If you’re of a tendency to roll your eyes at the whole new year’s resolutions thing… so am I. Before you write me off as just another hopeless soul making resolutions I’m going to break in two weeks one week, I want you to know that I’m coming off the best year of my life. Seriously. I compiled a list of my best days here, but I’ll sum it by telling you I spent 51 days on the slopes last ski season, 40 days at the beach in Santa Barbara and Lake Tahoe this summer, and then in October I spent 6 weeks traveling in Central America.
I’m not talking about making resolutions regarding things you really don’t want to do. The first step in goal-setting is to figure out what you really want. What are you willing to spend your life energy on? The right goals should consume you. Looking at your goals list should make you excited, not beaten down.
I just wrote my goals for the year ahead. I’m going to share my list with you in just a moment.
Many are a continuation of things I’ve been working on. That’s the way life works.
Writing my list only took me about 2 or 3 minutes. There was some preliminary work, like figuring out my best days from 2012. Figuring out my best days from the previous year gives me a real-life picture of what really makes me tick. I’ve also thought about this stuff a lot. The past week especially. But more than that. The things that make my goals list tend to be things I’ve been thinking about for a long time.
This day, at Upper Angora Lake, was among my best of 2012.
If writing your goals list takes more than 2 or 3 minutes it likely means you’re reaching. You may be writing down things you think you should list. Or you’re writing down things that are of secondary importance to you. The things that are most important to you — the things you’re going to be willing to give your life energy too — you should be able to rattle off quickly.
One thing you may notice about my list is that there’s nothing about being a good husband or a good father. Nothing about supporting my wife as we welcome a new baby into our home in March. Nothing about my faith. These are all things deeply engrained in me. You may also notice I do not list brushing my teeth.
Here’s the list:
My primary goal for 2013 is to have an awesome year!
After that,
- Increase my monthly income as a rep for Genesis Sourcing Solutions. My wife and I have other projects that we work on and other income streams, but our income here is important in terms of providing a base and financial stability.
- Recruit dynamic reps for Gen-Apps, the revolutionary mobile apps platform I helped my wife launch in 2012. This is exciting to me not only for the income opportunity is presents us, but also because I view it as a way to help the reps I recruit achieve the life of their dreams as Monica and I achieve ours.
- Grow the networks and profits of my social media marketing clients. Again, this is exciting from an income standpoint but also because I’m really excited about some of the projects I’ve taken on.
- Enjoy the best that Tahoe has to offer. 50+ days on the ski slopes, lots of beach days and exploring the little hidden corners, hiking, biking, and standup paddle.
- Ride in the Tour de Tahoe. Last year was my first time cycling the 72 miles around Lake Tahoe. I’m up for it again.
- Ride in a Century bike ride. 72 miles was the longest I’d ever ridden. I’d like to push myself and reach the 100 mile mark. I’ve got my eye on a few potential rides: one in May through Central Coast wine country, one in October from Carmel to Hearst Castle right along the Pacific Coast, and finally another later in October in Santa Barbara.
- Tough Mudder. This is the big new physical challenge for me this year. Tough Mudder is a 10-12 mile obstacle course designed by British Special Forces. The idea is to take you to your physical limits (including a section where you run through exposed electric wires). The courses are also virtually impossible to finish alone so the idea isn’t so much to “win” this race but to help your fellow competitors finish.
- Lose 25 pounds. I know this one seems a little “New Year’s Resolution-ish,” but I am down 15 pounds since we moved to Tahoe 2 years ago without even trying. I could stand to lose another 25, and this goal goes hand-in-hand with my other physical goals. My goal is to lose the weight by summer and keep it off the rest of the year (and beyond!).
- SKI TRIP! I’m really excited to hit the slopes outside of Tahoe this year. In a few days we’re departing on a two-week trip that will take us to Colorado and Utah (before ending up in Santa Barbara where I’ll stay a few days and Monica and the kids will stay an extra week while I fly solo in Tahoe). I’m really excited to ski Keystone in Colorado. Keystone has gone all-out in a re-branding effort to market themselves as the ultimate family-friendly and kid-friendly ski resort. We’ll see for sure when we get there, but it seems to go beyond a few new marketing slogans with everything from ice-skating to snow forts at Kidtopia. On our way back to California we’re stopping in Utah for a few days at Snowbasin.
- Go Camping! In 2012 we ended up consumed with other great and worthy projects we did not anticipate. We were content to spend more time in Tahoe as we enjoyed a truly epic summer here. And we were getting ready for our 6-weeks in Central America. All of that added up to only 1 camping trip in 2012. I want more in 2013. Yosemite is a must but soon we’ll begin thinking about other locations in the Great American West we want to explore this year.
- Visit the Grand Canyon. I’ve often joked that I can’t set out on open-ended Round-the-World travel until I have seen this natural wonder so close to where I live now. We’re planning a visit to the Grand Canyon this fall, and I’ll then be free!
- Complete an overhaul of this blog. Last month Monica and I started a major overhaul and re-design of this blog while we had a few days to ourselves in Santa Barbara. After returning to Tahoe we got caught up in other wonderful things. But it’s time to go back to work and get ‘er done. We’re really excited and think you will be too. It’s going to be awesome.
- Publish a Family Trek eBook. In two years of blogging we’ve published more than 450,000 words. That’s about how many words Leo Tolstoy needed for War and Peace. We’re working to winnow some of this down, make some edits, and write some new material and compile it into a free eBook available through this blog. Call it Family Trek in a nutshell. (Actually, it will be Family Trek in an eBook).
- Finish and Publish my book. I’m really excited about this one. It’s coming.
- An un-named project. Not ready to let the cat out of the bag on this one yet, but I’m excited to begin a new venture this year that will combine some of the things I love most. You’re going to have to wait a while on this one, but work has already begun.
That’s it.
Enough to be really proud of in a year.
A couple of things about my goals:
- Items 1-3 relate to income. There are other things we continue to work on, but these are the three I think are most important to me as we move into 2013. Also note that each of these income streams are location-independent. Having location-independent income increases our freedom to live the life we want to live. More income also allows us to pay down our debt, and when we finally become debt-free and have location independent income, we will truly be free.
- Items 4-8 are all related to doing physical things. I did a lot more in 2012 — check out my post about how 2012 may have been the most successful of my life in terms of physical activities — but I didn’t start out 2012 with a list of things I wanted to do. I just jumped at what seemed fun. The items I have listed give me a base. They’re things I really want to do. And that last one — losing 25 pounds — gives me something to push for.
- Items 9-11 comprise our travel goals. Other things will probably come up and we’ll get a little itch here and there that we just need to scratch. After 6 weeks in Central America in 2012, our goals may seem scaled back, especialyl considering our previous plan was to spend a month in Europe this coming year. We decided, though, that because we believe some big changes are on the horizon in 2014 — changes that could include us either entering into a season of open-ended travel or possibly re-locating overseas — that we wanted to take advantage of things closer to us in Tahoe and take advantage of the fact that we have a car, something that could change in 2014.
- Items 12-14 are related to this blog and our writing. We’ve poured a lot of our hearts and souls into this blog but we think it’s time to take all of this “to the next level.”
- I’m not even going to say another word about item 15.
Do you know what you want? Do you know how to sustain it? Do you have friends that will encourage you along the way?
I’m on a journey. I am trying to live very intentionally and trying to arrange my life so that it reflects what I value most. If you’re on a similar journey I’d like to know about it. Reach out, let’s get connected, and let’s support one another. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter or you can subscribe to our RSS.
It’s great to write down goals! I’m even *considering* it this year
Haha…I was just looking over some past goals I published on my blog (5-year goals), and pretty much all of those have been thrown out the window since embarking on indefinite travel…hahaaa! But hey, we all reserve the right to change our goals!
Here’s to an awesome 2013!!
Alisa, I think another great question to ask — and I do this when I am reviewing a year — is, “Were they the right goals?” Or, “what’s changed since I wrote these goals? I did not accomplish some of my goals for 2012, but we made decisions along the way to sacrifice some goals because other opportunities came up that we viewed as more valuable.
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