Every new year I set annual goals, which I mostly fail to achieve. Let’s take stock:
Goal 1: Get Swole
I did, right at the beginning of the year, join the new weightlifting gym near my house and sign up with a personal trainer. Throughout January and February I went to the gym 3x a week: leg day, pull day, push day. Two of those days with a personal trainer, one without. The hotel that I stay at when I travel to Los Angeles on business has a neat deal where for $5 they’ll loan you gym shoes and workout clothes for your stay (although it looks like they’ve discontinued it, uh oh), and so I lifted weights on those trips as well.
And then the Coronavirus hit. The gym has been making a valiant effort to stay open, but I have not been making the same effort to go (and risk infection). I probably could (and should) have been doing bodyweight stuff at home, but I haven’t.
When it feels safe to go back to the gym, I’ll go back.
Verdict: failure
Goal 2: Stand-up Comedy
One of the most unusual perks of working at AI2 was that every year at the holiday party they let me do a brief stand-up comedy set. As I no longer work there, I no longer have access to this perk. And so I thought I’d do stand up comedy for real. I found a comedy club somewhat close to where I live out in the ‘burbs that has (or had) a weekly open mic night. And for the first two months of this year I kept thinking about going.
And then the Coronavirus hit. I’m pretty sure they stopped doing the open mic night, but mostly I stopped paying attention.
Verdict: failure
Goal 3: Learn Jazz Piano
I signed up a while back for the jazz piano class on ArtistWorks. But I almost never spent any time on it, so when it was time to renew I didn’t.
Verdict: failure
Goal 4: Learn Woodworking
I watched a bunch of woodworking videos on YouTube, does that count?
Verdict: failure
Goal 5: Write a Novel
This is the one goal I made some progress on. I immersed myself in the Snowflake Method and crafted the skeleton of my novel. I have written about 10,000 words, which means I’m 1/5 done with the first draft? 1/6? 1/7? Certainly more than 1/10.
Verdict: incomplete
This is an exceptionally bad performance. I think in 2019 I achieved something like half my personal goals.
Despite this, I don’t feel like the year has been a failure: my commute got a lot better, my job is going reasonably well, I published the Fizz Buzz book, I gave some good virtual talks, I got a couple of chickens, I really upped my cooking game, I have been making a concerted effort to breathe exclusively through my nose, and I’m doing a pretty good job eating low-carb-high-fat all the time. I guess I just set the wrong goals.
All of this brings us to 2021:
Goal 1: Finish the Novel
This feels doable. What happens once it’s finished? I have no idea.
Goal 2: Lose 15 Pounds
I am already eating well, so this one is more of a mystery to me. Likely the problem is that I still have too many carbs in my diet: (1) they are hidden in the sauces and tomato pastes that I like to add to my cooking, and (2) I eat too much Theo dark chocolate.
Since I’m working from home, I could probably spend a big chunk of my lunch hour on the rowing machine that I never use. We’ll see if that actually takes.
Goal 3: Podcast More
I have some kind of mental block around editing episodes. (If I believed in therapy, this would be a good thing to discuss with a therapist.) I need to get over this and edit some episodes that have been sitting in Dropbox for a long time.
If I can get past this, I also want to record more episodes, although also I sort of feel like I don’t have a ton to say about data science these days.
Goal 4: Write a Newsletter Every Week
You’re reading it. Hold me to it.
Goal 5: Make More Music
Those of you who were lucky enough to see my Twitter “fleets” know that while I may not be an accomplished musician, I am an enthusiastic one:
In the new year I hope to up my game and post my music in a less ephemeral way.
Goal 6: [redacted]
Covid will make this one tough but not impossible.
I hope you had better luck with your goals than I did. I also hope that you’re surviving (and thriving, if possible) in this difficult year, and that you’ll join me in setting ambitious goals for the next one.
Happy new year!
- Joel