

Some people call them New Year's Resolutions, but because I work in a school I set my goals in summer. Let's check in and see how I'm doing (considering I've forgotten completely what I had planned to be working on this year)


Play guitar more often, even when I don't "feel" like doing it
Fail.


Learn basic chords on my banjo, even if I do not become an expert
Fail.


Continue working toward my CD album
Fail.


Finish post-production on The Vacationers, Paperclip, and start working again on Far Away
Progress, and hopefully both Vacationers and Paperclip will be done by summer. So, "not fail".


Read at least 1 more book
Well, if audio books count, then I've read FOUR! The Hunger Games trilogy, and the Steve Jobs biography.


Let God start leading and stop trying to force it
Constant battle, but I've drawn back quite a bit and am letting come what may.


Prioritize friends over work
Yes. Definitely done this. To the detriment of myself sometimes, though.


Keep diving straight into deep questions
Hm. I've grown a tad more confident in myself in starting conversations, but maybe not so much in the area of deep questions. I'll work on it.


Explore the wonders of Netflix
Done. I have large DVD and instant queues.


Discern my calling to Los Angeles, and what I hope to accomplish
Nope. Good thing the year isn't over yet.


Be honest with myself
Yes. I am this, if nothing else.


Become a more persuasive speaker
Fail.


Eat healthier and exercise, even if it's "just" going on more walks
I need to get out walking more. I wouldn't call my diet a smashing success, but small steps toward progress, perhaps.



EEK. Long way to go in the next 7 months.

Goals for the 2011-2012 School Year

Last year I wrote up some goals for myself, and gave a progress report midway through the year. Time to do both again.


Goals from 2010-2011:

Become a better guitar player
Was going great, recently not so much. I've really not played much in the last couple months, just haven't felt like devoting time to it. Yesterday I picked up my acoustic for the first time in a few weeks and was surprised how poor my muscle memory was. Each time it comes back quickly, though. That's a plus.

That said, I have made progress. At some point barre chords became not-scary anymore, and transposing on the fly has become easier.

Produce at least one short film project
Check. The Vacationers, a short about suicide, (think It's a Wonderful Life, but darker) is almost picture-locked, down to final tweaks. Also gearing up to shoot Paperclip, a Nancy-Drew-combined-with-Hitchcock style short that I wrote. Casting for that in September and shooting in October.

Record at least one song
Did not do it professionally, but recorded a couple just on my own. So I'm gonna count that.

Spend more time listening and less time talking
Yes. Honest assessment, I think I'm doing well. I can do better still. Certain people are hard to listen to - it's hard to care. That's my current struggle. Others I could listen all day and never grow weary. I seek to find a balance.

Pay off my student loans and obliterate my debt
Did not go as well as I'd hoped. Student loans are gone, but my credit card debt, while manageable, has taken until now to pay off. One more paycheck and I'll have that taken care of. Fortunately I've played the game well and paid no interest (except one month I goofed on one card and ended up paying about $10 interest. Oops). Of course, as soon as I have conquered that, homeowner's insurance is coming due, and that's $1500 I don't exactly have sitting in my wallet. Darn it!

Proactively listen for God’s Call in my life
Fail. Well, maybe that's too harsh. Actually yeah that's too harsh. My own standard is set too high. I have listened, I just heard different answers than for the questions I was asking, which is fine, I'm dealing with it. Slowly. I guess.

Read at least 1 book
Yes! I re-read Harry Potter 7 in the two weeks leading up to the HP7p2 movie so I'd be able to have intelligible conversations about it. I read a couple other books along the way, including the Tao of Pooh, which I adore.

Learn to relax
Better late than never. Great strides in the last two weeks on this one. Took a weekend all to myself, no work, and also a vacation, a few days during which I read absolutely no work emails, not even on my iPhone. This is a HUGE accomplishment for me, I'm such an email addict, it's bad, really. I also have vacations pending to Chicago in September, Los Angeles at the end of October, Washington D.C. in March/April, and at some point St Louis and Denver. And I do actually plan to follow through on every single one of those.

Be courageous, don't fear diving straight into a deep question
I've done decently. In my own mind I view myself as "that guy" who asks some of the hard questions. Again, with some friends much easier than others. I can always do better, but I don't think I did poorly.



Goals for 2011-2012

• Play guitar more often, even when I don't "feel" like doing it


• Learn basic chords on my banjo, even if I do not become an expert


• Continue working toward my CD album


• Finish post-production on The Vacationers, Paperclip, and start working again on Far Away


• Read at least 1 more book


• Let God start leading and stop trying to force it


• Prioritize friends over work


• Keep diving straight into deep questions


• Explore the wonders of Netflix


• Discern my calling to Los Angeles, and what I hope to accomplish


• Be honest with myself


• Become a more persuasive speaker


• Eat healthier and exercise, even if it's "just" going on more walks

Goals Update

In July I wrote down some goals for the 2010-2011 school year. Time to check in on how I'm doing:

Become a better guitar player
I'll give this one a thumbs up. I've been privileged to play at church a few times now, and because our worship leader picks a lot of more complex songs, I've been forced to learn a bunch of new fingerings. And I learned how to use a cut capo. Which is sweet. And feels like cheating.

Produce at least one short film project
Working on it. More to come in January.

Record at least one song
Currently working toward recording a 7 track CD, hoping to start recording in Q1 2011.

Spend more time listening and less time talking
*Most* of the time doing well. Still working on this, though. I guess I always will be.

Pay off my student loans and obliterate my debt
Student loans are gone. And my credit card debt will be gone by 11:59pm on December 31st, 2010. Debt to parents (will never be repaid, but speaking in strictly financial terms) I'm aiming to pay off by May, if not sooner.

Proactively listen for God’s Call in my life
Oh yeah. Rocked that one a few months ago. Backsliding a bit now, but working my way back up.

Read at least 1 book
...

Learn to relax
Hm. I don't know. I haven't really thought much about it. I'll say I've made progress, but have plenty left to overcome.



I'm going to add one additional goal to this list. Because I hate small talk:

Be courageous, don't fear diving straight into a deep question

Goals for the 2010-2011 School Year

Yes, I've already graduated college, but I still work in a school, so my calendar still revolves around the school year. That's really just a convenient excuse to do a mid-year New Year's resolution. Of sorts.

(Actually it's all my friend Joanna's fault: she wrote a blog post back in May listing some of her goals for the year, so that made me want to do something similar. And my friend Matthew has always encouraged me to write down my goals, so here we are.)

Goals for 2010-2011:

• Become a better guitar player


• Produce at least one short film project


• Record at least one song


• Spend more time listening and less time talking


• Pay off my student loans and obliterate my debt


• Proactively listen for God’s Call in my life


• Read at least 1 book*


• Learn to relax

*Confession: I'm a slow reader, and college really turned me off from reading. So reading a book for pleasure would be an accomplishment.