I have been listening to live radio less and less over the past few months. Normally, my car rides consist of music, fantasy baseball podcasts, and the occasional chapter of a book on tape (CD).
The other day, I happened to hear a segment from Z100 about one of the girls turning 25, and looking back on what she expected to feel and change about herself one year later. I thought the concept was great, and it must have been a really nice experience to get to share that publicly, especially because she accomplished most of what she wanted to.
With today being my 28th birthday, I have been thinking about what I would like to do in the next year. I will try to avoid being vague with things like, “Spend more time with my family,” as I want tasks that can be quantified. Some are things that I absolutely cannot miss, and some are extremely unlikely. Either way, I am proud of what I have done in the past year, and I hope that this post becomes a checklist filled out by the next April 24th.
Must-Do’s
1. Share more of my writing. I write every day. Most of it is personal (most of it is nonsense, really). I know when something is good, so I share it. At this point, it doesn’t bother me if someone reads it or not, but it does bother me if it comes off as self-serving or extremely negative. I don’t like portraying myself in any extreme, but I fear that I can’t avoid it with how I spill my guts onto the screen. Either way, I want to share more of it. I have ways, and I plan on exercising them.
2. Start my second company. Somewhat tied into the first goal, I have something on which I have been working for over a year. It will be complete and spark the start of a new company before my next birthday. This will happen. Side note: my first company will still be active, as I am deep into a project with it anyway.
3. Post a video of me playing a song. I can’t sing, but I can play piano and guitar pretty well. I have practiced the same songs on both instruments for years now, and, besides my terrible voice, there is no reason why I shouldn’t share one of them. I was going to put this in the “Would Like To-Do” category, but I want to force myself into this.
4. Write a song. This will absolutely not be posted, as it is nearly impossible to share an original song without singing it. But it will happen. I can write and play instruments. I finally “get” guitar and piano. The chords and progressions make sense. I just need to put it all together.
5. Explore every opportunity. This was actually my “New Year’s Resolution”. So far, it has failed. I get crazy ideas almost every day. My goal was (is) to explore every one of them. To check the viability. To see what it takes to get it done. To see if it is worth my time. I need to find an efficient way to do this, but whatever it is, I should not let something enter my mind without spending a few minutes to look into it.
Would Like To-Do’s
6. Get 1,000 Twitter followers. This one is unlikely, as it is largely out of my control (and should probably be in the next category), but it is something I would like to happen. Basically, I don’t want to go around following people in hopes to get a follower in return. I want to do something – anything – that warrants me being worthy of a follow. I’m hoping that one of the four goals in the first section could be the catalyst for this. That way, I will know that it was truly accomplished.
Unlikely But Worth Trying
7. Learn to sing. Not only do I not know how to sing, I don’t even know how to learn. I know it can be taught, to an extent, but I am beyond terrible. If I reached the level of “dying cat”, it would be a huge accomplishment. Hayley has a better chance of throwing a fastball past a Major League hitter, right now, than I have of becoming decent at singing.
In the next year, I will do the first five items on this list, and I will try the last two to the best of my availability. Next year, I will have the opportunity to reflect on this an add to it. I already have the desire to piggyback on most of these, but I can’t move on until I’ve moved forward. Goals need movement to be in motion.
Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and support!