Another year; another birthday. Last year was a fantastic one, with the St. Louis 250th anniversary celebration and the Belleville 200th providing our family with lots of opportunity to celebrate where we live. Yes, it was a year with some decidedly negative things happening in the St. Louis area, but it was the year we fully realized that St. Louis is our home.
It’s also the first full year I spent on the WordPress.com VIP team, which has been a great place for me to get some really good work done with a great team. I love what I do professionally more than ever before.
(I’ll probably write more about 2014 in another post yet to come.)
For my 36th year, there are some things I want to accomplish, and I’ve tried to make them attainable:
Elevate my exercise to every day of the week.
I’ve been going three times a week to CrossFit, and so far it’s been a fantastic choice. It’s hard to go at times, but I have finally found an exercise regimen that I’ve stuck with. (For four months-plus now.) This year, I want to get to the point where I’m going to the gym every day instead of three times a week.
Conquer my diabetes.
I’ll be honest: I’m horrible at managing my condition. I don’t really watch what I eat, and I’m prone to bouts of complete loss of self-control. This year, I want to finally get my blood chemistry under control by paying closer attention to what I’m eating.
You’ll notice there’s no weight goal in here this year. I’ve decided that’s largely a mistake when it comes to my planning. Instead, I want to focus on habits as goals and see where that takes me.
Write at least weekly.
Yeah, this one’s been around for a while, and everyone at work seems to share it. I work on and with WordPress; I should be using it more personally. And writing more of what I’m thinking is a good exercise and shares that thought with my friends and colleagues.
Raise at least $5,000 for Extra Life.
This was a goal I half-heartedly undertook last year, and didn’t really devote myself to the task. One 24-hour marathon does not a $5,000 fundraising goal make.
That said, if you want to do something for me for my birthday, the campaigns for 2015 have opened up, and you can make your first donation for the year on my fundraising page here.
I’m going to try for $5,000 again, and this time, I’m going to make it, because I want to:
Stream at least once a week.
I like streaming out my game-playing, even if very few people watch. I’d love to try to build an audience that I can interact with, because I think that’s the secret to doing it more often. (It’s kind of hard just talking to yourself for a couple of hours.) This is only going to happen if I try to stream regularly and on some kind of schedule.
I hope you’ll watch. Please follow my channel if you are interested.
And the last goal for this year:
Submit a committed patch to core WordPress.
I always tell myself this is just around the corner, and I never get around to doing it. It’s so important to me, and I work on one of the teams that’s perhaps one of the best places to work on core WordPress improvements. This is the year it happens.
And through all these things, I want to strive to keep the same balance between work and life, between the personal and the professional, that I’ve managed to keep over the last few years. I’m truly fortunate to have a kickass family who loves and supports me, and a job that’s among the best in the world. I would be crazy to give either of those less attention than they deserve.
Here’s to year number thirty-six.