2019 Goals

Congratulations, everyone. We made it¹ to the end of 2018.

It’s been an absolutely crazy year for me. A new job started. A ton of fun games released. A new kitten acquired. A house purchased. 2018 was definitely a blast, and yet I feel like some things have been lacking from it.

I think I narrowed down the cause; beyond these huge, major milestones, I feel like I didn’t accomplish a whole lot this year. I used to give myself some goals back in the day, and while I wouldn’t always achieve them, I felt like they gave me some guidance and organization to my life. When I transitioned to a business analyst this spring, I realized that I thrive on structure and having clear-cut goals to accomplish.

So! For the first time since 2013, I’m going to set some goals for my upcoming year. I routinely post my goals to my blog a) in order to have access everywhere, and b) to have public accountability.

So without further ado, here are my goals:

---

Lose 36 lbs

The obvious weight loss goal. I’ve been wanting to get under 160 lbs for years, and 2019 seems like the perfect year to finally achieve this.

Date	Weight (lbs)	Lost (diff from previous)
1/1	185.6	—
1/31	176.8	8.8 lbs
2/28	177.2	8.4 lbs (+0.4)
3/31	176.4	9.2 lbs (-0.8)
4/30	177.2	8.4 lbs (+0.8)
5/31	???	??? (I didn’t weigh myself)
6/30	179.0	5.6 lbs (+1.8)

Cook 12 new recipes

The food that we’ve been making and eating at home has become a little boring, so I’m gonna spice things up and try out some brand new recipes. Entrees, appitizers, sides, or baking; anything is fair game here.

Recipe	Date	Rating
1. Marinated White Beans	1/6	Goes great with quinoa.
2. Egg Roll in a Bowl	1/7	Delicious. Used ground chicken. New favorite weeknight dish.
3. One Pot Chicken & Broccoli with Peanut & Lime Sauce	1/10	Very interesting. Would like the chicken to have more texture.
4. Chorizo Chicken Chili	1/17	This is so good. Maybe better than my default chili recipe?
5. Smoky Sweet Potato & Black Bean Casserole	1/24	Another great recipe. Mine wasn’t as cheesy as the photo looks, but it was still really tasty.
6. Gordon Ramsay’s Broccoli Soup	1/30	Great flavors. Might try just blending the cheese in with the soup next time.
7. Baked Cucumber Chips	3/3	Delicious! A bit of pickle tang, and we tossed with smoked paprika and garlic powder.
8. Spinach, Cucumber, & Carrot Salad w/ Balsamic Vinegrette	5/21	Whipped together in about 5 minutes; finally got to use my food processor’s slicer (for the cukes) and shredder (for the carrots). Wife approved!
9. 5 Ingredient Banana Egg Pancakes	5/22	Holy shit these were good. I would’ve made them the next night had we both been home.
10. 10 Minute Black Bean Tacos	6/15	Really tasty and filling. Needs garlic.
11. Keto Thai Basil Chicken	6/16	Original recipe is VERY spicy, but the flavors are delicious.
12. Cauliflower Rice	6/16	A really nice way to add texture & body to a dish without all the carbs. Make sure you cook out all the moisture.
13. Corn Salad	6/16	Made this for Father’s Day, and the entire family was raving about how good it was. Very delicious.
14. Roasted Chickpeas	7/1	Simple, easy, and easy to adapt to anyone’s taste buds.

Record 12 songs, and release a new album

It’s time. My first release is nearly 6 years old at this point.

Song	Date
Anchor Yourself/Foundation DEMO (and the original demo)	1/11

Complete 12 video games

I talk about my list of games all the time, and it’s finally time to start cracking away at some of these. I’m setting this goal with the intention of getting away from the same ol’ games I play all the time (League, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft, mostly). I’ve already earmarked Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Last of Us (which I will definitely be streaming), and Bloodborne as games to beat this year; if you’ve got ideas for others, let me know.

Game	System	Completed Date
Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee	Switch	5/4
Half Life	PC	5/5
Half Life 2	PC	5/23
Dark Souls	PC	6/13
Mass Effect 2	PC	10/30
Mass Effect 3	PC	11/6
Hollow Knight	Switch	In Progress
The Outer Worlds	PC	In Progress
Pokemon Shield	Switch	In Progress

Read 12 books

Anyone else notice a pattern here? Everything is in 12s (or at least multiples of 12). I figure it’s SO MUCH EASIER to say “oh yeah let’s read 1 book this month” than it is to say “yeah I wanna read 30 books this year” like I did in 2013 (spoiler: I only read 7). I used to read all the time (see #15 on this list), and I’ve lost the habit since graduating from college. (Side note: I’m only allowed to count a maximum of 3 books that I’ve read before on this list. Gotta have some new variety.)

UPDATE: I created a spreadsheet (because of course I did) with some books that I want to read. If you’d like to add to it, you should tweet me your recommendations.

Title	Author	Date Completed
The Forever War	Joe Haldeman	1/3
Feed	Mira Grant	3/7
Deadline	Mira Grant	3/8
Blackout	Mira Grant	3/10
The Armored Saint	Myke Cole	4/6
The Eye of the World	Robert Jordan	9/15
Steel Crow Saga	Paul Krueger	10/12

Write 36 blog posts

I have this post up for a few reasons. If I know I have to make posts, it’ll motivate me to finish more games, since I can use my game reviews as part of this. I’ll also likely write about my weight loss journey, food I’ve made, books I’ve read, or stuff about the songwriting process. I’m also attempting to be on Facebook less, and since I’m going to try to not post as much, I figure I can use this blog as a nice way to keep interested parties updated as to what’s going on in my life.

Post	Date
Start	1/28
Game Review: Apex Legends	2/27
Colemak	3/15
Rerouting	4/23
May Check In	5/1

Finish writing (and start running) my D&D campaign

I have been in the midst of writing a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for a few years now. Progress is… slow? Kinda steady, but mostly slow. I have so many people that have expressed interest in playing that I’ll likely have to run a couple of campaigns simultaneously, which is intimidating, but also flattering and exciting. We’ve got a coffee shop really close to our house, so I’m gonna try and start going in there some mornings and flesh out the remaining framework of the world so this can begin.

Month	Progress
Jan	I literally did 0 work on this. I’m disappointed.
Feb	More of the world backstory has been created. I’m not even into writing much content for the game itself; I want to make sure the history is perfect.
Mar	LOL
Apr	This has just not been a priority for me since February.
May	Nothing.
June	Nothing.

---

So that’s it. 7 goals. Some easier than others, but all of them definitely achieveable if I put some effort into them. I’ll be coming back to this post frequently and updating it with my progress (mostly for me, but in case you feel like helping me hold myself accountable too). Hopefully next Christmas, I’ll be able to post about how I achieved every single one of these, and be able to push myself to even more challenging goals for 2020.

If you feel like encouraging me, harrassing me, or just want to say hello, you should stop by my Twitter page and tweet at me. Tell me about all of your goals for the coming year, and what you’re doing to help yourself stay accountable!