2012 Resolutions & Goals
December 30, 2011
I almost didn't put these up here, because, well, it's really none of your business, right? Anyway, here they are, broken into 4 categories of sorts.
Business
1. Earn $80,000+
It's do-able, I've done it before, and it solves a lot of money problems when I make that much. But I also remind myself that if I spend all my time working on projects I don't enjoy just because they're big money-makers, I'm on the wrong path.
2. Publish 3 reports re. Terry Communications, LLC.
A couple years ago I tried newsletter publishing and found I didn't really have the time for it (or financial resources). Last year I spent some time on some web-based things, but didn't follow through because my heart really wasn't in it. This year I'm thinking of publishing a couple reports directly and selling them myself and/or via various e-publishers. These would be the types of business reports I write for clients already. We'll see how this goes.
3. Write a nonfiction book proposal.
Almost didn't put this one down. I wrote one last year we didn't sell. I'm not 100% sure what I want to write about, although I have a couple ideas. Once I settle on an idea, I need to do research. But it's on my radar, so again, we'll see.
Creative
I've separated this for the first time from business.
4. Finish THE SINS OF THE FATHER and market and/or publish it.
5. Finish short story, "Humanitarian Aid" and market it.
6. Finish another novel and market and/or publish it (CRYSTAL STORM, CAPITOL SECRETS, A PLAGUE OF STARS or something else).
7. Write another Derek Stillwater novella and publish it with DIRE STRAITS.
Health & Fitness
8. Lose 18 pounds.
9. Run 2 or 3 organized 5Ks
10. Run/walk 7 or 8 miles at least once.
Sanchin-Ryu
I haven't numbered these because I don't see them (except the last one) as an actual goal, but rather more of a focus for the first part of the year.
CBAs (combined basics advanced): Work in particular on San-Go and San-Ju.
These are combinations and they both, not surprisingly, involve a fair number of kicks. San-Go, for instance, is 3 kicks, front, back, to the side, all without putting your foot down in between. These two CBAs I feel are my weakest, so I'm going to put special emphasis on them for a while until I either get sick of working on them or feel like my improvement has reached a temporarily acceptable level.
Forms: Work in particular on Empi-Uraken.
I know all the steps, and there are always other things to work on, but Empi-Uraken is one that eludes me most in terms of "why am I doing what I'm doing?" Parts of it I understand. But there are some spins that I'm not terribly proficient at and I'm also not clear on why I would want to do them and when. I could just ask, of course, but in my experience that gets me only partway toward where I need to get; I need to experiment and work on it and then I see things as possibilities. Also, I need to practice the spins to the point where I could actually imagine doing them in a real-world situation without having to think about them.
Kata: Learn the entire choreography to Sanchin-San.
I've been a shodan for a little over a year. There's no rule that I'm aware of that says you need to learn Sanchin-San to get to nidan (2nd degree black belt), but Sanchin-San is essentially the first kata (technically second, but anyway...) and I've worked on it and probably know the steps of about the first 2/3, although it's not clear to me how accurate what I know actually is. As the thing I wrote about Empi-Uraken above might suggest, knowing the moves and knowing the applications are two different things. This year I want to learn all the steps to Sanchin-San (About a hundred or so). Learning what it's all about, well, that's another 20 or 30 years of practice and study.
P.S. One thing I've learned over the years is two-fold: 1) Sometimes I don't meet my goals and resolutions for a number of reasons - sometimes because they require involvement of other people and... 2) Sometimes my priorities change. With #2 and #3 I can imagine that happening fairly easily, simply by deciding they're interesting ideas, but I don't have the time or enthusiasm needed to actually make them work. I would point out also that #2 and #3 are the ones I have the most doubts about anyway. Well, except #8. No doubt it's a great idea, but...
I almost didn't put these up here, because, well, it's really none of your business, right? Anyway, here they are, broken into 4 categories of sorts.
Business
1. Earn $80,000+
It's do-able, I've done it before, and it solves a lot of money problems when I make that much. But I also remind myself that if I spend all my time working on projects I don't enjoy just because they're big money-makers, I'm on the wrong path.
2. Publish 3 reports re. Terry Communications, LLC.
A couple years ago I tried newsletter publishing and found I didn't really have the time for it (or financial resources). Last year I spent some time on some web-based things, but didn't follow through because my heart really wasn't in it. This year I'm thinking of publishing a couple reports directly and selling them myself and/or via various e-publishers. These would be the types of business reports I write for clients already. We'll see how this goes.
3. Write a nonfiction book proposal.
Almost didn't put this one down. I wrote one last year we didn't sell. I'm not 100% sure what I want to write about, although I have a couple ideas. Once I settle on an idea, I need to do research. But it's on my radar, so again, we'll see.
Creative
I've separated this for the first time from business.
4. Finish THE SINS OF THE FATHER and market and/or publish it.
5. Finish short story, "Humanitarian Aid" and market it.
6. Finish another novel and market and/or publish it (CRYSTAL STORM, CAPITOL SECRETS, A PLAGUE OF STARS or something else).
7. Write another Derek Stillwater novella and publish it with DIRE STRAITS.
Health & Fitness
8. Lose 18 pounds.
9. Run 2 or 3 organized 5Ks
10. Run/walk 7 or 8 miles at least once.
Sanchin-Ryu
I haven't numbered these because I don't see them (except the last one) as an actual goal, but rather more of a focus for the first part of the year.
CBAs (combined basics advanced): Work in particular on San-Go and San-Ju.
These are combinations and they both, not surprisingly, involve a fair number of kicks. San-Go, for instance, is 3 kicks, front, back, to the side, all without putting your foot down in between. These two CBAs I feel are my weakest, so I'm going to put special emphasis on them for a while until I either get sick of working on them or feel like my improvement has reached a temporarily acceptable level.
Forms: Work in particular on Empi-Uraken.
I know all the steps, and there are always other things to work on, but Empi-Uraken is one that eludes me most in terms of "why am I doing what I'm doing?" Parts of it I understand. But there are some spins that I'm not terribly proficient at and I'm also not clear on why I would want to do them and when. I could just ask, of course, but in my experience that gets me only partway toward where I need to get; I need to experiment and work on it and then I see things as possibilities. Also, I need to practice the spins to the point where I could actually imagine doing them in a real-world situation without having to think about them.
Kata: Learn the entire choreography to Sanchin-San.
I've been a shodan for a little over a year. There's no rule that I'm aware of that says you need to learn Sanchin-San to get to nidan (2nd degree black belt), but Sanchin-San is essentially the first kata (technically second, but anyway...) and I've worked on it and probably know the steps of about the first 2/3, although it's not clear to me how accurate what I know actually is. As the thing I wrote about Empi-Uraken above might suggest, knowing the moves and knowing the applications are two different things. This year I want to learn all the steps to Sanchin-San (About a hundred or so). Learning what it's all about, well, that's another 20 or 30 years of practice and study.
P.S. One thing I've learned over the years is two-fold: 1) Sometimes I don't meet my goals and resolutions for a number of reasons - sometimes because they require involvement of other people and... 2) Sometimes my priorities change. With #2 and #3 I can imagine that happening fairly easily, simply by deciding they're interesting ideas, but I don't have the time or enthusiasm needed to actually make them work. I would point out also that #2 and #3 are the ones I have the most doubts about anyway. Well, except #8. No doubt it's a great idea, but...
posted by Mark Terry at 7:31 AM
2 Comments:
Ambitious set of resolutions. The martial arts ones in particular sound rather daunting. Oh, well, and making more than $80,000 writing!
I have learned not to make resolutions. They are always derailed by reality and then I feel bad because I "failed."
You know, if you can run 7 or 8 miles you can run a 10K :)
The karate one's aren't that daunting, really. Just a matter of focus.
And yeah, the $80,000 one is somewhat beyond my control, but...
And I know. But I'm not entirely sure I want to get into a race situation with a 10K. Maybe this is entirely mental, but 5K was short enough to be fun. 10K strikes me as being a chore once the adrenaline kicks in. That said, I would like to someday run the Bobby Crimm in Flint, which is 10 miles, and I haven't particular ambitions for a full marathon, but I think a half-marathon would be interesting, because I wouldn't be racing, I'd just want to finish it.
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