My resolutions/goals for 2005 (the less personal ones anyway):
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Improve my writing style
I like to write, but I need a lot of improvement. People often get lost or confused when I write something long. Then again, some people get confused when I write something short! I don’t want a NEW writing style, but to polish what I already have. The people who suffer through read my stuff all the way through usually say they enjoy it a great deal. I’d like to increase the audience that can enjoy what I write. Feedback in this area is greatly appreciated.
Improve my work ethic
The problem (for me) with being largely self-employed is that I’m lazy if I’m not getting paid. Yes, I realize that that’s a pretty good oxymoron. It was a tough one to come up with. What I mean is that I work better when someone comes to me and says “I’ll pay you X dollars to ____.” Or “I’ll pay you x dollars per hour for ____.” But when I do my own thing I take longer to get the job done. I waste too much time. It’s really dumb because working for myself there is no (theoretically) limit to how much I can make if I put my mind to it. Yet I waste time because it takes a little bit more effort?? Or what? Maybe I need to figure out what it really is that slows me down. Well whatever the cause, I am striving to improve my work ethic.
Wake up early
People have told me that waking up early gets easier the more you do it. For me though, I believe this to be a bunch of hogwash (isn’t that a nice word?). When I was a missionary for my church I went to bed at 10:30 PM and woke up at 6:30 AM every day. Every day for a little over two years (minus one or two times I forgot to set my alarm and a handful of times I had to stay up late making phone calls) and it never got easier! I still felt every bit as rotten in the morning on day 791 as I did on day 1. What did get easier though was that I accepted the fact that it would never get easier and just bit the proverbial bullet and made myself do it. So I’m once again again trying to accept the fact that waking up early will not get easier, but is actually physically possible (I was tempted to write “impossible” and forget this whole resolution!)
I like what my sister recently said about waking up early “Waking up, for me, is like coming out of a coma. I’ve never been in a coma, nor have I ever even known anyone in a coma. But I went to nursing school and I swear it’s how I feel. Like I’m waking up from the dead. Like I’m Sleeping Beauty finally opening her eyes after 100 years of snoozing into my flannel pillow case. Only not so much with the Beauty part.”
I didn’t go to nursing school, and don’t really want to compare myself to sleeping beauty so I’ll use going to Kindergarten and the story of Rip Van Winkle who slept for twenty years and two days instead.
Oh yeah, the goal part. “Wake up early” shall hereby be defined as “by 8:00 AM”. There can be exceptions, but they should be rare. (No, I don’t wish to make going to bed early a goal. hmmm…. there could be a conflict here.)
Compliment people more
I love to meet and compliment people, but almost always freeze when I try to say something nice to a stranger. Turn on some music and let me ask girls to dance and I’ll be fine with complimenting them on their dancing or something, but turn the music off and I go back into hiding. It’s time to let myself be the outgoing person that I know I can be (and actually am sometimes). Now I don’t mean for you to think I consider myself shy. I’m not… well, I am until I say hello. Once I say hello (or hi, hola, howdy, hey, or want a kumquat?) I’m fine. Comlimenting a stranger is a bit different though. That takes a little more effort. Brian told a great story about complimenting people that I think would be fun to do. Working up to doing that though will be a bit tough I think. I will do it though (although probably not on a bus like he did since I don’t ride the bus)! This year I will geniunely compliment more people, more frequently!
Finish and release huge web project (currently only in planning stages)
I’m just hoping it’s not too big for one man to pull off in any reasonable amount of time.
Learn how to write complex Firefox and Thunderbird extensions
I have several really good ideas I’d like to do (I think they’re good ideas anyway).
Move out of my parent's house (shhh! don't tell my mom!)
I like living at home for a few reasons: It’s cheap, I like my family, and free food (ie, it’s cheap). But it’s time to move. Living on my own would further prepare me for the rest of my life. For example, I plan on getting married someday (I sure hope so anyway). Living on my own I wouldn’t be depending on other people for things (eg. food) therefore making it easier to make the transition to providing for a family. Or in other words it’s easier to transition from a good amount of responsibilities to more responsibilities than it is to go from very few responsibilities to lots of responsibilities. That’s a lot of responsibilities.
To be determined
This goal means that I am to keep an open mind to new opportunities that come my way, even if they could mess up my current goals for ryanware.com and other projects. Each new opportunity must be weighed against my current projects and goals before jumping either way. To not keep an open mind towards new opportunties could prove to hold me back, instead of helping me advance. So I will try to keep an open mind to new opportunities that come my way.
I have many other more personal goals (like eating a kumquat) that I’d rather not share (except the one about the kumquat), but I figure posting these will help me accomplish them (writing down and making goals public helps a lot). If I remember, I’ll post about these again mid-year and then at the end of next year to let you know how they’re going and how I did. :)