New Year resolutions
Year 2016 was a very exciting year, year of changes. I finished my leadership and management studies, quit my old job to pursue a more flexible career as a sole trader and web developer. I also rented out my apartment and moved to Portugal for two and half months to travel and work remotely. I hope 2017 is even better, but then again if I can get even close to the awesomeness of 2016 I think I’ll be quite happy.
In earlier post I mentioned about creating a framework for personal development and I’ve got some kind of framework now in place, ready just in time for 2017. I’ve divided the promises and targets into two main categories: personal development and friends, family & and the rest. These targets are somewhat similar to good old New Year resolutions, but there are also few major differences.
Process
I have a very simple process for following the progress through the year. I have scheduled todos using Wunderlist todo app for every three months to remind me of the targets and checking their statuses and I’ve also started scheduling the needed work regarding some of the targets. It is very easy to forget new year promises after few weeks – maybe subconsciously on purpose 🙂 – so this process thingy should at least remove one obstacle on the road towards personal development.
Big picture
All the targets I’ve wrote down are more or less part of something bigger instead of being single and isolated targets for one year. I’ve also tried to make each target very concrete and easy to measure and evaluate if the target has been reached or not. In some cases I’ve left some leeway on purpose.
Main categories
Self development
This category is quite self explanatory. I have targets for improving health, physical well-being, professional skills, financials and so on. I’ve also prioritised these sub-categories to ensure I’m focusing on the most important targets first and for less important things the target for the year is to keep them in the same level where they are now.
Fiends, family and the rest
This category is focused towards things I could do for my friends, family and people globally. In this category my targets for 2017 are very modest, but I hope I’m able to contribute more in the coming years.
Year 2017
I’ve been here in Oulu for two weeks now and it’s been alright so far. For the last few days it’s been freezing cold and I’ve stayed inside working, exercising and trying to photoshoot birds: not very exciting way to start the year. But I don’t really mind about the weather now since I’m heading to somewhere warm very soon anyways :).
I ended up writing down about 30 targets for the year. Quite many of them are things I’d most likely do anyway, some can be achieved with relatively low effort while some will require months of work and commitment. Some examples:
- Ability to do 25 pull-ups
- Reduce bad cholesterol level under N
- Take part in some photography challenge or competition
- Donate more for charity than last year
And even if most of the targets are somewhat serious I also slipped in few less serious targets I don’t dare to mention here yet :).
If the last year was about change I guess the theme for me for 2017 is personal development. Less shoveling, more learning. Thanks for reading this far, I wish you a happy new year and I hope you have a great time ahead!
