2019 Goals: Q1 Update
It’s April now, so I am 3 months deep into 2019. Here’s how things are going with my goals.
Overview: I’ve made reasonable progress on a number of goals, have many goals I haven’t started because my free time has been mostly committed to selling and remodeling my house, and a few goals I’m not interested in completing anymore. I’m actually surprised about how much progress I’ve made already and excited to see things open up after the house is finished.
Physical:
Stretching and Flexibility: I have had mild increase in flexibility, but I have not been doing as much intentional physical activity with the house remodel. My plan is to join the local yoga gym at my new house and try to attend at least 2 times a week in the morning.
Skin Case: I have been washing my face in the evenings, and applying moisturizer in the morning and at night. I can already see massive improvements in my skin health. I had no idea how good my face could look with relatively little effort.
Dental Hygiene: I’ve been flossing semi-regularly, but not as consistently as I’d like. More improvement here.
Sleep Hygiene: I had my phone outside my room all of January, then switched back in February for no good reason. I need to flip back to this because it was a very effective forcing function for getting out of bed in the morning.
Wrists Healed: I can’t tell if my wrists are feeling better because I’m doing less jiu jitsu, or if the mild work I’ve been doing has improved them. This, like stretching, will be an area of focus after the house move.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu:
Attacking jiu jitsu: I’ve been pushing this more, as well as forcing scrambles. I’ve had a lot more success at finding submissions in scramble situations, which I attribute to no-gi practice more than anything.
Training partners: I have been very consistent with always making sure that one of my rolls is above my level and pushes me. It’s both great and discouraging, which is exactly what I wanted.
Stand-up and takedowns: I’ve improved mildly in this area. I notice it most from scrambles, where I am using the principles of takedowns to get an advantage or knock my opponent off balance. I also greatly appreciated Dan’s advice to follow through on takedown attempts with tiny movements forward, “baby steps” instead of abandoning them. I’ve had a lot more success because of this.
Contribution: The kids class continues to be amazing. I helped one of my jiu jitsu buddies get a job at Premera, and I hope to do more work in that area for others at the gym.
Competition: I have not yet competed.
Learning: I have started in on Danaher’s back attack series, and I’ve been learning a lot about front headlock and leg locks from YouTube as well.
No Major Injuries: Alas, this one will be a failure this year. I had a pretty severe elbow injury from an overzealous white belt that took me off the mats for 3 full weeks and it’s still not fully recovered. Taking it slow with recovery and trying to get it fully healed and not re-injured.
Nutrition and diet:
Cook a steak: Have not practiced this.
Nutrition learning: Doing keto in January was a really cool opportunity to learn more about gycolysis and lipolysis, as well as a fun stint into cholesterol. I don’t have a good sense of nutrition content when not on keto, but I’m excited to learn more.
Food ethics: This has taken a back seat with the remodel and house sale. We are eating out a lot more and I’ve traded practicality for ethics. Shame on me! I hope to really get into this after the move.
Fun:
Salsa dancing: Have not salsa danced, but didn’t plan to during the house remodel. Did some research and found lots of places to go dancing and many places offer a lesson before the party starts.
Washington and Seattle Tour: Have not completed anything on these lists.
Bravo Bravo club: I think this goal should be abandoned and isn’t that interesting to me anymore.
Learning:
Reading list: I’ve read 6 books this year already, so I’m well on my way to hitting my target early target of 10 books, and exactly on target for hitting 24 by end of year. A huge boost on this was because I decided to pick up a new Kindle Paperwhite after several years of analog reading.
Learn Piano: I have mostly dropped this during the remodel. Just not enough free time. I’m going to pick this back up when the remodel is finished. It was fun and challenging and didn’t take much commitment each day to make a little progress.
Vocabulary Words: I have a spreadsheet of words I’m pushing through, and have been playing free rice fairly regularly. I’m looking into creating Anki lists, but spaced repetition is a long term investment.
Audio:
Gaming podcast: I haven’t met with Tyson on this yet. Hoping this can still work out this year.
AI podcast: No progress.
Stoic reading: Mild progress. Recorded a chapter of Meditations.
Home:
Intentional Living community: No progress. I doubt whether this will take off.
House Repairs: This has been a huge time sink! But it’s looking amazing. Hoping to move into the new house by end of the month.
House Sale: House goes on sale Monday!
Career:
Ai Conference: No progress.
Reading group: No progress
Visual Communications: Some progress. I’ve been very intentional about the content I’m creating, and thinking a lot about how different audiences need a different story for it to land.
Healthcare and tech strategy: I’ve been reading a ton in this space and there is just so much information to consume. It’s wonderful.
Self:
Meditation Habit: I have been really good at this goal. The Waking Up app is amazing and exactly what I needed. I’m seeing good results and I’m looking forward to trying to practice longer term meditiations.
Meditation retreat: I’m targeting August for the retreat. Have not done much research here yet.
Breathing: Not a ton of Wim Hof breathing, maybe 5 or so intentional sessions, though I use it almost every time I start to feel cold. I’d like to do more of this.
Gratefulness: I’m trying to make space one or twice a week to tell people who I am grateful for that I appreciate them.
Get Hotter: I have a great hair stylist now, but have not put on significant upper body mass, or changed my clothes.
Journaling: Have not done this.
Finance:
Debt Reduction: Standard payments. Expect more after the remodel.
GM Vocab: Have a ton of content here, but haven’t played with format yet.
Idle Game: Still kind of interested, but the work here is a reasonably large time commitment. May not be worth it.
Philosophy Rash Guard: Have a half finished design for a Marcus Aurelius rash guard.
