In the spirit of less is more, I significantly downgraded my stack of resolutions and goals this year.

Resolutions

Do something aviation-related each day

I really want to be a competent, reliable pilot and invest in my trade. I will (and have been) using some time each night to study. Instead of sitting down every few days and investing 2 hours in reading through manuals, I can read a little bit each night. I’ve been using iOS Reminders to help. I get a notification at 1900 each night, which is approximately 2 hours before I’m in bed reading.

Develop my hobbies

I’d like to invest more time in non-TV extracurriculars. Here are some things I’ve been wanting to put more time into:

• Running
• Woodworking
• Video games
• Drawing
• Reading
• Writing
• Journaling
• Music (including clarinet)

Goals

Make it to RL1 status as a pilot

A pilot’s readiness level (RL3 up to RL1) is tied to what tasks you have proven to an instructor you are competent on. As an RL3 pilot, I can only fly with instructor pilots. As an RL1 pilot, you never have to fly with an instructor pilot, and you can fly with any other pilot-in-command. Part of my job is being useful, so getting to the level where I don’t need to be flying with an instructor all the time gives me flexibility in my training schedule and gives the unit some reliability in having another “fully trained” pilot ready to take on missions.

Form a close, local friendship

We had great friends that we could call up on short notice while we were at flight school. We were all brought together by a shared experience, and everyone basically had the same schedule, too, which made things so simple. Now that we’re back to the Denver Metro Area, people are spread out more, and everyone’s getting pulled in different directions.

In 6 years of marriage, we’ve moved 6 times, and I haven’t had strong in-person relationships outside of flights school since college.

I heard of this distinction on a podcast, but I like the phrasing “weekday friends” versus “weekend friends.” I’m close with a lot of people at work (i.e. weekday friends), but none of those relationships have grown to the level where I’d call someone up on the weekend to hang out (i.e. weekend friends).

So, I’ll be spending some time investing in my relationships with people. I have someone I’ve been playing racquetball with and another friend that I just went to a concert with. We have plenty of “dinner friends” that we invite over, too.

Weekly Reflection

I also updated my Weekly Recap journaling template to reflect each week on my 5 Fs: Family, Faith, Finance, Fitness, and Flight. I’m also going to hyperlink to this post, so that every week, I can review what I subscribed to.