At the end of every year, I sit down and write out my short-term and long-term goals. Just to make sure life is on track with what makes me happy. And to help correct my direction if it isn’t. Tonight’s goal list is probably the most ambitious and exciting it’s ever been.
The short-term goals include
- redesigning my website (I love the current look, but it gets old looking at it every day)
- taking my car to the shop to get the rattle in the engine fixed (boring, but necessary)
- making my first video with my BRAND NEW Canon 7D camera (because all my favorite youtubers bought one and I’m a conformist, heh), and
- finishing work on the “Summer of ’09″ maxi-single (wait, what?! “Summer of ’09″ MAXI-SINGLE?!).
The long-term goals include
- finishing a new secret website (it won’t be finished until spring or summer of 2011, so don’t get excited yet)
- paying off my mortgage as quickly as humanly possible (boring-ish, the extra disposable income will be markably more exciting once it’s paid off, though)
- finishing my music book (music book? like sheet music? or how to start a successful record label? or how to write lyrics? or, or…. you’ll just have to wait, I’m not telling.)
- finishing my second album, it’s the follow-up (but NOT a sequel) to Erase This, and
- starting to learn a second language (I haven’t picked one yet. Latin? Italian? Maybe. Those are the two strongest contenders right now, but I’m open to suggestions).
Continuing tiny-term (daily) goals include
- (offline) reading more, fiction or non, I don’t care
- weightloss (I’ve been maintaining extremely well, but not really losing like I did earlier this year, more on that in a minute)
- spending more time away from the computer (my girlfriend, Kristen, moved in six weeks ago. I like watching movies and playing board games with her. I like playing video games with her, and just talking. All those things require me to be “AFK”)
- and, of course, continuing to grow DFTBA Records now that it’s starting it’s third year in business.
At the end of 2009, these were my goals for 2010, let’s go through them together, shall we?
- Continue to grow and beat 2009?s sales figures for DFTBA Records. = PWNED! We TRIPLED sales in 2010 over the total sales of 2009. TRIPLED! In fact, we recently hit the $1,000,000 mark in sales, read more here.
- Release my first full-length album with Luke Conard and Ted Hu. = PWNED! This time last year Jason and Christian weren’t even in the Erase This band, that’s how glimmer-of-hope-in-my-eye it was at that time. But both of them came along in 2010 and had a huge, positive impact on the album, it was released on May 20, 2010. (buy it here)
- Make at least three music videos for the above mentioned album. = PWNED! “Winter’s Song“, “Boxcar Blood” and “Mirror Song“.
- Finish reading all seven Harry Potter books before the Deathly Hallows movie is released. = FAILED! I didn’t even finish the first book. Luckily, Hayley G Hoover was too busy falling in nerdfighterlove with Lombardo to notice, and she hasn’t made me make good on her “Read or Rap” challenge.
- Meet Hank Green in person. And other new YouTubers who I haven’t met yet. But definitely Hank. = FAILED! I did meet a lot of fantastic new YouTubers this year, but Hank was not among them. Le sigh.
- Organize an awesome YouTube Gathering with Erica Eeks sometime this summer/fall. = PWNED! It was called EmotiCon, and it was awesome (proof).
- Lose at least 30 lbs before next Christmas. = PWNED! I lost exactly 30.5 lbs in the last 12 months. Man, that feels fantastic. This was the goal I worried about most last year. But, yeah. Accomplished.
- Fall in nerdfighterlike with someone who isn’t “taken” or “just wanting to be friends”. = More of a hope, a dream, or a wish than a goal really. But… PWNED! Kristen and I met at the end of January, and she moved in with me in October. <3
It’s been a crazy year.
What are your accomplishments from this year? What are your goals for next year. Writing them down instantly makes them over 40% more likely to happen. Just saying.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Congrats on all of your goals that you accomplished, including Emoticon! I’m so glad we were able to pull that off. It was so much fun! We should do it again next year ;) hahaha. But I’m wicked proud of you Alan, for everything that you were able to accomplish, especially with DFTBA. You rock and I’m sure next year will be even better :)
–Erica
Alan, congrats on your fantastic year. It’s been awesome hearing about all your successes on Twitter or your blog, and I lovelovelove your CD. The way your years are going, you’ll be like, rich and famous by 30. :)
You should take Latin! I started it this year at school and it’s really easy to pick up on/understand. And congrats on all the accomplished goals. And best wishes towards your ones for 2011! :)
Since you asked:
My goals for 2010 were mostly to get my M.Ed and find a teaching job. Graduating was never an issue (other than a mad scramble to write a thesis after hoping they’d just waive that requirement) but the job-finding was miserable, if ultimately successful. Third on the list was to read 25 books. So far I have read 22.
In 2011 I hope to:
1. Improve my teaching by maintaining a journal that critiques each lesson
2. Expand my cooking repertoire (at least 10 recipes)
3. Read 25 books (at least 5 nonfiction)
4. Explore the area
5. Meet people (this is the tricky one. I am not outgoing, my coworkers are all in their 50′s and I’m not a churchgoer)
6. Attend my little brother’s graduation from the Air Force Academy
Congrats on being so successful in completing your goals! Few things feel as good as that.
I’m starting Latin in January (new semester), so I don’t have any knowledge on whether or not I recommend it.
Wow, you still haven’t met Hank IRL? I am surprised.
My long-term goals:
- Start up book-reviewing YouTube channel and stick to it (the intro video footage is on my camera as I type)
- Continue querying literary agents for my novel
- Finish my current manuscript
-Complete set of Erase This stories
-Avoid all Leaky Con and Vidcon footage due to depression that it will inevitably induce
Short-term ones:
-Practice up on clarinet for the coming semester
- Finish hard-core sci-fi story and submit to magazines
“Hayley G Hoover was too busy falling in nerdfighterlove with Lombardo to notice” made me smile, as did your mentions of Kristin.
If only…yeah, well, I won’t go into that. :)
This makes me want to sit down and write my goals. Thanks Alan!
I can’t wait to see all the things you accomplish this year. :D And reading this has inspired to write my own blog about my year.
Thanks Alan. :D
You should take Latin! I started it this year at school and it’s really easy to pick up on/understand. And congrats on all the accomplished goals. And best wishes towards your ones for 2011! :)
Congrats on accomplishing so many of your goals! Those ones you didn’t accomplish can just roll over into this year! I’m challenging myself to read more this year, as well. I’ve decided to do the 50 book challenge, that Kristina Horner did in 2007 (or 8?) Basically, just read 50 books this year! That’s almost a book a week!
Also, for languages, as interesting as both Latin and Italian are, I think I would want to learn a language that was more widly used, like French/Spanish/German. But that’s just my thoughts :)