I don’t know if I would consider the following things new year’s resolutions.  Actually, I think those kinds of things are silly.  Why wait until a new year to change yourself? There’s no better time than the present, as it is said.  Most new year resolutions fail early in the year anyway, but that’s not really what this post is about.  It is about what I want to accomplish this year.  I have different areas of my life that I’m targeting that I will discuss below (not in order of importance). 

 

Running

It took half a year, but I finally got moving in 2022!  It also took signing up for a race to force myself to make it a priority.  Well that worked, and I went from weighing 235 lbs to 205 lbs at the end of the year.  That weight took a WHILE to come off too!  I have not run much since October (when my race happened), but I also didn’t gain much weight over the holidays. I am currently weighing 208 lbs and closely monitoring it!  For me running is the one exercise that seems to work best.  Although I am not looking to run a bunch of races this year, I think I need one half marathon race.   I might add a 10K in there too.   If I can do that, I think I will run most of the year.  So the goal is a couple races for 2023 and hopefully at least 500 miles ran for the year. 

 

Karate

I will be honest that since earning the black belt, I have not been practicing karate like I thought I would.  Like many things, it is a “use it or lose it” thing.  If you learn a foreign language but don’t use it, you will forget it over time.  It’s the same for learning a martial art.   Karate was an investment (both time and financially).  So I need to get back in it.  In my basement, I have created a “dojo” for this.  There’s no valid excuse to not do it, so I want to be consistent in 2023 by practicing karate regularly, remembering what I learned, and perhaps learning some new things I didn’t know before regarding karate. 

 

Foreign Language

Yeah, I set this one up in the previous paragraph. 😉 I had four years of French in high school and also took it in college.  But since then, I haven’t really studied it.  It would be great to know a second language well, so I will make an effort to brush up on my french this year and try to re-learn it. 

 

Read More Books (or at least listen to them)

I don’t mean fiction books, although yes, maybe some noteworthy fiction books.  I will make another blog about the books on my target list.  There’s quite a few, and with my limited free time, I don’t know how many I will get through this year.  I have a goal of at least one book per month. 

 

Audit my time

Though I am getting better at time management, I still think I waste a good bit of it.  The alert that I have email or a notification on the phone can take me away from what I was doing and waste a chunk of time – 15-20 minutes for example.  If that happens throughout the day, it actually adds up.   This is the type of thing I want to control more and reduce it.  Looks like another blog on this topic is needed. 

 

Finish home projects that were started and never completed

I guess it might be partly distractions, but sometimes I will start a project and then start another one.  Eventually I will come back to them, while starting possibly another and another.   So I have at least 3 “half baked” home projects that I take time to do.  I would like to close them out this year (or at least admit I don’t have the time and outsource them.). 

 

So that’s basically it.  I would feel like this year was a great one if I can accomplish these things.  Have you set goals for 2023?