Now that it is the end of July, I want to revisit my New Year’s Resolutions to see how I’ve been doing. As opposed to a completely new post (especially for those who did not read my original resolutions) I thought it would be fun to annotate my old post.
Resolution 1
5 Year Vision: Keep learning new skills
3 Month Plan: Write at least one new blog post every 2 weeks
Like a lot of people, I find writing something well takes lots of hard work. I survived English class because I spent countless hours proofreading and rewriting. When I wrote my first guest post for CBS Interactive a few years ago, I was terrified before submitting it. A post published on another site felt so permanent – was it good enough? I probably had 10 people proofread it and still had that roller-coaster-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach feeling when I submitted it. To become a better writer, I must make a concerted effort to practice.
My goal is to write at least one blog post every 2 weeks to develop my own voice and become more comfortable as a writer. My hope is that after a period of 3-6 months, blogging will become a habit and I can move on to developing another skill.
Anyone who looks at the dates of my posts knows I have not stuck to this schedule. I don’t think my lack of posts have been about a fear of writing, it’s honestly just difficult to think of many topics that are truly interesting to write about. I have fallen into a trap of writing for an audience vs. writing for myself, which I need to fight through. As anyone who runs a startup, I’m a sucker for page views and metrics. They drive my work life and I think that kind of thinking is affecting my writing. I know it sounds cheesy, but I really need to start writing for myself. This post is my first in that direction.
Though my posts have been less frequent, I can honestly say that my writing has improved as well as my confidence right before I press publish. In fact, I even wrote my second guest post, this time for VentureBeat: http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/29/how-to-make-a-viral-video/. Now, I just need to get back on a regular posting schedule, and I will.
Resolution 2
5 Year Vision: Raise my emotional intelligence (EQ) [I think it’s funny that I put a link to this. Now I think I am actually beginning to understand what it means!]
3 Month Plan: Meet one new person (face-to-face) every week
I have now lived in the bay area for almost 9 years. Most of my friends from college still live in the area and I have a tendency to stay in my comfortable social circle. While having a strong support network is amazing, having one makes me less likely to meet new people. It’s time for a change, not only from a professional standpoint (where being able to connect with all types of people is really important) but also from a personal one. I’m not sure how I am going to find all these new people (if you want to meet me leave a comment), but we’ll leave that for another post.
My goal is to meet someone new (face-to-face) every week and have at least a 15-minute conversation.
I’m happy to report that I have done a pretty good job with this and have met one new person almost every single week. I have gone out of my way to not only find new people, but also meet them after our initial contact. I cannot even begin to explain how much this has helped me both personally and professionally. Also as a personal win, I have never “grabbed coffee.” (I don’t drink coffee and am not a fan of coffee meetings in general. I feel like to get to know someone you have to share an experience with them, and coffee is never it.) The most difficult piece of this was figuring out where to meet new people. (If you are interested in how I do it, leave me a note in the comments and I’ll devote an entire post to it.)
Resolution 3
5 Year Vision: Be healthier
3 Month Plan: Bring lunch to work 3 days a week
I already do a decent job of going to the gym, but my eating habits leave much to be desired. Startup life keeps me pretty busy, so I don’t have much time to cook for myself. This means that I eat out a lot, almost 10 – 12 times a week. That is pretty outrageous considering there are only 14 opportunities to eat lunch and dinner every week. No matter how often you go to the gym, you will never be able to accomplish any health related goals by eating fast food.
My goal is to make and bring lunch to work 3 times a week. I hope this first step leads to making dinner and improving my cooking skills as well.
Looking back, this is the resolution I am most proud of. It started with my modest three-month plan to bring lunch to work three times a week. This was relatively easy to accomplish and pretty quickly grew into cooking dinner as well. Now I am at a point where I bring lunch to work four times a week and also cook dinner at home FOUR times a week. The difference has been noticeable; I feel healthier and save a lot of money. I don’t suddenly have a lot of free time so if you are curious to know what I am eating or how I prepare it, please let me know and I’ll make it another post.
