Looking Back, Looking Forward

  1. Home
  2. ::Personal
  3. ::It's Just Me

As a rule, I avoid New Year's resolutions, because something about them smacks of desperation and imminent failure. However, I don't mind setting goals for the coming year; the difference is probably purely semantic, but it works for me somehow.

At any rate, solely for my own benefit, I'm taking stock today of what my goals were last year and what I hope to accomplish in 2009.

2008 Goals

  1. Join the Freemasons (.5 points)

    I've always been fascinated by the Freemasons. In the tiny little town where I grew up, there's a lodge that's firmly planted across the street from the Catholic church. The townspeople have always seemed distrustful of the Masons, which probably piqued my interest. As I grew older and learned both about their history and their mission, I discovered that their principles are pretty much in line with my own— focusing on developing a stronger spiritual self-awareness and moral sense while fostering strong community involvement.

    I researched the process of joining the organization this year, but never got around to applying.
  2. Make stuff! (1 point)

    I've long felt that our cultural shift toward consuming rather than producing is a perilous one; we are at risk of forgetting how to do things for ourselves. Last year I became determined to shift the trend, at least as far as my own behaviour was concerned; the success of Etsy, MAKE and CRAFT magazines, and a slew of how-to and DIY resources show that I'm not the only one who feels this way.

    I think I did pretty well with this goal. Lydia and I did a lot of work with creating electronics projects, and I got my basement workshop set up and used it to hand-craft a number of gifts this year. In the coming year, I plan on making this a more regular habit, working on a variety of projects each week.

  3. Start my own business. (1 point)

    December 17th, 2007— my 36th birthday— was my last day working as an employee of a corporation. Ever. A partner and I formed Hapax Labs and made a go of it as entrepreneurs. In June of this year, we were acquired by one of our clients, SEO Logic, in a stock swap, and joined the company as co-owners and officers. We've since gone on to create some pretty amazing solutions and recently signed a major contract.

    Knocked this one out of the park, eh?

  4. Lose weight and shape up (.5 points)

    I wanted to get down to 150 pounds this year. With a low-carb diet and on-again, off-again yoga, I got within 5 pounds of my goal; I lost 30 pounds by October, but put 10 back on in the past few months.

  5. 48 hour app challenge (.5 points)

    I wrote about this a few months ago. I wanted to try to create a web app in 48 hours of effort. I put in about 20 before paid work got in the way.

  6. Raise my professional profile (1 point)

    I've been doing the Internet thing literally forever, and I've been created a lot of really elegant and innovative solutions over the years. So I've always been a little bothered by the fact that I'm completely unknown in my field. There are several reasons for this, of course: much of my work has been for private clients; I suck at self-promotion; and I have the pre-bubble habit of compartmentalizing my online presence behind aliases and handles.

    This year I worked on consciously raising my profile, by better consolidating my online identities, getting started with a variety of social networking sites, writing more consistently on this blog, participating in more online forums, and paying attention to what Google knows about me.

    Traffic is still on the low side, but was definitely helped by my satirical analysis of the Obama and McCain web sites— to the tune of 45,000 unique page views.

  7. Do a better job of keeping in touch (.5 points)

    I confess: I suck at keeping in touch with people, whether they be past colleagues or old friends. I think about these people all the time, but I never seem to find the time or energy to shoot a quick e-mail or— gasp— pick up the phone.

    I tried setting aside Sunday mornings for correspondence. Worked for a while, but I fell of again. Grr.

  8. Write a book about my Europe trip (1 point)

    In 2007 I took my grandmother back home to Poland to see her childhood home; she hadn't been back since WWII. I kept a journal and took hundreds of photos to help us both remember the trip. To ensure that the memories of that amazing trip were preserved forever, I decided to self-publish a book and give it to her for her birthday.

    Months of time and weeks of effort later, Kehr Wieder was completed. Since then, every time I talk to my grandmother, she goes on about how wonderful the trip was and how much she loves the book. I'm pretty sure she looks at it every day.

  9. Start playing the guitar again (.5 points)

    I've played the guitar on and off for about 12 years now, but never with much discipline. This past year I actually started lessons, which was really tough for me— I'm fiercely proud of being self-taught in everything that really matters to me. Once I got past my ego, the lessons worked out really well, at least for the six months that I spent working from home. After that, I failed to make time to keep up with either the lessons or the instrument. Again, grr.

So overall, 6.5 points out of 9. Hopefully I'll do better in the coming year— not that I'm competitive or anything.

Goals for 2009

In no particular order:

  1. Get a piece of non-fiction published.
    Maybe an article for MAKE, or another article for 2600.
  2. Publish a work of fiction.
  3. Finish the web comic that I started in 2006.
  4. Start playing music again.
  5. Continue working on weight and health.
    Get down to my target weight for last year, and use that new Wii Fit every day for at least 15 minutes.
  6. Stay debt-free.
    We were lucky enough to erase our debt in 2008; we're determined to keep it that way forever.
  7. Make and craft even more stuff than last year.
    Workshop + head full of ideas - television - Warcraft = opportunity to do cool projects.
  8. Pick up where I left off on leftover goals from 2008.
::Published by Corey Ehmke on 01/08/2009 in Personal / It's Just Me

Comments

jhaneyzz
jhaneyzz
01/06/2009
Corey, You made one very key mistake. Never, ever grandfather last year's resolutions... errrr, goals, into the current year. Take pride in what you did last year, even in the things that you got done that weren't goals, and set a shiny new set of goals without the implied failure of carrying the baggage of unfinished business into the future. (Oh, and give up on the Free Masons thing. I went to the Institute of Design based upon its legacy with the American Bauhaus movement, only to realize those ideals crumbled to dust in the late 40's.)
Kyle
Kyle
01/09/2009
I would encourage you to join the Masons. I did three years ago when I was 22 and it was great. They are a wonderful organization devoted to freedom of belief and religion and thought. Research lodges though, some are more active and gaining younger members than are others.
Cynthia
Cynthia
01/18/2009
I'm working on the making-my-own-stuff too. With the chickens, ducks, and geese, plus the garden, I'm getting close to the self sufficient food goal. (Kind of. The bunnies kept eating my garden, but it WAS there.) This year I've started making my own soap and yarn. So yeah, I'm getting there. It feels pretty good to eat things that you've raised yourself. In a month or so we're getting about 50 meat birds and raising them for slaughter, and that should effectively end my need to buy factory farmed meat.
Leave a Comment