2021

  1. Lose 20lb before my wedding

    Classic NYR. Except this time I’m going to be in a gagillion pictures with friends and family that will follow me for the rest of my life. I’m a little vain, sorry.

  2. Run a Bitcoin node

    This is long overdue. I haven’t decided on exactly how I would like to execute this one and there will be some research involved that I will likely write about but it’s time that I do my part.

  3. Read 3 fiction books

    The bulk of my reading is non-fiction. And by bulk I mean >90%. This is good because I learn a lot when I read. It’s bad because it makes me a very streaky reader. There are times when my brain simply does not want to be consuming information that is going to make it think to much. As a result I just don’t read at all. I also think it will have a healthy effect on the creative part of my brain that sometimes just gathers dust for extended periods of time. The three books have not been determined yet but I will be starting with “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr, a war novel recommended by Ashlynn and my mom. I’m used to having two books going at once and I’d like to make it a habit to have one of those be fiction and one non-fiction. I currently have two non-fictions going at once and once one of them is done I’ll get that rotation going.

  4. Write 4 blog posts

    Last year I wrote three and they were all done in the first two months of the year. I’m not trying to become some everyday blogger but I do enjoy the writing practice/process. One post a quarter is more than reasonable but I’m not holding myself to timing. If I get hot and bang out all 4 in a couple weeks time it’ll still count as a win.

  5. Help 2 people buy Bitcoin

    I anticipate this one will happen organically. Buying any crypto can be an intimidating process so helping people out is another great way to give back to the community.

  6. Learn a new Bitcoin custody solution

    There are countless ways to store Bitcoin. I’d like to learn a new one this year. It’s a good way to stay up to date with new technologies and increase security. Hopefully a blog post will come with this one as well so I can kill two birds with one stone.

2020

  1. Spend less time on group chats

    This is more arbitrary than I would like but I couldn’t figure out how to make more tangible. So far so good, though. I exited a couple chats and muted the rest. I don’t have that screen time tracker app but I’d say in general I’ve been more productive at home. Unclear if that’s causation or correlation at this point but it’s a positive result either way.

    June update: The extensive quarantining has tanked this goal as group chats and Zoom calls feel like the only form of socializing currently at my disposal. The positive takeaway from this goal has been the reconfiguring of my notification preferences. I’ll take the small victory.

    End of year retrospective: As I mentioned in June, my notifications are much more under control than they used to be which is a win. Over the course of the year I feel like I found myself in a higher quantity of a chats but with smaller amounts of people per chat. This has probably lead to a larger volume of overall texts but higher quality interpersonal connections.

  2. Run 200 miles

    Month Orange Theory Outside Monthly Total Yearly Total
    January 19.53 0 19.53 19.53
    February 20.88 0 20.88 40.41
    March 13.03 12.51 25.54 65.95
    April 0 33.43 33.43 99.38
    May 0 23.07 23.07 122.45
    June 0 16.55 16.55 139
    July 0 1.55 1.55 140.55
    August 0 12.44 12.44 152.99
    September 3.63 10.82 14.45 167.44
    October 5.18 0 5.18 172.62
    November 0 0 0 172.62
    December 12.80 5.68 18.48 191.10

    End of year retrospective: July and November are aboslute “c’mon mans”. July was a weird month because I was on a staycation in Charleston, SC for most of the month. As you can see there was one day where I tried to make it happen and was feeling sorry for myself after a mile and a half and called it quits. Who knows what went down in November. I imagine if I stayed on top of updating the above chart more frequently and was aware of how close I was that I would have tried to close the gap. But that’s what I get. I’ll just have to do better in 2021 and you best believe I will continue to track it.

  3. Put shoes and coats away immediately when I get home

    Ashlynn and I had developed a bad habit of leaving our shoes by the door and hanging our coats on the back of our kitchen chairs which are also close to the door. She’s doing this one with me and so far we’ve done very well.

    June update: This isn’t going as well as it was during the first 8-12 weeks of the year which shouldn’t be surprising with these kinds of ambiguous goals. But I’d say we are still at a better place than we were in 2019 which is still something to be happy about.

    End of year retrospective: There is an ebb and flow to my habits regarding this resolution but it certainly is on my mind more often than it used to be. I’m not perfect but progress was certainly made which I guess is the whole point of these things anyway.

2019

  1. Go camping in NC once. Must sleep in tent (no glamping)

    Done. Ashlynn, Bella and I camped out at a camp ground by the White Water Center in Charlotte on March 30th with our friends Ryan & Kate.

  2. 4000 splat points at Orange Theory (about 122 classes at 33 per class)

    Uhhhhh no. Finished the year with 2311 points. I was pretty new to Orange Theory when I came up with this goal. I failed to factor in that my points per class would drastically decrease as I got in better shape. I don’t have the exact total but I’m very confident I attended far more than 122 classes, so this goal wasn’t a total loss.

  3. Don’t turn on the TV on Wednesdays

    This just straight up failed. I thought I could cut back on screen time by electing one day a week to consciously not turn on the TV. This probably lasted about 8-10 weeks before being completely abandoned.

  4. Cook 6 new recipes

    Done. I can’t remember what they all were but between cookbooks, recipes from friends, and our own creations we hit this. Probably not but a lot though. My favorite one that I can remember was fajita stuffed bell peppers.