Goals for 2017

With New Year's Day having come and gone a lot of people make resolutions.  I set goals.  Is there a difference?  I think so.  My goals are year long adventures.  Some of them are things I need to concentrate on every day.  But rarely is there something that if I miss one day (or even one week) it will be the end of the world.  Most of the goals this year are life refinements to make what I am already doing make more sense.  Here they are:

1. Continue with my Mandarin studies
2. Sleep more.  Last year I ran further than even before and I worked more hours than ever before, but I also gave up 18 minutes of sleep per day.  That was great for quantity of effort on various things.  Not always great for quality.
3. Take two five minute “quiet times” or mediations or whatever I want to call them each day.  I know how valuable it can be.  Key is just to keep it up in the same way I do with running.
4. Continue to work intensely.  This year can be about smarter rather than harder.
5. Continue to run intensely.  Not sure that “hard” can be escaped on this one.
6. Journal every day.  Even if it is a string of words no more than one sentence long.  Write something that forces me to reflect on myself and my world each day.  I’ll learn more that way.  I’ll grow more that way.
7. Finish writing projects.  Especially the one about my lessons from Comrades.  I got started and it has sat.  I also have a lot to write about mentoring.  Both for a talk in February, and in general.  People seem to respect my mentoring.
8. Spend more time sitting at meals with family.  Cooking with family is great.  But we need more undistracted time together.
9. Keep friendships going. 
10. Find out about others’ passions. 

You will see that 3 and 6 are things for which I will be aiming for every day.  Number 2 I have to worry about each day but inevitably there will be ups and downs.  Number 8 is critical for family.  Number 9 is valuable.  And number 10 will help when I am looking for inspiration--learn more about what inspires others.

For number 5, my New Year's Day race was important.  This year, I don't have my races planned out other than anticipating Memorial Day weekend for MCVET, Father's Day weekend at GBMC, and the Turkey Trot.  I am also thinking of the JFK 50 miler, but I don't have any half or full marathons on my agenda.  For the 5K's, I'd love to go back under 20 minutes.  Yesterday's workout was the first step in that direction.  8x400 with none slower than 90 seconds and several at 86 seconds.  I let go of workouts like that for much of last year.  I need to get them back.

The is a good exemplar for much else in my life.  It's all about the "package deal."  Running is its own little package deal.  Life as a whole is a package deal.  It is up to me to assemble it in a meaningful way.