2010 New Year’s Resolutions

If you’ve been following along so far, 2009 shaped up really, really well in terms of knocking off goals. So, let’s try this again. Maybe publicly announcing them is just a mindhack, but it also helped me keep the goals accountable, focused and demonstrable.

So, what’s on the Resolutions list for 2010 ?

1. More mensch – Join a Board and Give Back
   Effectively, being more menschboils down to 5 things: Help people who cannot help you. Help without expectation of return. Help many people. Do the right thing the right way. Pay back society.

   How that boils down to goals this year is Volunteering for a charity or NGO Board (or volunteering for a local charity if a Board is out). Judging from Board level interactions I’ve had recently and in the past, I think my strategy and analytics background as well as my expertise in technology would be most useful there. Additionally, to the Board idea, honing my programming skills and releasing more open source software, contributing to another software project this year, and work on at least two fundraisers for charity this year. Other ideas welcome if you think there are some things which might be higher value or more impact than these.

2. Travel somewhere every third month
   OK, no surprises here as drug of choice it is. Last year was a banner year for travel for me, but this year I’d like to focus on being here in Australia and SE Asia since both are new areas for me in this big wide world. So far, I’ve distilled this goal down to travel once every third month as a goal which breaks down to 4 trips this year – which may be pretty ambitious. But, the big rock here for me is Seeing Cambodia and Angkor Wat with which I also hope to fit in Thailand, I’d like to get in some winter snowboarding in New Zealand to visit NZ and keep my skills sharp, budget and work dependent I may also try to get to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year and need to think about a trip back to Canada next year, preferably with a stopover in Hawaii so I can get some surfing in (if I like it as much as everyone tells me I will). Finally, I’m hoping to do a few long (but cheap) weekends around Australia to see this amazingly interesting place and particularly big on seeing Tasmania (Van Diemen’s Land!). As always, travel accomplices welcome, so if you’ve got some ideas, throw me a note.

3. Learn to Surf
   A carry over from last year that I’ve already locked in to start this year, everyone tells me I’m going to love this especially with my love of snowboarding, so we’ll have to see. I have to admit to love watching the waveriders down on the beach as they come in and want to have an excuse to jump in the ocean more often, so kinda looking forward to this. If it turns out I don’t really love this as much as I think I’m going to, I’ll look for another water borne sport. One of the weird things that occurred to me when I put this one down though was that it’s been a long time since I’ve learned a new “physical” skill, so kinda happy to put this one on my list for that reason too.

4. Languages – Start to learn Manadarin
   Another carry over from last year, I started taking Mandarin near the end of next year. Kinda like it and finding it easier than I thought in terms of construction and grammar (so far) though the tones are killing me. This also fits into my larger life goal of being fluent in five languages by the time I’m 50. The goal on this one is to have simple 15 minute conversations with people by the end of the year. Any writing or reading I accomplish is bonus though simple tourist signs and menus would be good by year end. The other flipside to this is to stop erosion of the languages I’m not learning. It’s very sad to say both my Spanish and Arabic have suffered terribly and I need to keep those up or refresh them once in a while somehow (maybe trips ?).

5. Health – Get back into shape and back to a martial art
   It’s embarrassing to me that I did so pathetically on this goal last year. I’m not sure how I let myself gain the weight I did in London and it’s particularly shaming to see pictures of me in Vancouver versus 3 months later in London. One thing that has become clear to me though; just going to the gym is never enough for me. I can go to the gym to support something else, but eventually I get bored with weights, break routine and then I’m finished. Thinking back to the times I’ve been in really great shape, the common element in them is that I’ve been practicing a martial art. Whether karate, kickboxing, boxing or capoeira having that as an outlet and focus has always led to me being generally healthier. Additionally, even in my own mind I think of my goal here as being thin, strong, fast and flexible so I’m also going to take up a martial art again. Going to go check out capoeira this week and if I feel my knee just can’t hack it, look at kung fu. Hopefully, this plus walking to work, surfing and snowboarding ought to keep me in shape now as well as the change in diet from moving from England to here. Oh, one other thing I’ve really noticed… I need to get into bed by 1 am every night, without fail. I think one of the largest contributors to my weight and health issues is a fundamental lack of sleep. I may be able to survive on four hours of sleep indefinitely, but it’s clear it has insidious implications for my health.

6. Get back into cooking and add to my repertoire
   Once upon a time, I used to be a pretty solid chef. Sometime around moving to France and learning what good food was, I stopped cooking altogether and started eating out nearly all the time. Well, it’s embarrassing and now I have a gas stove again, I need to rectify that. The goal here is fourfold: Eat the majority of my non-work meals at home, pick up 12 new swoon-worthy dishes for my repertoire, learn to do more with fish dishes and vegetarian ones, and pick up an ethnic cooking class at some point (most likely Thai). Overall, this also fits into my health goal as I figure another reason it’s been difficult to stay in shape is bad eating habits. People who have some kick ass, quick, painless recipes (sure, I’m a foodie but time starved and also health conscious) or suggestions on this front, please feel free to send them over the wall.

7. Financial Sustainability – be smarter with money
   I’ve done some good as well as some incredibly stupid things financially over the years so my track record with money is a bit hit and miss. If I want to continue living the type of lifestyle I am living I need to stabilize the smart things I do into sustainable practices. So, this year my goals are pretty modest; live on 80, save 20%, reduce my personal deficit 100% and generate a secondary source of income.

8. Start an online company around one of my applications
   This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while for a number of reasons ranging from some financial independence, to thinking it’s fun, to just trying my hand at it, to experimenting with new ideas, so I’m planning on seeing about launching something online within the next few months. I think the big challenge here will be doing this with all the other commitments I’ve already roped into 2010 as it’s something I”m serious about and getting these things off the ground is a lot of flapping before you’re airborne and soaring.

9. Reduce and completely offset my current carbon and environmental footprint by 200%
   While it might not be obvious, I do try to live a pretty easy on the earth lifestyle. I’m not always successful. Flying, for example, despite the other things I do to offset my own effect on the planet completely annihilates any possible pluses I can have in that column very often. Also, I believe if anything is going to be done about climate change and our environmental future generally, especially with the recent political failures we’ve had, that it needs to be personal and it needs to start at home. So, this year I’m committing to not only making a lot more environmental choices, but also to commit to doing some calculations and offsetting my current carbon footprint two times over, so hopefully doing more than my part to making the planet more livable in the future.

10. Keep up the good habits of 2009 – Don’t Lose My Gains
    I did quite a few things right in 2009. And I want to make sure I keep doing those without actually “cheating” and lumping them in as new resolutions. Effectively, they’re just keeping up the good habits I managed to get to 2010. I’m going to list them separately here
    • blogging, journalling and GTDing once a week
    • a cultural outing every month
    • polishing my development skills by programming new apps
    • read – at least a book a month though would like to hit 18 real books
    • fit in an academic course – architecture, art history, anthropology etc.

So, that effectively encapsulates what I think I want to accomplish this year. Seems like a lot, but I spent a lot of time breaking them down into what I wanted to do and could commit to as well as distilling them into goals that had a timeline (this year obviously) and could be demonstrated. I know it’s hard to believe, but they also all plug into my larger life goals and bucket list in some small way and tee me up for some goals I’ve thought about for 2011. And of course, these will probably modify themselves in slight ways over the coming months.

So, help to keep me honest and help me get through all these. Any areas people think I need to add ? Anything I’ve seriously overlooked ? Any little hacks or advice you’ve got on any of these or anything you can add to help me towards moving towards these or stick to what I’ve got here ? All help appreciated and looking forward to any feedback you have.