12th
new year’s resolutions
As a rough latter half of 2009 ends, my first full year as a “real person” begins. This is a complete surprise because my mind keeps telling me its summer. For the past 18+ years I have been in school, and thus my life has revolved around the academic calendar. I’m accustomed to fall coming around once I start classes, however class never came around and I find myself stuck in this perpetual feeling of summer despite 20 degree temperatures outside! It’s sure not an easy transition from school to “real life” but I hope I will continue to adjust in 2010.
I have realized that an 8-5 job and paycheck affords much more free time than I had during school. However, it also breeds severe complacency: I often come home tired, eat dinner, watch TV for a few hours and then head to bed at 10PM only for a repeat the next day — without getting a darn thing done. This is completely pathetic since there are so many things that I’ve been wanting to do. So, without further rambling, during 2010 I resolve to do the following things:
Get In Shape: The best shape I’ve ever been in was when I swam back in high school, that was over 6 years ago. In college there was always something else to do, and working 80+ hour weeks didn’t help anything. Last summer this became more obvious as my 17 year-old cousin and my uncle kicked my ass up the mountain at Fallen Leaf. I will not fall that much behind again! With more time on my hands now, I have joined a Gym and have been going 3 times a week. We’ll see what next summer brings.
Keep up with (non-local) friends: I’m terrible about keeping up with good friends of mine that no longer live in the same city. (Sorry readers, I know some of you are among them.) I regret this, and hope to stay in better contact starting this year. I plan to catch up with at least one friend each week. I think this is a reasonable goal to start with, and a huge improvement over what I currently manage.
Write more: As an engineer, I didn’t really write that much in school. I regret not doing so, and think that it should have been stressed more heavily in classes since it is (still) a valuable communication technique. I have been writing some since, as is evident with this post & blog as a whole, but I hope to develop more of a routine. Although my numbers aren’t final, I hope to write twice a week. Additionally, I plan to do some writing in connection with resolutions detailed below.
Read more: I’ve never really read for pleasure. Periodically I’ll pick up a novel and read it but prefer non-fiction. Sadly, I do enjoy reading design and business books, so I’ll start there. I have a number of P&G books that I’ve been meaning to read along with Nudge, The Tipping Point, Hot Flat and Crowded, etc. I am part of a quarterly design book club that stemmed from a course last spring which is currently reading Wired to Care. I plan to keep up with this and possibly start another here in/at Cincinnati/P&G that appeals to a wider audience. I will also fulfill “write more” by posting my thoughts in blog form about each read. In terms of time, I plan to read for at least 30 minutes daily.
Work on a project: As a designer/engineer I’ve always got and idea in the oven, aside for the last 6 months. I plan to change this by allotting 3-4 hours per week for a non-work related project — possibly entering another national contest or finally building my website and online portfolio. At this point, I’ll kickoff this work with an ideation session since I really don’t know what I want to work on first.
I’m going to go get started!
