2024: My New Year's Resolutions
As many of you in the working world are surely setting goals for the year, it’s natural to take a pause and set some goals for yourself. I typically haven’t done “New Year’s Resolutions” as I’ve found it hokey. It’s almost a self-fulfilling prophecy - set them on January 1st or somewhere around that day, work really hard to fulfil them for about 30 days, then completely abandon the ideas that were such a good idea and move on to something else. I’ve been guilty of this more times than I can count.
That’s why I’ve decided this year is different. I need to challenge myself. I need to set goals that are potentially not reachable in hopes that I do reach them and consider this year a success by pre-defined thresholds. Surely the year will bring surprises that I have no line-of-sight on now, and have changes both major and minor that I did plan. Therefore, against my default setting of cynicism, I’ve set the following goals for myself:
Read/listen to at least 24 books. In 2023, I listened to roughly 15 books throughout the 2023 year… a year where the Resolution went awry. In 2022, I traveled so much that I earned “status” on Delta. Felt like I was flying everywhere the whole year. I consumed more books than was reasonable to track. Whereas traveling that much wasn’t great for my home life, it was great for my love of learning. I’d like to duplicate that level of learning without leaving my wife to manage our girls and home on her own. How I plan to do that is related to the following two goals.
I’d like to go for a walk every day - ideally, at least an hour. At work, we get “points” for steps and exercise that we can cash-in for money and swag. The walk is great for fresh air as well, exploring the neighborhoods around our new house that I would have no other reason to explore. The reason for the steps goes beyond pure exercise, though. I work from home and I work globally. I was asked by a mentee of mine a little while back how I find a good work/life balance, and my honest answer was I don’t have it. With my personal phone and my work phone merged, I’m available when my eyes are open. When I was back in an office, I didn’t have that connectivity. I don’t miss being disconnected, but I do miss the commute. I’ve never lived further than 30 minutes from a place I worked so I’m not pretending that I’ve had this incredibly daunting commute. The car ride to and from work/home allowed for me to have a buffer between “work Travis” and “life Travis”. This is similar to a not-related agreement my wife and I had when we first started dating. I played a lot of softball in the summers back then, and played a lot of volleyball in the winters. I’ve never been good enough at either sport to truly influence the outcome of the game, but that has never stopped me from loathing losing. Competition is #2 on my StrengthsFinder and it shows up in everything I do… not just sports. I bring it up because the aforementioned agreement was that I had the time it took to drive to and from the field/court to be pissed about losing, with the understanding that when I walked into the house I was no upset. Having a buffer is good for me, and good for my family. The walks will be that buffer.
Sub-goal: record 5 days of 30,000 steps. That’s 15 (or so) miles, and this is a sub-goal for a reason. It’s a stretch at best and will require a whole lot more time than an hour between work and dinner. A quick Google search states that it’s 4-5 hours.
Related to the 2nd goal above, I’d like to lose 50 pounds this year. That’s a lot of weight to lose but good news - I can afford to lose it! My weight loss “journey” has had its lumps and bruises. I’ve been a big kid my whole life in comparison to my peers. After college though, it’s fair to say that I’ve let it get out of control. A handful of years ago, I took two prescribed medications - Contrave and Saxenda - and I lost 80 pounds in about a year. When I moved from Zoetis to Stryker, my insurance provider didn’t change but the plan sure did, and those medications aren’t covered anymore with Stryker’s insurance. I have since gained all of that weight back, and it’s hit my self-confidence pretty hard. For those that know me well, it might be a good shot of reality to my ego, and that’s fair haha. Joking aside though, I’d like to get as healthy as is feasible to give myself the best shot of seeing my kids have kids someday. Hell, maybe see great-grandkids. Good time to call my financial advisor with this longevity talk.
I’m posting this on my website for two reasons: 1) to remind myself that these are the goals as of January 4th, 2024, and 2) to have the 4 people who might actually read this hold me accountable. Accountabilibuddies, if you will.