Wednesday, January 1, 2014

My 2014 Resolution: No Resolutions!

There have been several years in the past that I did New Year's Resolutions. And like many people, I did not stick with them very long.

I've decided to try something slightly different. Not one year goals I have in the past, but three year goals.

Anything shorter seems like it is trying to change too much too fast. Anything longer range - it's too hard for me to predict what is going to happen that far in the future and come up with goals that are realistic.

Once I have my goals figured out for three years in the future, I take it back to goals that will be in the one year time range, then break those into one month steps, then into weekly and daily habits that keep me moving in the right direction.

Some of the goals are ones I'd rather not publicly post, but I'll share a few of them.

My biggest three year goals are to be 100% debt free (mortgage and everything), have my house be free of clutter that is just taking up space and not providing any benefits, and get to a point that I am doing something with my life I'm truly passionate about.

To be on track for these goals, I need to pay off 1/4 of my mortgage in 2014 (we've been aggressively paying it down and living well below our means, so this is entirely possible), get rid of anything we don't use on a regular basis, and try I few things I might want to do with my life.

I've decided that every month, I'll have new goals on the way to these. For January I will doing daily devotions, be working on some kind of project outside of work every day (blogging counts so this is it for today), work out every day (need the energy and health to tackle the other goals).

I also plan on going to at least one big conference this year that covers what I want to do. Right now the best option looks like one called "World Domination Summit." Besides having a cool name, it is a conference dedicated to all kinds of creative people who make their living online. This includes bloggers, podcasters, and I believe independent developers.