Goals for 2018

I like to regularly set goals for myself, to help me focus on things that are important to me. Things I want to accomplish.

I like them to be “SMART” goals: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-boxed.

I want to be able to evaluate whether I succeeded or failed to meet a goal, keeping in mind that even a failure means that I came closer to succeeding than I might have if I hadn’t set a goal.

Accountability is important to me. If I am the only one who knows about my goals, then I can quietly fail (or quit) without consequence. It’s better to tell people, and give updates. Helps me to stay focused.

So I’d like to share them here 🙂

I have several goals for this year, and they’re split into Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly timeframes. For now, I just want to highlight three of them.

Goal 1: Get better at playing piano.

I’m a musician and can already play several instruments. But I’ve been wanting to get better at piano for some time now. Well, I’ve decided that 2018 is going to be the year that I get better!

I’m working on learning an arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon. I would say it’s an intermediate level of difficulty. It gets pretty fast and crazy at the end.

My specific goal for the end of January: learn the first two pages, and be able to play them well enough that I would be comfortable playing them for an audience.

For the end of the Quarter: I want to be able to play the whole thing, well enough that I could play it for an audience.

For the end of 2018, I want to actually perform a challenging song for an audience. I don’t know what song, or when or where I will perform it. But that is the goal.

To keep myself accountable, I’m going to post a video at the end of each month demonstrating my progress. You can be the judge of whether I’m achieving my goal!

Goal 2: Lose weight and exercise more.

Coming off the heels of the holiday season, my weight is just a touch higher than I would like it to be. However, more importantly, I want to live a healthier lifestyle. I do a lot of sitting. Granted I also go on some long walks, usually at least one or two per week. But I want to get into the habit of exercising more regularly.

My monthly goal is to start exercising each day. I’ve defined an “exercise” as either 8000 steps for the day (which I don’t often achieve) or a short exercise in the morning (5 push-ups and 5 squats).

I’m starting small! Beginning with small numbers will help me get into the habit, without getting overwhelmed. Then I can build from there.

For the quarter, I want to bring my average weight down some. As of this morning, I’m about 5 lbs over my target. That’s not a lot to try to lose over 3 months, so I’m not setting the bar really high. But hey, if I want to lose that weight, I need to get into a lifestyle where I’m not gaining weight. That is what is important to me right now.

By the end of the year, I want to be down an additional 5 lbs, which will put me at my ideal weight. Nothing earth-shattering here. But again, it’s about the lifestyle decisions more than the number.

Goal 3: Blog more.

This is something I’ve been thinking about for some time. I want to get these sorts of posts out there more often. Maybe they’ll be educational. Or entertaining. Or I might offer an opinion or perspective once in a while. Or start a conversation. Who knows?

It can be all too easy just to keep to myself. But life is so much richer when it’s shared with others. And I would like to share in a way that is hopefully a little deeper than a Tweet or a Facebook post.

I don’t have anything really specific nailed down for this one yet. I definitely want to blog at least twice a month, at a bare minimum. We’ll see where it goes from there.

So there it is! Expect updates over the weeks and months to come regarding how the goals are coming along. If you have goals that you want to tackle this year, or if you have any suggestions or comments regarding mine, let me know in the comments!