2009 Resolution Knockout

Oh brother.

Another year gone, another year older. As has become a tradition with me, its time again to review my resolutions from last year, and make some more for this year. In general, I think New Year's Resolutions are stupid because hardly anyone ever sticks to them. They're way too long term, and people set the bar entirely too high thinking they have plenty of time (a year) to get there. Then they make the same resolution all over again next year with no new plan in place to achieve it.

And they say we learn from our mistakes.

I know what you're thinking. "Well if New Year's Resolutions are so darn stupid Arun, then why do you waste time making them you big fat hypocrite!"

Ok, I may be big and fat courtesy of my copious holiday eating, but hypocritical I certainly am NOT (and I don't appreciate the name-calling either)!

"In general" they are dumb, but I break up my goals into daily, weekly, and monthly goals to make them attainable, thus they become more useful.

One of the problems I realized with the resolutions I made last year, is that they were far too general which makes them difficult to focus on and equally difficult to evaluate. Regardless, here goes the evaluation:

1. Increase my Output
I'm going to give myself a 9/10 on this. There were some projects I wanted to finish that didn't get done, but overall, I generated a lot more tangible output in addition to what I normally do (and did the previous year). This includes two ebooks, a new web page, another short blog, written articles, work on Relay for Life, and new Music gigs.

2. Begin to delve into the world or Passive Income.
Again, too general. Delve into passive income doing what? Didn't do anything here much differently than last year. 3/10. Don't really know if I could've done a whole lot here though. In fact, I actually LOST some dough in the stock market. This goal kind of took a backseat as I worked on other projects, and I think steady passive income flow needs to be a singular goal which could very well accomplish nothing in just a year, but possibly pay off in the very long term.

3. Make long term goals clearer.
6/10. Well I did learn that I want to do something else other than BORING engineering. Now the question is, what? I'm pretty sure I have a solid path scoped out, but now it's just a matter of making sure it's perfect before diving in. Didn't give myself a great score yet because I seriously have no idea where I'll be and what I'll be doing a year from now.

4. Become Healthier.
TOO GENERAL ARUN! But, I will still give myself a 9/10. I dropped some weight at the beginning of the year and became healthier that ever!

And now for 2009's Resolutions!

1. Get in optimal Marathon shape:
I'm running a marathon in May (my first one!) and I'm not gonna just fiddle faddle my way through it. I want to be awesome which means I'm gonna have to drop 10 or 15 pounds and ramp up my running training! I'm not particularly looking forward to the training (but seriously, who does?) but I've gotta do it!

2. Make the San Diego Downtown Relay For Life Awesome!
I am the Team Recruitment Chair and the biggest contribution for making Relay awesome, is having a ton of people! Last year we had 18 teams. The general model the American Cancer society advocates is an 18 % growth per year which would make it 21 total teams for this year.

Screw the model!

I'm shooting for 45 teams this year! That means if you live near or in San Diego, you have to get involved...if not for Cancer victims, do it for ME!

3. Launch my Ebook
This has taken quite a bit longer than I thought it would. I have two ebooks written, the main one as well as a companion book, but writing the ad copy, modifying graphics, and setting up the website is taking some time. This year, I'm going to launch the book and dedicate some time to advertising and making "The Social Charmer" awesome! I haven't decided what "awesome" constitutes yet, but I suppose I'll know when I get there ;)

4. Increase my Musical Opportunities.

After I played in my first open mic I suddenly felt a new inspiration to perform music again! Since the open mic, I played with my friend Chad Cavanaugh at Mondo Gelato in San Diego and have started writing new music. I want to create an entirely original set to play in front of people.

5. Increase my Writing Opportunities.
I wrote for a couple of publications this year that didn't really pan out as I had hoped. I'm going to look for more opportunities (including possible another ebook?) to keep writing!

6. Begin my Educational pursuit.
It's time for me to hit the books and get a degree that lends itself to a career I love. No more mulling around on my Safety Net. It's time to get busy on my next career!

So there you have it. A pretty ambitious list, but I've already started attacking it and am really going to try a score perfect 10's for next year's evaluation!