I was never really on to make new year’s resolution. I also never really though
about why not, I just didn’t do it.
But then, some time ago when I began with leading teams at work, I started to
think more in terms of goals and how to choose meaningful goals.
Still it took me several years, to really start setting sensible goals for myself. I really only started doing it for 2014. And even though my goal setting and tracking wasn’t super-duper I’m quite ok with the result.
What really struck me about setting goals in 2014 was the super powerful effect that the simple act of setting something halfway realistic goal: I start to care and make small meaningful steps towards the goal. Whereas before, without setting a goal, I was rather just going along, with much less direction, taking opportunities as they came instead of trying to create them.
And to step up the game this year, I want to share my goals. Of course this also has the purely selfish reason, that it provides me with an excuse to write down and therefore better think through those goals.
Goals 2015
Learn To Play Two Songs On The Drums
After being lucky enough to take over some drumming lessons for a friend at the end of 2013, I set myself the goal to start learning to play the drums in 2014. I even bought a used drumset for an ok price from a friend of Verena’s. And I even practiced several times.
However I realized that the thing that’s really interesting for me about learning to play the drums is to play songs. And in my state of abilities that of course means learning to play along existing songs of bands that I adore.
One song that I especially like is “Have you passed through this night by Explosions In The Sky, and I want to learn it in 2015.
It would be an added bonus if I managed to learn a second song in 2015 (and it would be “New Paths to Helicon Pt. 1” if I would need to choose one), but I’ll stick with only one in order to be realistic.
Keep Reading & Make Notes
I read quite a lot of books in 2014, even if not all that I intended to read (I’ll write about the planned and actual list some time later). I finished ten non-fiction and eight fiction books and are currently in the process of reading eight books. Yes, my currently reading pile is always a mess and I’m totally unstructured when it comes to chosing books.
And so my plan is to simply keep on reading about as much as I did last year and along the way, try to publish more notes and reviews about the books I read.
Get a Writing Habit
I know that if you really want to do something, change some things you do, one must form a habit around it (there are loads of blog posts about this; however I recommend the wonderful “Creative Habit” by Twyla Tharp).
And I really want to share more of my thoughts and what I do (at work) in
written form. It really helps me think and it also opens up many serendipitous
moments, not only during the writing process, but also afterwards, when talking
to people.
Some of the people I meet at the various community events I organize and attend,
really seem to read what I write and it often is a nice conversation starter.
Write down my Management Style
Related to the reasing behind the Writing Habit goal, I want to write down my management and leadership style, philosophy if you will.
No, I’m not planning on writing a book. But since I started working as a CTO for vaamo I really put a lot of thought into how I lead and how I want to lead, what management means to me and what this means for the people that I work with.
And I realized that I need to put even more effort into all those questions in my head and answer them for myself, so that I can better work with others.
Also, this is the one goal where I really need others to achieve it. While it sounds like all I have to do to reach this goal is to lock myself into a room and start writing, quite the contrary is the case. I need others to talk through my thoughts, to help me reflect what’s important.
At the same time, getting into contact with others that help me with this process is hard and haven’t been able to put a handle on it yet.
Better Eating
I’ve long been discontent with my eating behaviour. Although I’m ok with my body, I don’t always feel ok with what and after I eat.
I’ve talked to quite some people about how they approach eating and food. The only outcome so far is basically “everybody needs to find his own way”. Which, while not so easy an answer as one might hope for, is ok for me.
And my goal for 2015 is to find my own way be more happy with what I eat. The nice thing with that goal is, that I’m pretty sure it’s gonna taste even better than what I do now.