2012 New Years Resolutions
Here are my resolutions/goals for 2012 (with a recap and review of my 2011 list below):
1. Run a full marathon, 5 halves, and a triathlon
- Run a marathon (already registered for the Oakland marathon on 3/24)
- Run at least 5 half marathons
- Find a trathlon and commit to the training
2. Have more of an impact
- Create more value at my own company
- Advise/consult with more startups (on sales/sales strategy, customer acquisition, etc.)
3. Build a better blog
- I think one of the reasons I failed to write more in 2011 was that the barriers to entry felt too high. I do like taking the time to do research and write longer-form posts (like this latest one on local) but I often find the need for more short-form posts with quicker thoughts (but longer than 140 characters) on news and products.
- Building a better blog also = becoming a better writer
- Redesign and consider a new theme/platform
4. Take more pictures
- Get a nice camera
- Take an intro photography class
- Take more pictures
5. Eat Slower Meals
- I ate a lot healthier in 2011 but I hope to eat much slower in 2012. Lots of research shows that meal time with friends and loved ones is a direct predictor of happiness. They recommend at least one 2-3-hour dinner and/or drinks per week with people who make you smile and feel good. And I've found that to be true -- some of my best memories of 2011 were long meals with friends and family. I hope to have more of those in 2012.
6. See more live music and comedy
- Live shows just make me feel good so I hope to see more.
6. Track books I've read in a public spreadsheet
- I'm a big believer that exposing a personal metric, e.g. one’s runs on RunKeeper, workouts on DailyBurn, etc., often encourages tracking of the measure. So I'll start to track the books I've read in a public spreadsheet and keep it updated. I'm interested to see if the publicity of the list impacts how often I read.
- Some of my most popular posts have been on books with reading notes so I'll continue to post notes from my favorite books too.
7. Travel
- Visit more new places: Hong Kong, Thailand, Turkey, Whistler.
- Try to line up half marathons with new U.S. cities
8. Build a Web app and an iPhone app
- Brush up and learn how to code enough to build a minimim viable product (MVP) of a few ideas I've been thinking about
9. Improve on public market investing
- Read more on swing trading, value investing and options strategies
- Eliminate most of the noise from my news stream and focus on basics
- Improve overall % performance
10. Do full-scale body composition and DNA tests
- Do body composition and blood work tests to guage levels of vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, etc. to find diet, supplement changes.
- Sign up for 23andMe and their Personal Genome Service to see what diseases I may be predisposed to and find diet/lifestyle changes.
And here is my full 2011 list with notes. Here's a recap: (6 FAILURES and 4 SUCCESSES):
1. Eat Healthier - SUCCESS!
2. Switch from coffee to tea - FAIL (reason: added tea 50/50, will likely continue)
3. Drink more water - SUCCESS!
4. Read more - FAIL (reason: didn't track, take enough notes)
5. Write more - FAIL (reason: work/life balance, didn't do much short form posts)
6. Contribute more to online communities I follow - SUCCESS!
7. Get back into scuba diving - FAIL
8. Be more mindful - SUCCESS!
9. Travel more - FAIL (Went to Seattle, Chicago, and Boulder. But didn't get to nearly as many new places as I wanted)
10. Compete in a marathon and triathlon - FAIL (reason: ran 3 half-marathons but never committed to a full or tri)
Hopefully I can do better in 2012 than I did in 2011. How about you?
