Resolutions

The theory goes that if you tell people about your resolutions or goals, you are more likely to see them through. With this in mind, I thought I'd share with you my current set of resolutions. I'm a big believer in personal development and tend to make (too many) New Year's Resolutions every year. I would say I seem to mostly stick to them, but I do cop some flak from Jess for being a crazy person when I miss something I was going to do and then obsess about it until I do it and catch up.

1. Go to the gym three times a week

Currently on track with this goal, and it helps that Jess has the same one. We've even bought gold stars to stick on our calendar for psychological reward; I guess the little bit of healthy competition helps motivate us both to go too. Since I've stopped going to boot camp, I'm also getting a kick from how much money I'm saving going to the gym at my work. It also helps that I'm starting to see some results!

2. Drink less alcohol

Currently on track with this goal too, and again one that both Jess and I made this year. Towards the end of last year, Jess and I found ourselves having something to drink almost every evening after work. Not only was this a bad habit to be in health-wise, it was burning a hole through our wallets. Cutting back has been surprisingly easy, just remove the supply and only purchase alcohol when necessary. Having a strong saving goal has also helped, as with less disposable income, you have to really prioritise what you buy - and parking at work and band practice is a better use of dollars.

On the downside, when we have been drinking this year I have noticed I am more of a lightweight than before. And I get worse hangovers.

3. Pay back the wedding by 30 June

I'm ahead of this goal at the moment because I'm saving much more than I need to, however I figure this gives me a buffer if some other expenses (like rego) come up down the track. I've got a little less than $6000 to go. The deadline is arbitrary, but there is some pressure because it's sooner than 'the end of the year', however that is the fallback plan. This is kind of a dual goal, because paying off the wedding is actually contributing to our saving for a house deposit.

4. Complete the 26 Fortnight (52 week) saving challenge

This ties in with the previous goal because it all goes towards our first home deposit. The 52 week saving challenge was something I picked up from Lifehacker. It's really simple; you start your first week by saving $1, then the second week you save $2, third week $3 and so on, by the end of the year you have an extra $1,378 in your pocket.

I've made a couple of modifications to this. Firstly, I've adjusted it so the amount is paid fortnightly to match up with my pay cycle. And secondly, I'm doing it in reverse ($103 in the first fortnight, $99 in the second etc.) because (a) there are less things at the start of the year that could derail me like birthdays, Christmas and other holidays and (b) to take advantage of the compounding interest - larger balances early on make the most use of interest, as it has a higher base to calculate from. So I'll end up saving more than the $1,378 thanks to interest payments across the year.

5. Practice mindfulness

This goal is to remind me to slow down occasionally and to try to just be present in the moment. Not worrying or thinking about things I should or have to do. To take stock of the good things, and to realise that all in all I'm pretty happy with how my life is going.

6. Be a better friend - remember birthdays, think of good gifts, enjoy your social life

As I've become older, I've realised I'm more of an introvert than an extrovert. I appreciate having my own time and space to do things that I enjoy, and a lot of the time these things are solitary activities. Writing this blog, playing drums, playing video games, reading books, listening to podcasts; they're all things that most of the time, I do alone. Unfortunately, this often has its downsides. I find sometimes I just want to do my own thing over doing stuff with other people, which makes me feel quite selfish. So ultimately, this goal is about balance. Enjoying my 'me time' is fine, but I need to work on being extroverted and social when the time calls for it.

7. Get recording studio going, learn to use ProTools, keep up the good work with the band!

Jess bought me ProTools - the industry standard recording software - for Christmas last year. This is awesome, but I'm completely unfamiliar with it. I've dabbled with other sound recording software in the past, but I've never used anything like this before. I'd really love to use it to finish the recording I started a while ago - a cover of Witchy Woman by the Eagles. I am hoping that I can eventually do enough covers for a full album.

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Those goals that I've stated above are my 'big ticket' resolutions. They're printed on a piece of paper that's stuck behind our toilet door. I'm resolved to do those. The following are minor goals, things I would like to do, but I'm trying not to be so adamant about doing them if other stuff comes up.

Music Tuesday and rudiments practice

Last year I tried to schedule time every Monday afternoon to sit and practice my drums. It worked well, except at the time my band was mostly practicing on Sunday, so it involved a lot of set up and I was already tired of drumming from the day before. I've moved it to Tuesday to better suit.

Rudiments practice is to concentrate on improving my drumming technique, and for the fact that you can't get your 10,000 hours without constantly challenging yourself. Each week, I've designated one rudiment (out of 40) to focus on, and I repeat the previous two weeks' rudiments to solidify them in my mind. As with just about everything else I do, I have a spreadsheet where I fill in the top speed I can get to with this particular rudiment and the ranking associated with that BPM (Vic Firth's Rudiments sheets specify five levels from Bronze through to Diamond). I'm seeing progress in my abilities and in my drumming in general since I've started doing this.

Mind expansion Sunday

At the end of last year, I thought to myself that it's very easy to become insular and consumed by your own little world. To only be concerned with your job, bills, social activities etc. Once you are set in your ways and don't re-examine, question, or challenge your beliefs and values, it's very easy to stop growing intellectually. Thinking about bigger ideas that are outside of this realm is not something that usually comes up organically; most people don't like talking about things they find challenging, or require them to think hard about their position or stance on a topic. But as a matter of course, I think you should constantly evaluate your opinions - to identify your biases and question their merit.

As well as this, I believe that you should be forever furthering your skills and knowledge, if only to exercise your grey matter and without a goal necessarily  in mind for it. It has taken me a long time to rediscover my inquisitiveness and curiosity, and I think a lot of it has to do with the structure present throughout school and university. I didn't pick up a novel for a few years after Year 12 English, and I've only just picked up textbooks again after Uni.

Finally, the idea to schedule Sunday morning has stemmed from looking at churches. Every Sunday, masses of religious folk go and think about big stuff: life and death, the afterlife, doing good the community and so on. As an Atheist, I respect that it is a time that people reflect on these issues. I like the concept and think that it is a valuable use of time to consider big stuff. There's nothing really like church for Atheists (nor, I think, should there be), however I don't believe this should preclude Atheists from thinking similarly about such topics.

Writing this blog

I make the same goal almost every year. As things quiet down after Christmas, work settles back in and free time seems easy to come by, I often think I should start writing my blog again. This year is no different, though I'm hoping that I can follow through this time. I'd like to make an average of one blog post per week for the year. Ideas for content are most welcome, just leave them in the comments below.

Spring cleaning the house

As many of my friend's will attest, I strive to be a minimalist (Hey! A rhyming couplet!). It's amazing the sort of crap you accumulate over time, and most of it is just that - crap. So each week this year, I'm going to pick a room of our house and spring clean it; getting rid of any crap by donating it, gifting it, selling it or simply throwing it out.

Read 12 books this year

Reading is one of my favourite activities. It's also proven to help your ability to write. Getting through an average of a book a month shouldn't prove too difficult, especially since I've discovered the wonders that are audiobooks. I've already got through New Spring for January this way, and I've usually got a few books on the go at any one time, depending on what I feel like reading. My problem will be if I stick to big, thick books - it may force me to reading Grug and Mr. Men come December.

So that's it for stuff I want to do in 2014. I'll let you know how I go along the way - probably through updating this blog (yay content!) - wish me luck!