Resolutions

The new year is about arrive, causing me to reflect on the previous one. I do owe my readers a recap of all of the significant events that transpired in my life during 2010, which will likely be my next blog. Those tend to take some time to put together, so I'll probably get to that later this weekend.

In the meantime, I have put together a mental list of all of the things I would like to accomplish in the coming year. It's been percolating in my brain for a while now. Like many of us, I try and set up a list of resolutions each January, hoping that I will follow through on at least some of them for longer than the typical 3-4 weeks. Alas, most of them get scrapped in relatively short order, either because I realize my goals weren't really that worthwhile, or they weren't realistic. Some I forge on with, only quitting after I succumb to the fatigue that besets me after performing whatever the prescribed task/deprivation is for the umpteenth time. It's this latter group that I find the most intriguing in retrospect. I believe this is because the flaw was never in my ability to work towards the goal, but rather in the definition of the goal itself.

We often structure our goals in a loose-ended fashion -- striving towards ideals such as "losing weight," "learning ___ language," or "quitting ___." I think a goal structured in this way merely sets us up for failure from the get-go, because these goals are somewhat difficult (if not impossible) to measure. Take the latter example: if I was an alcoholic and wanted to quit drinking, it might sound good to have a goal of "giving up drinking." But recovering alcoholics never phrase it this way. At AA meetings, they typically state their status as ___ days/months/years sober. I think that in order to have a more meaningful (and hence, more quantifiable) goal, we have to be able to put up milestones that are tangible. For the alcoholic, it could be as simple as abstaining for 100 days, and then re-imposing the same goal at the new starting point. For weight loss (or gain), it would be simply a bench mark of a certain weight by a certain day. For acquiring a new behavior, such as learning a new skill, it would involve breaking that skill down into quantifiable benchmarks that need to be met by a certain time. Once the main goal is constructed in this fashion, it becomes easier for us to lay out the steps necessary to bridge the gap between the current position and the ideal position to be achieved.

Following this logic, I have decided to set up my goals in a much more quantifiable manner this year. I have also decided to make them public (hence this blog post) in an effort to make myself accountable to a broader base of people. I believe that these are the two necessary components for achieving a goal. But I need your help, faithful readers. By announcing my goals, I need you all to periodically check in on me and ask me how my progress is coming. Do this frequently. If I don't hear from somebody at least once a week, I'm liable to fail at my goals. Which would really be like all of us failing, at that point. We're in this together. Help me achieve all of my wildest dreams. Drop me a facebook post to check in with me. It's ok; go ahead, don't be shy.

Here are my goals:

1. Buy and complete steps 1 - 5 of Rosetta Stone: Farsi. I want to do this by the end of July 2011. Apparently each step takes about 50 hours to get through, so this means that I need to do about 10 hours per week (but I learn quickly, so it might be only 7 hours per week for me). I'm doing this because I want to learn another language, Farsi is said to be one of the easier middle eastern languages to learn, and this would increase my chances of gaining certain government positions that I have been working towards. Ask me how far along I am in the Rosetta Stone lessons.

2. Start a podcast, and publish 2 podcasts per month. I want to have 11 done by my birthday (June 12). The podcast will be exclusively about unique missionary experiences I had while in Spain from 1999-2001. Instead of going for the typical religious/spiritual experiences, I want to focus on some of the more humorous and atypical events that happened to me. Don't get me wrong -- I think there is definitely a time and place for the spiritual aspect, but I just don't think it will pull in the listeners as well. I'm going for a different niche with this one. And trust me, I've got some interesting stories to tell. Ask me when my next podcast is coming out.

3. Gain 20 lbs. of muscle in 6 weeks, using the diet/exercise routine prescribed in my new favorite book, The 4-Hour Body, by Timothy Ferriss. The book outlines a radical re-think of many of the myths and stereotypes in the health and fitness world. His mantra seems to be "do whatever is the most efficient, and takes the least effort necessary for maximal gain." Apparently, as to diet and exercise, most people overthink things. They rely on excessive physical exertion and food deprivation to achieve their goals, rather than performing more subtle changes that will actually modify how the body works on its own. For my goal, I will perform certain exercises in a very simple and specific fashion, hitting the gym only about twice per week, and eating a protein rich diet that includes a small amount of herbal supplements. We'll see if it works. The book has many other goals that I want to try, but this one is first on my list. Ask me how much muscle I have gained.

4. Be able to do the splits. I still haven't decided what type of splits I want to do (legs to the side, or one in front/one in back), but I'll settle on that in the next few weeks. The overarching goal here is to become significantly more flexible, but I wanted something measurable to work towards. I intend to do about 10 minutes of stretching each day, and hopefully find the time to look up some internet tips on increasing flexibility. Ask me if I have been faithfully doing my daily stretching.

There you have it folks. If you keep pushing me, together we can achieve my wildest dreams. If you guys want to post some of your own goals, I would be more than happy to check in with you to push you on as well. In fact, I'm thinking of developing an iPhone app of some sort to aid people in accomplishing their resolutions. But it has to have a feature that makes people accountable to others; otherwise, it would be nothing more than a glorified sticky note on your computer, reminding you to perform some sort of task that you may no longer have the motivation to do.