I’ve never been one to rejoice in a New Year; looking at it as an excuse for a new beginning and attempting to make resolutions that I won’t keep more than 3–5 days after Jan. 1. But with Dec. 30th putting me over the hump of being closer to 40 than 30 (oh, god!), one tends to reflect (mostly in the shower) on how life is treating you and how you treat life. The question is, “Are you there yet?”.
To me, nobody is perfect and there’s always room for improvement, and I have quite a bit of room to improve. Without getting too deep, I wanted to lay out some of my goals, or as we say at Microsoft, Commitments for ‘06. I’m not trying to get too deep here, but I wanted to lay out some of my commitments for 2006, write them down, make it official; and than come back a year from now to tally up how I did. Without sounding too corny, here goes nothing…
1.) Health– Adapt to a healthier lifestyle;I’m well over my target weight for my height (I’m 6’4”, ~255lbs.). I’d like to drop 20 lbs by ‘07. More would be nice, but I have to start somewhere. And as one who has never lost weight before, I want to keep the goal at a challenging, yet attainable (hopefully) level. I’m going to need help on this one because I’m not quite sure where to start.I do plan to starteatinghealthier includingconsuming smaller portions and eating more fruit. I’m not so much concerned with the weight as I am with the size of my waist band. The goal is togo from a 40 to 38 with the ultimate goal being a 36. This is probably the biggest most challenging commitment and I’m sure I’m not alone here.
2.) Family – at a minimum, schedule one day a month where it’s just me and the girls. Also, schedule at least one date/month with the wife – no kids!
3.) Home – complete at least one “honey do” project per month.
4.) Financial – shoot for 10–15% return on investments; set up college savings plan for the girls.
5.) Work – achieve all of my work commitments and provide a major impact into the success of the Midwest district and Central region DPE organization (a little vague, I know).
6.)Sports – Golf: play more without effecting the other commitments; break 80 for the first time; get handicap down <12. Tennis: Start playing Tennis on a regular basis after a 10+ year hiatus.
7.) Lifestyle – Read at least 4 non-technical, non-business related books. I’m a slllloooowwww reader. My mind tends to wander when I read. I wonder if this is correctable?
8.) Organization and Time Management – get control of my Inbox and my home office. Also, figure out what the right life/work balance is.
9.) To blog more. And not to blog just to blog, but to blogabout the things that some people might find useful. I made a lot of good friends and contacts by blogging about Team System. My new job at Microsoft has taken me away from the time I had to research VSTS in depth. I’m now playing catch up with some of the *many* other technologies coming out of Redmond. I need to blog on the those “ah-ha” moments or those “isn’t this cool” tidbits I run across. The problem is, there’s already a large number of very smart and articulate people communicating those very things. I don’t need to add anything to the mix that isn’t already there. But if it isn’t, I’ll be sure to blog about it.
Well.. that’s it for now. I’m sure I can think of some more but I need to get the list out there. For someone that doesn’t believe in resolutions, I have quite a healthy list to live up to and I’m looking to you (the blogging community) to keep me to it.
With that, here’s to a happy and healthy ‘06 to everyone!
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