Tomorrow (assuming I push this post out tonight) is my 29th birthday. I usually don't celebrate too big, this year I'm spending two weeks back on the west coast with family.

I wanted to use this post to help solidify some of my goals over the next year (as a form of public commitment). I don't normally post year long goals on my birthday, usually I do that around new years, but I figured why not share it on my birthday. After all, this next year will lead to me turning 30, which kind of feels like a big thing!

I don't have many goals yet, but I wanted to highlight a few that came to mind as we were driving back from Vancouver this afternoon.

1. Get healthier

I've fallen back into ordering a lot of delivery fast junk food as of late - I'd like to instead get better at making my own food, and working on a healthier diet.

On top of that - I really need to stretch out my exercise, at the moment it consists only of walking but I need to involve more activities to help burn more calories.

2. Improve my wardrobe

My current wardrobe is pretty plain and consists of essentially 4 things:

  • Black Eddie Bauer polos
  • Shorts from Target
  • Pants from Public Rec
  • Jeans

At a bare minimum I'd like to stretch my shirt collection a bit, and add in more variety.

3. Optimize finances

I don't necessarily want to start planning for retirement, but I do also want to better control my finances. To start, I want to get a lot better at understanding where/how/why I spend my money.

4. Get serious about my career

This to me also means getting serious with my side projects, there's a few I'm working on at the moment that I'd like to see out in the wild - even if I'm the only one using them!

Meta:

A few meta notes on goals:

Check-in Frequently

I really should check-in on the above frequently, and adjust often also to optimize for change. I'm thinking of checking in weekly to start, but might adjust back to monthly if that's too aggressive

Continuously collect data

I'd like to have a solid database of attributes to check in on during the above check-ins to help inform if I'm actually accomplishing those goals. I really like projects like: howisfelix.today and Julian's Quantified Self, and I'd like to build an experience on my personal site that does something similar if possible!