I wanted to write and publish a blog post on January 1st 2020 to set the tone for the year. This is me publicly committing to my professional goals on day 1 of the new decade. So here they are.
1) Keep working out consistently
I’ve had an on-again / off-again relationship with the gym almost my entire life. It seems every time I start working out again I make a little more progress each time. I look freaking good right now. I’m also lifting a safe way, not chasing big weights and focusing on form instead. I want to stay fit for a long time. Adding an extra 5lbs to my lifts, causing me to have shitty form and a higher risk of injury is not worth it.
I’m going to start counting my calories with the goal of getting shredded before our Australia vacation in May. I’ve never taken my diet as serious as I take my workouts. I eat a lot of crap sometimes like sugar and burgers. In n Out is a major guilty pleasure.
That’s all going to change after my birthday. I’m going to count calories, drop some fat, and get as shredded as possible. I want to do it once in my life. I want one amazing picture I can take with me for the rest of my life. One picture I can point back to and say “See, I did it.”.
2020 is the year I get shredded.
2) Buy a house
We’re currently living in a rental house now. We signed a 2 year lease for a cheap house with the goal of saving up to buy our own. We’re working with a realtor and have made 3 offers on houses so far.
We’ve lost every single offer.
But we’re going to keep trying. We’re committed to the area we want to live in, so now we’re just waiting for the right house to pop up at the right price.
2020 is the year we buy our first house.
3) Write about sports
My wife and I have started watching a lot of sports this year. I used to not really be a sports person. My eyes glazed over whenever someone would start talking about football, the Cowboys, or what player was trade to what team.
Now I can’t get enough of it. We watched the Toronto Raptors win their first NBA Championship earlier this year. I refreshed ESPN every day as I waited to see what team Kawhi Leonard signed with as a free agent. Last year I obsessively watched to see what team LeBron would go too.
Both my wife and I have been long time fans of the Dallas Mavericks. I started getting interested in the idea of writing about sports as I’ve watched games and read stories on ESPN and The Athletic.
2020 is the year I start writing about sports.
4) Write creatively
I used to write a lot more as a kid. Mostly I would write short stories based on books I read. I loved the MechWarrior series of books and video games, so I would write my own stories in that universe.
Somewhere along the way I lost that drive to write creatively. I want to reclaim some of that as I’m about to turn 31.
Recently I’ve thought about enrolling in a creative writing class. Maybe at a local community college or maybe online.
2020 is the year I start writing creatively.
5) Grow my career
I’m really happy with how my career has progressed. I work for a great company, my boss is very supportive of my goals, and I have tons of opportunity to expand my knowledge of marketing and business. But I’m never happy with the status quo. Stagnation is boring. I want to keep growing.
Growing my career in 2020 could manifest itself as a number of things. It could mean taking on new responsibilities, running a team of digital marketers, or something completely out of left field.
I’ve never gone into a new year with specific career goals. My only goal is that I want more. Whatever i’m currently doing, I want to do more. More responsibilities. More knowledge. More experience. I’ve become almost obsessed with growing my career.
My career growth so far has been mostly unplanned. I didn’t apply for my current job, a recruiter (and super cool dude now that I’ve gotten to know him) reached out. My current role as a paid search manager came by chance too. I was asked to step into the role by the CEO, I didn’t seek it out. My growth has come after I said yes to new opportunities. Yes to a new and different job. Yes to a new company.
I’ll continue saying yes to new opportunities in 2020.
Those are 5 of my goals for 2020. I’ll keep writing about how I plan to achieve them and what progress I’ve made. I’ll also need to build new habits to achieve them. Starting now.