Resolutions 2013
February 3rd, 2013 4 minute read
New Years Resolutions are a nice way to frame your changes, I know people tend to be “just do the change you want to do all the time” and this is true, you should always focus on the changes you want. But resolutions allow you to give yourself a time frame for that change. This post is running a bit late but I’ve had it in draft for a while (I’m posting this in February).
So 2012 for me was a big year, it was the first year that I felt like an actual adult, I had left InDinero (a small startup that I was a part of that I was unhappy at for various reasons), I had started my first job where I felt confident in my abilities and felt I was making a real significant impact. I set up a lot of things that I wanted to do for 2012 and I’m just gonna talk about them here and talk about 2013.
Most of this blog post is just personal stuff so not really as informative as my other blog posts since it’s mainly just about me :P
2012 Resolutions
Running a 10k
Man, I was not confident my abilities here when I set this. My resolution was run a 10k by the end of the year. So as of now I can run a 10K pretty easily without too much effort and I’ve done a personal half marathon though I participated in very little official races throughout the year. RunKeeper has me running about 300 miles this year, and additional 80 or so miles of walking because I was mostly walking long distances in the beginning of this year.
Start riding a bike to work
This got changed slightly, I try to run to work whenever I can, it’s been inconsistent since November because of all the travelling and holidays interruptions but for the most part I did start running to work. It’s about 3.5 miles so a 2-3 times a week 5K.
20 Pullups in 2 minutes
Not even close….
Travel
I went to NYC in September with Karina and Kees and probably one of the best experiences I’ve had, it was such a great idea with great people. I didn’t travel overseas technically until January 2nd 2013. My first trip to Europe and overseas for vacation and not just hopping through to India for family.
Build your own project
I buit my Chrome Extension for FB events to google calendar, I feel that was a success and I have a lot of users who use the extension, I wish I had more support for it but unfortunately the original extension still gets most of the traffic, not sure how to resolve that issue and help people go to mine instead. I’m now at 1,123 users at the time of this blog post.
Start Mobile Development
I barely made this, I’ve started on the mobile team at work and I seem to be slowly learning and picking up things as I go along, though it’s going to be a while until I’m really comfortable in the environment.
Try a new restaurant every week
I tried a lot of new places in the city but at this point I’ve basically eliminated every place nearby and I have to start venturing further and further out to get stuff. So it’s become harder to constantly try new things, I’ve gotten into the habit of eating that damn Super Quiza at Taqueria San Jose, so delicious.
Write a blog post every 2 weeks
Oh man, this was missed by such a large margin that I can’t even believe. I wrote a few blog posts this year but I basically took the entire summer off and didn’t write anything. I have a few posts here and there but nowhere near every 2 weeks.
Resolutions for the New Year 2013
Under 8 minute mile on a 10K
So my 10K time is about 9:45/mile right now, but that’s way too slow. I want to be able to run at least under 8 minute/mile 10K and hopefully faster than that, not sure how to go about doing that right now but I figure it’s going to require more than just running but actual strength training to get my legs stronger. I know a under 8 minute isn’t that much but it’s enough for me right now.
Read a book a week
So last year I read a decent number of books, I was mostly listening to them which takes forever though so I’ve picked up a Kindle this year and I’m going to read as many books as possible. I’ve already finished 3 discworld novels and a few other books, I’m going to try to continue to make time for reading on my book while listening to books while running. I’m probably gonna finish Discworld first and then move onto other series. In the past year I finished Ender’s Game series, Heinlein’s major works, and Foundation Series.
Pick up a sports hobby
I mentioned last year I would pick up something, but I’m going to actually do it this year. I’m still debating between Capoeira, yoga or swing dancing. I don’t think they are mutually exclusive though.
Handle myself in a venue alone
This one is kinda weird but I’m still super shy when I’m alone in a venue where people aren’t supposed to meet each other like a party or meetup. If I have one person next to me I can be myself but alone I become super shy. I’m gonna try to work on that so I’m not that anxious anymore when I’m by myself.
Publish an app in the app store
Not sure what I’m going to build, but I’ll build something, I feel since I need to just publish anything, even if it’s something small.
End up with less stuff after each month or remove any non-essential stuff
Expect me to give away some things throughout the year, I’ve already removed a lot of stuff but I just want to be able to know what I have off the top off my head without looking through all the boxes and stuff for that occasion that might never come up.
Hit up Asia
I’m gonna travel to Japan this year god damn’t, I kept saying I would last year but postponed indefinitely I will go this year damn’t. I’ll work out something since I ended up using a lot of my vacation time for my first trip.
Meditation
So I actually picked up a bit of breathing and meditation in the morning and it’s been really useful, I want to be able to properly zen out for more than a few minutes right now.
If you have any advice, information, criticism, or encouragement, please don’t hesitate to post!