Goal Setting

As the end of the year is quickly approaching, I like to look back at what I have accomplished for the year and what new things I will strive to complete in 2010. Some people like to make a New Year’s resolution. I personally think that this is great, but limiting. Most people will set one goal for the year and probably abandon that resolution within a few months. Typically these resolutions center around weight loss which is fine and the local gyms like to prey on these individuals.

For me, I like a nice set of goals to work towards. I do this both professionally and personally. I can’t share my professional goals with you as most of them involve products yet to be launched.

However, I can share some of my personal goals.

  1. Continue to work on not working too hard. The home life balance is just that, a balance. I need to continue to work on making sure that work life does not overlap into the home life. The big boss and I will celebrate 10 years this year. Seeing the next 10 and the 10 after that is pretty important to me. When I look back in 50 years, I don’t want to say, I should have spent more time with my family. I’m fine not getting a project done if it means having a better life at home. Goal #1: work less

  2. Yes, I do have some of the same weight goals like the rest of you. But I’m not going to state I want to weigh XYZ by date X. I first thought about setting a goal where I would run 4 – 5K races this year. Yes, its something that I haven’t done before but it isn’t that much of a stretch for me. For some people, running 3.2 miles is a joke. I used to be one of those people back in high school. For others, running a mile is something that they could never do. Which is pretty sad, but one of the harsh realities of our culture today. Running 4 races takes some time and keeping a certain physical endurance up but its not a huge stretch for where I am currently. And I’m not going to be crazy enough to say I’m going to run a marathon this year. I just don’t have the time or the desire. Instead, my goal is to do something that i haven’t done in 15 years. Back in high school, our soccer team had to run 2 miles in under 12 minutes. This is something that I haven’t done since then and it definitely takes some endurance and muscle to get there. Along the way, I figure that I will drop to the weight I want to be at in order to accomplish this goal. So goal #2: 2 in 12.

    • Get more out of my side business. You would think that this is completely contradictory to goal #1. But my goal is to dedicate 1 hour a day to my side business. Make a 5 hour work week and see what I can do. Typically the big boss goes to bed before I do so this works out well. I usually have 2 hours to read blogs, cruise the internet and work on side projects. I need to put more of a focus on my side business which is something that I haven’t done as good of a job as I would like in 2009. Goal #3: the 5 hour work week.
    • Inbox Zero – all year! I will review here shortly in another blog post, my inbox is better, but its not as clean as i would like it to be. I need to do a better job of turning emails into action items that I can put on a list. I think email automation to tasks will be a pretty huge accomplishment for 2010. Goal #4: Inbox Zero!
    • As a computer guy, I spend a LOT of time in front of the computer screen. I surf, program, blog, tweet, update facebook, check email, the list can go on and on. One thing that I don’t spend enough time doing is being away from the screen and getting lost in a good book. I like to read and have several books sitting around waiting to be cracked open. I just don’t spend enough time actually doing this activity. I’m going to dedicate myself to reading more in 2010. Goal #5: read one book a month.
5 goals for 2010. Some will take time, some will take hard work, but all are do-able. I’ll let you know how my goals are reached through out the year.