Goals for 2015

Flexibility is a crucial skill to have when making long term plans. Things never work out exactly as you would like. Last year, instead of making resolutions I made goals for myself. It was a way to be proactive with where my life was going and becoming more of the kind of person that I want to be.

My Goals Last Year

My goals were:

• Create 3 apps.
• Blog once a week.
• Read 24 books.
• Journal every day.
• Lose 12 pounds.
• Review my goals once a month.

I wish that I could say that I was successful in all my goals, but I was not. I only got one brand new app out and it wasn’t very successful. I managed to blog once a week for the first six months; definitely the best I have ever done even if I fell short. I only read nine books; again starting the year strong and falling off half way through the year. Journaling was one of my most successful goals, only missing four days of the entire year. I did pretty well with losing weight until August, when I gained some of back. I did a poor job of reviewing my goals; I either forgot or felt that I didn’t need to review my goals.

To be honest, it was difficult to look back at these goals when I was reviewing the year last month. Then my wife reminded me: when we try to reach goals all progress is good progress. That really helped me out. I may not have gotten more apps out, but I got some good update to Chime Squirrel out, and I made progress on my second app. I was more successful at blogging than I have ever been. I still read more books that I had before the previous year. I’m finally documenting some of my life and processing it through my journaling.

This Year’s Goals

I feel that while I may have fallen short having my goals laid really did give me some momentum. It gave me a measuring stick by which I could see that I had forward movement. So this year I am continuing with the goals.

Here are my goals for 2015:

Journal every day before bed

This goal was very fulfilling last year, so I am doing it again. But this year I am going to try to make it more intentional. I am going to go more in-depth into my days and try to journal more of my feelings and emotions to the things that are happening around me.

Memorize 1 verse per month

My wife really wanted to meditate on scripture together. So every month we will come up with a verse that will be our mantra for the month.

Read 1 book / month

I am dialing this goal back a bit after last years results. It is more books than I read last year. With the birth of our first child I know that finding time to read is going to be more difficult than ever. I still want to push myself. In fact I am actually listing two books that I want to get read: Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Roth (which I actually finished reading this week) and MONEY Master the Game by Tony Robins.

Health goal

I want to take my health more seriously this year. I want to be my best self for my children and not be hindered by the state of my body. In December I found out I have degenerative disk disease which has been causing lower back pain for the last four years.

In addition, I want to lose 1 pound/month to reach my target goal of 148 lbs and do Whole30 / Paleo for the month of January (Since today is January 31st, I am proud to say I was successful at keeping to my Whole30).

Pay off the 4Runner

Which the expectation of our new child, last year I sold my 1999 Toyota Tacoma Xcab TRD (which I LOVED!) and bought a 2007 Toyota 4Runner. Last year we finished our car payments by paying off our 2008 Honda CR-V nineteen months early. We took a five year loan to get the 4Runner, but I want to get it paid off this year. We hate debt, but there is not a lot of margin in our budget so this will be tough.

Monthly goal review

It is very easy to lose track of goals over the process of an entire year. This time I want to be more intentional with my goals. By doing a monthly review I hope to keep my focus on them. To keep from making the same mistake as last year and skipping my reviews, I created a recurring item in my ToDo app.

Release 2 apps: Wingman plus one more

I still want to become successful at app development. This year I want to finish the app that I had started last year, Wingman. It is a fairly large project, so I do not know that I will be able to get out a second app, but I am aiming high.

Increase my income by 10%

With the birth of our child, my wife quit her job to be a full-time mom. It’s something that we both want for our family. Money is going to be significantly tighter with this decision, and to help offset it I want to find a way to make some more income. This goal is decently vague allowing me room for creativity.

Blog once a month

Making time to blog is not easy for me. This is evident because I am publish the post for January on the very last day of the month! I often feel like my time should be spent programming or marketing or expanding my knowledge. Still, I believe that writing and providing useful content to people is a noble goal. I tweaked this goal from last year to make it more manageable.

And Action

It is the last day of January, and as you have seen I have made good progress on some of my goals already. Diet, Journaling, three books read. The one area that I am already concerned about is the app development. The year is young. I am going to give it my best shot!