Ask HN: New Years Resolution(s)?
I want to know what your resolutions are for 2009. I know these lists are bullshit most of the time, but what's the harm?
I'll start first:
- Get Healthier (not just losing weight, but eating better and drinking less soda/sugar drinks)
- Learn how to use Photoshop
- Read more Marketing/Business/Entrepreneurship books that I tend to push off/forget about (the pile under my desk)
- Start blogging...(again)
- Start coding again + learn a new language (I'm thinking Python)
- Make a full time income online and move out (currently making a part-time income)
- Get onto the HN leader board (long shot)
I have more but I want to keep the list short and knock off one at a time. What's on your list?
I don't do new years resolutions, and it has been my policy since I was a kid.
My rationale: if you want to change your life or do something, don't procrastinate - start right then. Putting an arbitrary date on things you want to do never made sense to me. You just have to write it down and then follow through.
Two things come to mind:
1. Reach profitability with tarsnap. (This shouldn't be hard... I'm almost there already.)
2. Be a better friend to my friends. (This will hopefully be easier once resolution #1 is achieved, due to lower stress levels.)
I plan to
1. Be able to jog for 10 kilometers
2. Make a video that reaches 500.000 views on YouTube
3. Release at least one more app that brings in $2000 or more a month
Modest goals are easier to reach, and a goal that cannot be measured is no goal.
A new slinkset for New Year's resolutions: http://resolutions.slinkset.com/
I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, much like I don't believe in a state of "I _will do_ something." You won't do something if you aren't already doing it, unless a major force compels you.
Going to the gym and having a healthy diet is not a "new year's resolution." It's a lifestyle. You have to do it for your entire life, otherwise why even bother starting?
In the sense of "If it isn't actionable and quantifiable its a delayed failure rather than a goal:"
1) Go to gym 100 times for at least 45 minutes.
2) Sell $30,000 worth of Bingo Card Creator.
3) Take money from customers for 2nd project. (sales > $0)
4) Not disclosed.
5) Reduce food budget to 1/2 of current level.
6) Declare income resulting from wages of exactly zero yen/dollars for December 2009 to appropriate tax authorities.
I believe New Year's resolutions are like the fast food of goals/personal development: easy to come up with, may make you feel better in the short-term, and like fast food.. exit your system quickly.
Do yourself a favor and work towards your goals every day. Even fifteen minutes a day accumulates compound interest over time.
Mine are really similar:
- Get Healthier (not just losing weight, but eating better and drinking less soda/sugar drinks) - Read the piles of books on my desk - Start blogging - Learn a new programming language (C/C++/Objective-C, and the OpenGL library) - Make a decent income online where afford to buy a brand new Macbook Pro without putting it on a card I can't afford to repay... — Start a totally bootstrapped companyWhy wait until the new year?
Why not push away from the keyboard right now and go spend 15 minutes on something that will move you closer to one of your goals?
You'll feel a lot better, and you'll be 3 days ahead of the game. :)
Ask this girl out.
- live healthier
- learn Python (I wrote this one before I read the 5th item of the above)
- save/invest more money
- spend less time on HN
- figure out how to monetize my free time and then do it
- set up linux and mac os x boxes in addition to my windows box
1680x1050
Instead of having a ton like last year and failing, this year I'm just going to have one resolution:
- Waste less time
* Attend lots of comferences/meetups * Get funded * Launch paid for product * Grow advertising revenue * Sell the company * Profit!!It's funny how similar some of mine are. Or maybe it's not funny at all, maybe that's why we're all here...
- Start blogging again
- Learn Python properly (I know a bit, but would like to be comfortable/fluent)
- Lose some weight
but also (and these are optimistic/long-term, but hey):
- Really work to grow my client base, further my business's reputation, etc
- Release one of my as-yet-unfinished SaaS apps for some passive income
- Get an office and my first employee (currently freelancing from home office)
- get things done instead of thinking what new year resolutions I want for next year.
Read HN only on Saturdays (or some other fixed day of the week). I can easily waste 2 or 3 hours a day to "keep up" with the news, this is ridiculous.
Trying to learn something truly worthwhile by reading the news is a bit like trying to learn by watching TV or trying to get rich by buying lottery tickets: sometimes it works, usually it doesn't, and even if you succeed it's not quite as edifying as doing it the right way (ex: learning useful knowledge by reading books or getting rich by starting a company).
I'd be interested to know if there's some day of the week where the stories are usually the most relevant.
-Finish popalerts, & popschedule -Get portfolio site together -Figure out first year C corp taxes due. -Develop better communication and public speaking skills. -Make more connections with outside web consultants. -Wake up to the sound of an alarm. -Stop arguing with my girlfirend -Drink more tea, less coffee -Make Lists, get organized -Build large business web concepts (coke, nike, honda,...) -Paint more -Drink less
1. Finish writing my current desktop app
2. Incorporate (probably as an LLC)
3. Sell copies of said app to people in exchange for money.
4. Relax more.
5. Exercise more.
6. Visit more places and people.
7. If steps 1-3 work, buy Wil Shipley a drink!
8. Spend next xmas in Munich.
I don't do New Year's resolutions, but I have made a decision recently.
If I'm going to continue consulting instead of working on a startup next year, on the side I'm going to work on something technical and fun, like an automated .NET Ocaml-to-YUI Data Access Layer. Something where I can learn and create a framework to use in a startup later on.
- Quit smoking - Learn UI (CSS and Photoshop) - Excercise daily - Release my two side projects and turn them into profitable products. - Learn a new programming language (not sure on this one) - Publish some pending drafts to ACM - Publish some articles , long due, to selected magazines - Asking this girl out
I have decided to focus on personal growth. I made this list some days ago.
Personal qualities
Goals:
- Non needy
- Non pleasing
- Give value
- Accept other peoples value
Method:
- Be faithful to own values
- Base in own self recognition, not others opinion.
- Accept the importance of signal values
- Don't do or say things that undermines my own status.
Excercise:
Goals
- running, cycling, swimming, workout.
Method
- Sign up for several amateur races (running, cycling, triathlon)
Professional:
Goals
- improve self promotion
Method
- Blog, Network
Startup:
Goal
- Launch my project
Method:
- Keep on working? (I've rewritten it two and a half time)
- Freelancing pays the bills
Friends:
Goal
- Keep old friends, but focus on making new friends.
Method
- Actively engage in other people lives, don't need "invitation".
Dating:
Goal
- Date more girls, or meet potential long term girlfriend
Method
- Dating sites, Social activities, Bars
Sailing:
Goal
- Participate in as many regattas as possible (I bought a sailing boat last year)
Method ?
Happy new year!
It's not a New Year Resoultion, but certain goals/milestones that I'd like to see achieved :
1) Develop some Social Networking Applications for Facebook etc.
2) Learn Cocoa Touch for iPhone and Develop Apps.
3) Learn a MVC framework like Django/RoR in and out.
4) Be consistent with the gym schedule and get some muscles :)
5) TBD soon :)
1.Work through Stroustrup's Programming: Principle's and Practice Using C++ (always good to review the basics)
2.Write an app and sell it for enough to replace my current income
3.Train for and run the Bay to Breakers
4.Achieve "Archer" level in recurve style archery.
1. Get my on-the-side business up and running and decide whether or not it is worth investing more time in. 2. Add 20k+ to my savings. 3. Improve my BASH knowledge. 4. Travel more. 5. Waste less time (TV and web)
Learn how to code because some idiots did not figure that computer science should be thought in elementary school just as Mathematics, Biology, etc...The plan HTML>CSS>Javascript>Python or PHP
- do more marketing for SmartFlix and HeavyInk (I hate doing it, but it works)
- I started lifting again three weeks ago - keep doing it.
- Get to the range more often to practice and carry my pistol more often day to day.
Same as last year...
- Lose weight - Learn C - Don't waste (too much) time - Get shit done
I did pretty well on the last two in 2008. Hopefully I can keep it up while making the first two happen.
1. Collect underwear
3. Profit
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Ship.
Learn a functional programming language. (Maybe Haskell, but I'm open to other ideas).
Not making resolutions. Whatever happens, happens.
Do better next year.
Remember peeps, good goals are measurable and specific.
Last year's NYR was to quit smoking. A year later I'm happy to report I've been smoke free for a year and am now actually disgusted by the smell of smoke.
So this year's resolution is to focus on making a bunch of mobile games and make a million by this time next year. I figure since I'm on a roll...
Can't be that much harder than quitting smoking.