2014: Breaking the Surface

Happy New Year humanity! 2013 beat out 2012 as another great year and I’m excited to make 2014 even better! To all my readers, I wish you the same happiness and persistence in achieving your goals.

Last year, I set seven goals. I also tended to create a daily list of seven things to get done. Seven tasks a day and seven goals for the year. I didn’t do that on purpose and seven doesn’t have any special significance for me. It just worked out that way.

This post is a review of 2013 and my goals for the year ahead. If you have any goals of your own, I’d love to hear them! You can post them anonymously below or on the link that brought you here if you’d like.

2013: A Brief Review

The Good:

I managed to get a lot done, even as a lazy travel bum. I kept up with my weekly letters. I volunteered and studied abroad in the US and Italy respectively. I read 34 out of 30 books, 7 of which were from the Personal MBA. Also, thanks to the poor luck of Toronto citizens during the July flood, I managed to get an insurance internship and make a good impression.

The Not-So Good:

• My monthly letters to friends dropped off for a while during the summer, but I think I got in more than 12 if I include some postcards from abroad.

• I did cover the material from Scott Dinsmore’s Connect with Anyone course, but my motivation for applying it gradually faded. It’s still a great resource and I’m glad that I can always look back on it.

• I was a full vegetarian for one month and had at least one day a week back in Waterloo when I would cook meals without meat. My reason for trying vegetarianism was more for health than for morals and I decided that meat was better than supplements. I imagine that when I’m back in Waterloo I’ll get back to the same routine, but I won’t give up meat completely until I grow into my morals.

• I didn’t run any registered half-marathons, but did get in a good 22.5 Km run for fun on my own. I only officially registered for the Waterloo Half-Marathon, but the sidewalks stayed icy later into the spring this year and I didn’t want to risk injury.

There’s nothing I regret not doing this past year and I’m really proud of the things I did do. With all of the confidence 2013 brought, I’m excited to get on with this year’s resolutions! I guess I’ll keep with the tree analogy and my apparently lucky number seven.

Here’s a more thorough explanation of my resolutions:

• Have regular 1-on-1 conversations. Last year, I had quite a few good one-on-one conversations and I realized how much I missed getting into those deeper "lunch table" discussions. These conversations don’t necessarily need to be one-on-one, but even in groups that are as small as 4 people I tend to sit back and stay quiet. 

• Write 100,000 words. A few readers have given me some amazing compliments. The past year and a half writing at Blake Beyond Borders has been a great way for me to solidify my values and connect with others in a way that I had difficulty doing before. These 100,000 words will also include my personal letters and speeches, but it must be original work. All of your support has pushed me to improve myself and I can’t thank you enough!

• Give 4 speeches. In pursuit of Toastmasters’ Competent Communicator award, I would like to do four speeches when I return to my club in Waterloo. That will put me in a good positions to complete the program around the same time that I graduate from Laurier in 2015. To fit in with my writing, I plan to write one new speech every month.

• Run 150 Km. Originally, I was just going to write ‘Run one half-marathon,’ but I wanted something more than a singular event. This way, I’ll spread out the 150 Km over the year. Although I don’t consider this a push of my abilities, I do think it is a good goal considering the amount of time I’ll be travelling.

• Release an e-book. I’m probably most excited about this goal. I figure since I will be writing so much, I should also learn the ins and outs of an actual storyline. So, I will be putting together something small, but different from my blog posts and it will probably be offered on a Pay What You Want model (i.e. you can get it for free). My plan is to release that and then a larger volume more to the tune of what is on this blog (but with a lot more planning and edits). More details to come later in the year!

• See the Great Barrier Reef. Ever since high school, I’ve had this idea that I would one day see all the 7 wonders of the natural world. There are a few lists, but the one I go by is: the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, the Harbour of Rio de Janeiro, Mount Everest, Aurora Borealis, Parícutin volcano, and Victoria Falls. I haven’t seen any yet, so I’m hoping to make the most of my time in Australia and spend a small fortune getting from Sydney to Cairns.

• Read 20 books, 8 being from the pMBA. I’m cutting down on my reading from last year, but I wanted to make sure that I still met some basic learning threshold. While I learned a ton in 2013 from the books that I read, I feel like I should devote more of my time to experiencing my travels this year.

If you read this far, thank you! It’s quite a task to get people to read anything of length on the internet these days. Unfortunately, these words don't count towards my 100k since I actually wrote them yesterday. As I said above, I owe my determination and persistence to all of your support. If there are any goals that you think I can help you with this year, feel free to send me a message!

I’ve put a feedback form in the bottom left side of the page for a limited time and I would really appreciate it if you could give me some tips so I can improve my writing or website. What did you like reading about? What not so much? I’m more a writer than anything, but if there is enough demand for other media, I’ll consider it. Don’t worry; putting your email in doesn’t add you to some spam list. Alternatively, you can post anonymously in the comments section.

Thanks again and I wish all of you the very best in 2014!