Well, it’s a new year once again, and for those who have been following my blog, you might know that I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions. I don’t deny the importance of yearly improvement, but in my experience many resolutions that I make or hear others making are overly general or unrealistic. This sets up the person making the resolution for failure. But after reading some pretty helpful New Year’s-related articles, I’ve decided to make some New Year’s resolutions after all. However, I want to put a Glen-spin on them and focus on two things – quantifiable/observable results and realistic (or what some may argue easy) goals.
But First a Look Back…
Before I list my three resolutions for 2014, I wanted to review the resolutions I made for 2013. How did I do? In terms of being more mindful of other people’s feelings, I think I’ve really grown a lot in this area. Granted, I’m far from perfect and I still have a lot of work to do, but looking back at this past year, I think I’ve definitely improved by leaps and bounds, which is quite encouraging. Understanding more about different personality types, cognitive functions, and Myers-Briggs has been a key tool in helping me to achieve this. But I think the most important thing I’ve done is actually make an effort by observing the world around me and processing information to account for this aspect more. I hope to continuing this growth in the coming year and beyond.
As for reaching out to others more, I’ve improved slightly, but not as much. I’m still very lazy when it comes to reaching out to friends and planning out hangouts or quality time. The nice thing is that after graduating college and starting working life, I’ve been forced to do a better job in maintaining intentional friendships, since it’s much, much harder to stay in constant contact and close proximity with others due to work. So this will be a key area I’d like to focus on in 2014.
Budgeting was my third point of improvement. Although my current habit is nowhere how I imagined it to be at the start of last year (meticulously tracking every expense), I’m satisfied with what I’ve been doing. I’m mostly following an 80/20 spending-saving ratio, getting my feet wet in stocks and ETFs, and building up my credit by opening a couple of new credit lines and paying bills on time. Personal finance is one of my current areas of interest, and I’ve been doing a lot of reading and research via blogs and articles online.
So not too bad – time for some additional resolutions for 2014!
Resolution #1: Spend time to catch up with 10 people I haven’t seen or spoken to in over 6 months
This resolution focuses on intentional friendships and encourages me to take more initiative. Of course, 10 is just the minimum – hitting that number doesn’t mean I’m good for the year. I think it’s a good point of reference and a great goal to strive for. I think most of these will be meals or coffee chats, but that doesn’t leave out other fun (or chill) activities. What I’m most excited about is reaching out to people from all walks of life, whether from college, high school, internships, old, young. The possibilities are many. And of course if others reach out I’d definitely accept!
Resolution #2: Eat a healthier breakfast; no more Pop-Tarts
This should be pretty easy to do, since I’ve already been planning for this. Quick background: when I first started work, I bought a couple boxes of Pop-Tarts for breakfast, along with some yogurt and fruits. Pretty soon, people in the office started to know me as the guy who eats Pop-Tarts for breakfast, so much so that my manager bought me a gigantic box of Pop-Tarts as sort of a gag gift. That means I’ve been eating Pop-Tarts for the past 6 months and I’m frankly sick of them. This should be an easy one. I’m planning to bring back yogurt, fruit, and either bagels or English muffins for breakfast as soon as I finish that box.
Resolution #3: Explore 5 SF neighborhoods I haven’t explored in the past
Since moving into the city half a year ago, I’ve had lots of opportunities to explore surrounding neighborhoods and learn more about this diverse and interesting city. I have a pretty good general sense of how to get around, plus some knowledge on good restaurants and attractions to explore. But I feel like that’s only the tip of the iceberg! According to the Airbnb SF neighborhood guide, there are 42 listed SF neighborhoods, so I have plenty of places left to check out. Five should be very easy and again is the minimum. A good tracker for this will be additional Exploring SF posts on this blog, so stay tuned!
That’s it! Three resolutions for 2014 that are very doable with measurable results. I’m already excited to start! Happy New Year!
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