Some Goals for 2021

I have had a lot of time by myself recently.  I'm working away from home for a few months and my family hasn't been with me for several weeks of that.  I've tried my best to use that time for some productive self reflection, contemplation, navel gazing, etc.  The product of that is a list of goals for the year.  I wanted to put (some of) these out there publicly for some positive social pressure.

Recreation & Relationship

To start off, I'd like a little more fun in my life.  And I'd like to have that fun with people who I cherish.

Have at least one meaningful, memorable one on one experience with each of my children. 

This time apart from my family has highlighted  just how valuable time spent together is.  We're pretty good at finding ways to have fun all together at home.  We play board games, read books aloud (we read the first four Harry Potter books last year), spend time outdoors, etc.  But I have not been very good at spending one on one time with my kids. 

I don't think this needs to be extravagant, but I do think it needs to be memorable and fun for each kid individually. 

Go on two backpacking trips

I went on my first backpacking trip this last July.  It was a great way to camp.  Had lots of time for good conversation, climbed a small mountain, got lots of peaceful sleep.  It was beautiful.  I want more of that in my life.  I had a few lessons learned from the last trip.  I packed too much and we planned too many miles each day.  When we got back my feet were a wreck.  These two trips this year will be shorter and easier, though hopefully no less enjoyable.

I'm hoping that at least one of these trips can be a meaningful, memorable one on one experience with one of my kids... but, we'll see.

Read six books just for fun

Something that might be clear from looking at the sparse archives of this blog is that I enjoy reading.  However, I tend to read with a purpose in mind, to learn something specific that I want to apply to my life.  While I find learning to be very fun, I'd also like to start reading just for pure enjoyment more often.  Maybe more fiction?  Maybe some non-fiction on random topics that interest me but don't necessarily add value in any obvious way?  I'm not putting a lot of guard rails on this one.  

Likely this will include the last three Harry Potter books.

Health and Fitness

Goals to help future me be an active gray haired old man.

Injury Free Exercise

A few years ago I was trying to do too much too quickly with running this resulted in a knee injury.  That put me out for a lot longer than I wanted to admit.  After finally caving in and getting some physical therapy (dang you pride) and some clear, professional guidance on how to prevent that in the future I've been able to start back up again.  

This is probably a meta goal that I should have every year.  However, I'm going to make it a focus for this year because my tendency is to push myself harder than is wise.  I need to build some habits that will carry me into the future.  The visions for this looks like a lot of low pace, low intensity cardio (zone 2 heart rate training) with a healthy mix of strength and mobility exercise.  Mostly running,  at home yoga and calisthenics.

Personal Best 10k Time

While I ultimately want to get back into triathlon, running is the most accessible endurance sport for me right now.  It's also the one with the right mix of being challenging and fun.  As noted above, training for this is going to be mostly a lot of running slow, "building my aerobic engine".  However, I'll also add in a little interval and threshold workouts, which I've never done before.  

My personal best time according to Strava is 51:34.  I would be pretty impressed with myself if I could get down below 50 minutes but for this sake of this goal, I'll take 51:33.

Weigh less than 180 lbs

I've been overweight for, dare I say it, my entire life.  While I'm considerably less overweight than I have ever been before, I'm still just above the "normal" BMI range.  Being less than 180 will put me right at the top end of that "normal" range and is definitely in the realm of achievable this year.  Target date is May 1st.

Financial

Nothing terribly interesting here.  Working the baby steps.

Have a 3 month emergency fund.

Get a little more financial peace of mind, being able to handle the unexpected. 

Add to college savings

I'd like to set my kids up to be able to get a higher education without going into debt.  This years small goal is just to get each of their accounts up to $5k.  Not nearly enough for full tuition, but a humble start.

Learning & Creativity

Something that came out of this period of self reflection is the fact that I'd really like to have my own business someday.  Mentally and emotionally this is seems risky and too disruptive to me.  I know I can make it feel less so by eating this elephant one bite at a time.

Read 4 "business" books.

I'd like to read at least one book a quarter to better understand the inner workings of business.  This can be any subject but I'll probably gravitate towards the operations side of things.

Read 2 "leadership" books

Potentially related to the above but not necessarily.  I'd like to have a better tool kit around how to communicate and motivate a team more effectively.

Sell Something

Selling is an aspect of business I know the least about.  While this is not something I'm passionate about, I'd like just a little more experience in my life.  Even if this just a well crafted craigslist post for a piece of furniture I no longer need, I'd like to sell something this year.  

Write a business plan

Stretching my creative muscles a little more, I'd like to write a business plan.  This doesn't have to be something I actually want to execute on, but simply thinking through and writing out the creative process of starting a business.  Who knows, maybe something could come of this excersize.