Last year I decided that resolutions weren’t the way to go. They are often largely negative or too woolly to be useful, and I reckon that the depth of winter is a really bad time to take up something new or try to change a habit.
Instead I came up with a list of targets I was aiming for across the year (and I managed all but one of them too – yay!)
On reflection, I think the language of ‘targets’ is altogether too business driven, so this year I’m going to have a list of ambitions, or a picture of where I want to be in 12 months time. I’m still going to do it as a list though.
- Go climbing regularly – at least 10 times in 2012.
- Finish my 365 project (in May) – and probably start year 2!
- Maintain my current weight.
- Deliver Growing Leaders course again.
- Go camping.
- Go walking.
- See my (non nuclear) family.
- Cook an interesting dish.
- Enter a photographic competition.
- Complete the Practical Photography DSLR Skills course, if they run it this year.
- Get my Microsoft Certified Professional Developer.
- Pray and read the bible every day.
- Keep blogging semi-regularly.
- Follow God, be a great husband and a great Father
That last one is obviously a bit tricky to measure (and would need to be measured by someone else), but is nevertheless an ongoing goal of mine.
There are some more personal ones too, working on some of my character flaws and imperfections (yes, I do have some!), but I don’t think it’s appropriate to share these here (and even if it was, I’m not going to)!! I am 95% of the way to putting up my Personal Life Statement up (as developed doing Growing Leaders last year), but I’ve not quite mustered up the courage yet…
I’m not planning to make any inroads to my broader ambitions in life this year (although I did ‘accidently’ manage one of them last year – win a prize for a photo), but they remain largely unchanged since the list time I enumerated (in 2006). I’ve dropped Python, but added portrait photography.
- Write a novel, make a movie, write a computer game.
- Improve/start portrait phorography.
- Go into space.
- Drive a high-performance car on a test-track.
- Go on a skid pan / become an advanced driver.
- Go to a Grand Prix.
- Get a photo published/win a prize.
- Successfully bake brandy-snaps.
- Formally study theology.
- Learn Greek.
- Learn how to draw/sketch.
- Go to India, China, Egypt, and South America.
So that’s it. Hoping that 2012 brings peace and blessing to us all.