New Years Resolutions 2014 and 2015
So, how did I do this time?
Completed Goals
Attend 12 lessons of a physical activity. Went to the gym for something like 9 months straight, though I quit recently because of financial difficulties.
Learn to make 10 new foods. Learned at least 14 things at last count, participated in the cooking for our Christmas party and got complimented for it. I feel much more cofident in my ability to offer food to guests, which is what I wanted.
Find new job. Technically. I have a short term English teaching job right now, and my Skype job, but my contract ends in January. It's the job hunt that never ends...yes it goes on and on my friend...
Practice wearing kimono and wear to at least one event Restaurant Feel kimono nights!
Visit one other country (preferably somewhere I've never been, but repeats still count) Went to both Mainland China and Taiwan, which is ~technically~ the same country, but in practice have different governments. Anyway, Taiwan is a repeat, Mainland China was a first.
Semi-Completed Goals
Write at least 25 kanji a day, keeping Anki reviews at zero as often as possible. Actually more like 17 cards/day on average, but very inconsistent. Like, nothing for months and then 300 cards in one day.
Add 365 Chinese sentences to Anki deck More like 200-ish.
Work on stretches at least 5 days per week Did them 3 days a week while going to gym, haven't done them for a while now
Work though "Rapid Literacy in Chinese" Got up to Chapter 9, then went to China and kind of burned out on Chinese for a while
Read 1 full English book a month Read like 4 or something?
Changed Goals
Go at least 30 days without eating obvious processed sugar Changed to a month of homemade dinners, completed
Design and complete one sewing project Made cellophane wings for a Halloween costume instead
Go on 1 date a month (dates with friends count if no suitable manfolk can be discovered). Well, I'm pretty sure I did go out with friends at least once a month, so I guess I did complete this. But I spent a good proportion of the year simply not wanting to date and in fact pondering the benefits of radical seperatist feminism and nothing good would have come from interacting with dudes while in that headspace
Incomplete Goals
Take the Kanji Kentei Didn't even try
Read 1 full Japanese book a month Read about half of two books
Volunteer Nope
Save $5000 LOL
(Goal related to drawing, not yet well defined) Never even defined this
Buy a digital piano haha
So what about 2015?
Well, to be honest, this year I feel like trying something different. I've found that, during the course of a year, I often find that some specific goal I set is impossible, impractical, or just not interesting anymore. Meanwhile, I've acheived significant things that weren't on the list (did you know I completed the HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery courses at Codecademy last year?) For that and othere reasons, I don't feel like setting extremely specific goals for this year.
So I'm going to write down some hopes for this year, and then come back to look at them when I'm feeling aimless.
I hope to improve my Japanese and my confidence in using it. I want to have more stamina when reading and not tire so fast. I want to be able to use appropriate business Japanese. I want to pick up more advanced vocabulary, so that at least in fields I commonly deal with, I don't ever need a dictionary.
I hope to visit my hometown in Australia and see some of the area I never saw as a child.
I hope to explore computer programming more, and consider whether or not to take a leap into paid training so I can integrate it into my career path.
I hope to at least maintain my Chinese.
I hope to find an actual career job and not just a "pays the bills" job
I hope to build up some emergency savings again, and if I manage that, some investment money.
I hope to see GACKT a lot, and provide translations of his work and thoughts through the end of his VISUALIVE tour.
I hope to find some new stuff to add to this list as I go.
Completed Goals
Attend 12 lessons of a physical activity. Went to the gym for something like 9 months straight, though I quit recently because of financial difficulties.
Learn to make 10 new foods. Learned at least 14 things at last count, participated in the cooking for our Christmas party and got complimented for it. I feel much more cofident in my ability to offer food to guests, which is what I wanted.
Find new job. Technically. I have a short term English teaching job right now, and my Skype job, but my contract ends in January. It's the job hunt that never ends...yes it goes on and on my friend...
Practice wearing kimono and wear to at least one event Restaurant Feel kimono nights!
Visit one other country (preferably somewhere I've never been, but repeats still count) Went to both Mainland China and Taiwan, which is ~technically~ the same country, but in practice have different governments. Anyway, Taiwan is a repeat, Mainland China was a first.
Semi-Completed Goals
Write at least 25 kanji a day, keeping Anki reviews at zero as often as possible. Actually more like 17 cards/day on average, but very inconsistent. Like, nothing for months and then 300 cards in one day.
Add 365 Chinese sentences to Anki deck More like 200-ish.
Work on stretches at least 5 days per week Did them 3 days a week while going to gym, haven't done them for a while now
Work though "Rapid Literacy in Chinese" Got up to Chapter 9, then went to China and kind of burned out on Chinese for a while
Read 1 full English book a month Read like 4 or something?
Changed Goals
Go at least 30 days without eating obvious processed sugar Changed to a month of homemade dinners, completed
Design and complete one sewing project Made cellophane wings for a Halloween costume instead
Go on 1 date a month (dates with friends count if no suitable manfolk can be discovered). Well, I'm pretty sure I did go out with friends at least once a month, so I guess I did complete this. But I spent a good proportion of the year simply not wanting to date and in fact pondering the benefits of radical seperatist feminism and nothing good would have come from interacting with dudes while in that headspace
Incomplete Goals
Take the Kanji Kentei Didn't even try
Read 1 full Japanese book a month Read about half of two books
Volunteer Nope
Save $5000 LOL
(Goal related to drawing, not yet well defined) Never even defined this
Buy a digital piano haha
So what about 2015?
Well, to be honest, this year I feel like trying something different. I've found that, during the course of a year, I often find that some specific goal I set is impossible, impractical, or just not interesting anymore. Meanwhile, I've acheived significant things that weren't on the list (did you know I completed the HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery courses at Codecademy last year?) For that and othere reasons, I don't feel like setting extremely specific goals for this year.
So I'm going to write down some hopes for this year, and then come back to look at them when I'm feeling aimless.
I hope to improve my Japanese and my confidence in using it. I want to have more stamina when reading and not tire so fast. I want to be able to use appropriate business Japanese. I want to pick up more advanced vocabulary, so that at least in fields I commonly deal with, I don't ever need a dictionary.
I hope to visit my hometown in Australia and see some of the area I never saw as a child.
I hope to explore computer programming more, and consider whether or not to take a leap into paid training so I can integrate it into my career path.
I hope to at least maintain my Chinese.
I hope to find an actual career job and not just a "pays the bills" job
I hope to build up some emergency savings again, and if I manage that, some investment money.
I hope to see GACKT a lot, and provide translations of his work and thoughts through the end of his VISUALIVE tour.
I hope to find some new stuff to add to this list as I go.