Resolutions 2011
It's interesting to see resolutions from years past, and to note they haven't changed all that much. I started in 2007 with "Exercise", "Take Risks", and "Maintain contact", and in 2008, I swapped exercise with "Spend time learning". "Spend time learning" was a worthy idea, but it was too vague to actually cause significant change to my behavior. In 2009 it was "Train for Boston 2012", "Provide Feedback to others" and "Maintain contact". I didn't do resolutions last year. Anyhow, this year's 3 resolutions are:
Regain healthy habits
Despite a 2009 resolution to train for the Boston Marathon, I've fallen off exercising after my hip injury, and I've started drinking beer more often. Neither of these things is great for my health. I'm training for the Mercer Island Half and the Kirkland Half, which should help with the running, and I've grown to like biking more which helps with the cross training. I want to only drink beer on my one night out with work friends or if I'm at a brewpub (where the beer is unusual or hard to find). I was successful at losing weight and reducing soda drinking by limiting myself with a pretty clear rule. I'm hoping this accomplishes the same thing with beer, which has become the new "too many calories in a drink" thing in my life.
Meet new people and keep in contact
This moves forward from the past several years. If I'm not careful, I forget to drop people an email every now and again and don't reach out to friends to do social things. But this year, I want to get out and build new connections, because I've sometimes found myself a bit isolated when Jeff plays bridge. Jeff and I are talking about becoming a two car household to help with this, and I've joined a couple of the distribution lists for social clubs at work.
Focus work again
This past year had a lot of churn in it with several switches in who my manager was. I think I'm back in a position to be stable for a bit, so it's a good time to look around the organization and see what needs to be done that I'm passionate about. This one is a bit vague, because while I think I know what I want to do (move up the management track), I also want to make sure I keep looking around to see what sorts of roles are popping up elsewhere. It also this encompasses learning what skills I need to pick up to move to a manager-of-managers role. Mainly, it's a reminder to make sure I'm growing at work the way I need to.
Regain healthy habits
Despite a 2009 resolution to train for the Boston Marathon, I've fallen off exercising after my hip injury, and I've started drinking beer more often. Neither of these things is great for my health. I'm training for the Mercer Island Half and the Kirkland Half, which should help with the running, and I've grown to like biking more which helps with the cross training. I want to only drink beer on my one night out with work friends or if I'm at a brewpub (where the beer is unusual or hard to find). I was successful at losing weight and reducing soda drinking by limiting myself with a pretty clear rule. I'm hoping this accomplishes the same thing with beer, which has become the new "too many calories in a drink" thing in my life.
Meet new people and keep in contact
This moves forward from the past several years. If I'm not careful, I forget to drop people an email every now and again and don't reach out to friends to do social things. But this year, I want to get out and build new connections, because I've sometimes found myself a bit isolated when Jeff plays bridge. Jeff and I are talking about becoming a two car household to help with this, and I've joined a couple of the distribution lists for social clubs at work.
Focus work again
This past year had a lot of churn in it with several switches in who my manager was. I think I'm back in a position to be stable for a bit, so it's a good time to look around the organization and see what needs to be done that I'm passionate about. This one is a bit vague, because while I think I know what I want to do (move up the management track), I also want to make sure I keep looking around to see what sorts of roles are popping up elsewhere. It also this encompasses learning what skills I need to pick up to move to a manager-of-managers role. Mainly, it's a reminder to make sure I'm growing at work the way I need to.