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If you’re going to go to the time to make goals, you might as well make them public. So in the keeping with my tradition of past years, here are my 2012 Goals:

• I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for a while now. Late nights programming or just messing around on the internet have been the norm for years for me. My average time to bed is 12-12:30. Not an issue if you can sleep until 8. But I get up at 6-6:30 if not earlier based on the little bosses schedule. My goal, move the bed time up an hour and get 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Goal #1: Sleep More!
• This goal has been around for a couple of years in various forms. But even as I work more to make my goals happen, I need to make sure that the time spent with my wife and child are still 100% committed. That time between 5-8 right now is worth more than any paycheck you can give me. Goal #2: Time for family is a huge one.
• A goal that I’m pretty disappointed that I didn’t complete last year is my code shipping goal. With the amount of work that was put in, I should have been able to get this one done. But other things kept coming up and many many delays happened. This year will be different, action plans are in place! Goal #3: Ship Code.
• Fitness of coarse had to make the list. Last year, I set out to run 3 5K races in the year. I accomplished this goal on July 4th and didn’t run another race after that. I still ran, but it wasn’t with the same drive. I could do a simple mile instead of 2-3 and that was ok. But I’d like to keep more drive there to keep me going. On each of my races, I dropped my time. I’m hoping to do the same with this years goal but it will be tough. This years goal is to keep up the running and racing and do 5 5K races in 2012. Goal #4: 5×5.
• Yes, I’m a huge believer in goals being public. But this last one is going to be kept under wraps for a while. National security is involved and I don’t want it to get messy for you my dear readers. Goal #5: Top Secret

So there you have it. My 2012 goals. Obviously, a lot of work needs to happen to make these become a reality. Some goals I’m sure will be tough to do, but that’s the point of these right.

Let’s get to work!

As we come to the end of 2011, its time for the annual review of goals and another declaration of next years goals. So let’s wind them down and see how we did.

• Goal #1: Continue to work less. – SUCCESS! I consider this one more about family time than anything else. Family time has a high value to me and to be honest, I get pretty cranky when work interferes with that time. From 5-8 at night, I’m pretty much off limits unless its something involving my family. So while I’ve put in more hours on the side business this year at night and on weekends, the little boss gets my attention while he is awake. So I consider this one a success!
• Goal #2: Drink more water – FAIL. I’d like to blame this purely on my little on and the lack of sleep that I get, but in reality, he’s fallen into a nice pattern of sleep and this is really due to the side business keeping me up at night.
• Goal #3: Ship Code – FAIL. Sure I’ve written a lot of code this year and I have gotten several new web sites out the door. But that wasn’t the goal. The goal was to write and ship on of my iPhone app ideas. I’ve made a lot of progress on it, but haven’t gotten it out the door.
• Goal #4: Write a new blog article every week – SUCCESS! OK, maybe I should take partial credit on this one. The frequency hasn’t been exactly 1 post per week. But my average is there! As of this article, I have posted 56 articles in 2011. I’d like to have more posts but we’re making progress.
• Goal #5: Run in 3 5k races – SUCCESS. I destroyed this one accomplishing this goal by middle of the year. I want to have a fitness goal for 2012 again and it will probably be along these same lines, but I want to stretch it out and make it last the whole year long.

3 out of 5. 60%. This is not acceptable. Making progress from the 50% I hit in 2010, but we still have a long ways to go.

I only hit 50% on my 2010 goals and I’m looking to improve on that in 2011. So here we go, let’s do this.

• I’m a new Dad so I want to make sure that I keep my #1 goal from last year. I want to be around for Nolan so the main goal for me is to continue to work less. I know its a repeat goal, but I think its pretty important to keep the work / life balance in check. Goal #1: Continue to work less.
• While being a new Dad has a bunch of challenges, one of the biggest ones has been the lack of sleep. The little boss has been getting a lot better about sleeping through the night so my reliance on caffeine should be a lot less. Hopefully, I can replace some various carbonated beverages with water.
  Goal #2: Drink more water..
• My side business is still mainly a hobby for me. And while I will make it my sole source of income in the future, for the time being I can keep it as it is. One change I want to make this year is to ship code. I’ve had a bunch of ideas for iPhone apps, just haven’t found the time to get things out the door. Goal #3: Ship Code
• One thing that is nice about a blog is that you can update it whenever you want. You can also ignore it for weeks on end. One thing that I would like to change this year is to write more. I want to learn things just to learn about them again whether they are technical things, new code ideas, or just something that I find interesting completely unrelated to computers. Strong writers are strong communicators. Strong communication is key for both your personal life as well as your career. Goal #4: Write a new blog article every week.
• My last goal is probably very similar to a lot of New Year’s resolutions that are made but rarely accomplished. Its not that I’ve gotten fat. Not by a long stretch. But I have a sliding +/- for my weight. As long as I’m plus or minus 5 from X, I feel pretty good about where I am at. And I’m in that range, just been living a little bit on the higher side of my scale. So, in order to lower that, I’m going to commit to running more distance races this year. That should keep me in a certain fitness level that will allow me to stay in my range. Goal #5: Run in 3 5k races

So there you have them. My goals for 2011. I’m feeling pretty good about everything that I have on there. I think that I can do it all. Its just a matter of putting my mind to it, balancing out my time and putting in the hard work.