With it being the start of a new year, everyone is always focused on the “new me” that they’ll strive for. I used two methods to review 2017, and I’ve taken a different approach to 2018.

2017 #1: Review of Resolutions

I set out to have several SMART goals that I’d work in throughout the year. I accomplished some, others I worked on but let them die, and others I barely touched. I am, however, learning with every year what makes me the most effective at pursuing things I want to improve on or accomplish.

My 2017 resolutions were as follows:

• Become a Confident Swimmer—I went swimming a few times out of obligation, and I came across the Total Immersion technique that I know will be the game changer, but I still haven’t put much towards this one.
• Learn C#—I acquired the necessary software and worked my way through an online tutorial series, but without a project to apply my skills to, it died at the conclusion of the tutorial.
• Read the Book of Mormon in German—Accomplished! I did, however, find that I got very little out of it spiritually other than establishing a habit of daily scripture study. This goal is a large part of why I now wake up at 0430. I do better accomplishing the difficult, tedious, boring stuff before starting my day while my girls are still asleep.
• Code My Own Website—While I didn’t code it myself, I did get a website up and going. It’s still fairly rudimentary, but the hardest part is out of the way! With just a bit of touching up, it’ll be ready to list on my résumé! I’d love any feedback you can provide.
• Max My Army Physical Training Test—While I didn’t hit a 300+, I got up to 284, which is very competitive and the highest I’ve ever gotten. I also used the Freedom Journal to stay accountable to this one. I wish I had started earlier, rather than honing in starting in the fall semester.
• Become Confident Drawing from Memory—I didn’t do much drawing at all, but I found that the Inktober challenge pushed me to be better! I still need to upload those to my Deviant Art page…
• Read 6 Books—I knocked this one out of the park! See my 2017 Reading List post.
• Make Headway on My Book and Comic—I did lots of writing, but no drawing. I even shared one of my pieces on reddit!

To my credit, I had best intentions in setting SMART goals, and I held myself accountable after the first quarter of the year, but that was about it.

2017 #2: Past Year Review (PYR)

I discovered this method through Tim Ferriss’s 5-Bullet Friday. I’ve mentioned that newsletter before, and I encourage you to subscribe. It’s a lovely little dose of the new and intriguing every end-of-the-week. He shares:

Here’s my list after sorting through 52 weeks of Google Calendar:

My nature is to be interested in everything, but here are my top conclusions based on this exercise:

• I am made to be an entrepreneur. I won’t be happy unless I’m pursuing something for myself.
• I long to be creative, and reading, writing, and drawing are all activities I enjoy, would like to become better at, and I find each of them productive hobbies (developing a talent as opposed to watching Netflix).
• I hate being trapped in meetings—especially when they’re unnecessary and/or poorly run.
• I really enjoy learning in general, and am specifically interested in economics and German, to name two.
• Time with friends and family mean a lot to me.
• I love to write based on researching a topic I’m unfamiliar with.
• I love to both give and receive gifts, and it happens to be my #1 love language.
• I love weddings.
• I love challenging myself physically (Ex. Advance Camp, rock climbing, improving APFT score, running a half-marathon, etc.).
• I am appreciative of the military training available to me.
• I love taking notes on a good self-help book.
• I enjoy being a behind-the-scenes leader and helping things fall into place (Ex. S4).
• I love to travel, and I find great joy in doing so with friends and family.
• I need to take time to be creative as well as time to reset and clean out my system from all the multitasking and build-up that bogs me down.

2018: Top 5 Goals

Instead of setting super specific goals for 2018, I have picked up on a trend of what makes me generally happier and what I long to do more of. There are, certainly, things outside of this list, but here’s what I’m most interested in pursuing:

1. Read more
2. Write more
3. Draw more
4. Speak to Eva solely in German
5. Run a full marathon

Shalene and I also set goals as a couple:

1. Attend the temple every other month
2. Don’t talk negatively about each other to others and in general

So that’s it! We’ll do this again in March to stay accountable.

Cheers~