RSS
 

Archive for June, 2010

New Blog: Goodbye Blogger

30 Jun

Goodbye Google.

Goodbye Google

Now I’ll only be using you for an email account.

And contacts.

And calendar.

And chat, maps, YouTube, and searching the web.

Due to the limitations of blogger and some problems with lurkers and commenters, I’ve left my old blog behind (at least for most things), and there will be no linking between the two. I will likely bring over some of my better posts for preservation and discussion.

I’ve chosen this layout because it’s different and I like the look of a journal.

I’ve chosen the name “Second Jon,” at least temporarily but I’m open to other name suggestions.

 

New Year, Old Goals

29 Jun

Rather than New Year’s Resolutions, a few friends set resolutions based on their birth year instead of the calendar year. I’ve decided to try this out.

2010 Birthday Cake

I evidently turned 7 this year.

I’ve decided that this year on the Jon-ese calendar is going to be a big year. There’s plenty of people who have created a “30 while 30” type of goal list, and they tend to fall into a few categories I’m trying to avoid:

  • Insignificant goals

    “Pay for the person behind me at McDonald’s”

    You won’t find me at McDonald’s, but this is still a silly goal. Sure it’s a nice thing to do, but I don’t want to set my sights on goals that require zero energy, a few dollars (if any), and no time.

  • Impossible goals

    “Write a best selling novel. Then host a television talk show. Then write a screenplay that is produced into a movie.”

    While these goals may be noble, they’re totally impractical. Perhaps you could submit a novel for publication, but you can’t control whether it’s best selling, or when it gets published.

  • Meaningless goals

    “Fly a kite.”

    Unless you have an irrational fear of kites, what’s the point? I’ve never held a tarantula, and I could go to the Butterfly Pavilion and hold one, which would be cool but not terribly meaningful to me.

  • Unmeasurable goals

    “Be a better dad.”

    You can’t quantify that. Goals should be measurable. “Spend 20 Saturdays with my kid doing something fun just for him” is a better goal.

That brings me to what kind of goals I do want:

  1. Attainable (can be done)
  2. Meaningful (makes me a better person in some way)
  3. Difficult (requires effort, time, money, and/or planning)
  4. Quantifiable (I can check it off when it’s done)

.

As I thought about what I should have on my goal list, I realized I’ve got a lot of goals already to get started with that I’ve never completed. This is the year to get them done.

One of my goals is to blog more often (Yes, I need to quantify this), and another is to track my progress. So feel free to subscribe and follow along. (I’ll be blogging about other things as well.)

 
No Comments

Posted in Goals