This year, I want to review how I did on my old resolutions and renew them for the new year:
- Start maintaining a personal website: Total failure. I made no changes to my website since roughly a year ago. For the new year, I’ll put a more specific set of expectations on this goal. I’d like to add blog posts when I see major life events (ex. graduation) and keep the status information of the website up to date. I expect something like 3 to 6 posts in the next year. I’d also like to spend some 10-20 hours at some point in the year tinkering with HTML and improving the site.
- Exercise for a half hour each morning: mostly successful. Although the time I exercised often fell more in the 15-20 minute range, I exercised consistently, missing only a few days each month. I noticed improvements in my physique since last year. I would like to expand my exercise routine to incoporate more stretching, cardio, and meditation.
- Cut down on sugar: Partially successful. I didn’t cut down on deserts as much as I intended, nor did I attempt a sugar free month. However, I have effectively removed soda from my diet and generally reduced the amount of sugar I consume. I’ve started to be more sensitive towards large quantities of sugar. By the end of the year, I’d like the only sugar I eat to come in the form of chocolate, baked goods, and fruit.
- Read 50 books: Completely successful. For next year, I want to read 50 nonfiction books or classic literature: I discovered that I learn the most reading nonfiction. I’m sure I’ll fit in some entertainment books around those.
Beyond renewing my existing goals, I do have a few more goals to add.
- Improve depth of flavor in my cooking: I’ve lived on my own and cooked enough to have basic competency around the kitchen. I’ve also done enough reading to know the fundamentals behind culinary theory. However, it seems like a lot of my dishes fall short of food that more experienced chefs or restaurants make. I’d like to improve my ability to create richer and more complex dishes. I imagine this will involve some combination of reading up on flavor profiles and practicing with a few new dishes each month, and paying more careful attention to existing dishes.
- Eat with someone new each week: Leaving the safe bubble of college in May will result in me losing a lot of the socia network I’ve built up over the past three and a half years. Once I start my job, I’d like to make sure I keep making connections and branching out. To that end, once in Seattle, I want to eat with at least one new person each week I’m at my job.