2019 Goals

So at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, I almost completely wrote out some goals for 2018 that I never clicked publish on. I am mildly sad about that and have stared at it in my drafts folder a few times over the last couple weeks.

A lot of the goals I had for this last year were accomplished, and I am hoping to be more thoughtful and measurable in my goals this year. Here are a few of the things on my mind for the next year…

Waterfalls

I like waterfalls. I think they are pretty cool. I am incredibly grateful to live in a place where I can drive down a road and see several in a few miles. There is a cool hike about an hour and a half south of Portland that involves ten waterfalls in a nine-mile loop.

In 2019, I would like to see five new waterfalls. Ramona Falls is one that has been on my list for quite awhile, and we live in a place where finding new waterfalls is easily achievable.

Read Less

I want to cut down my reading – I have been at 75+ books a year for the last few years, and I want to read at least 25 fewer books. I want to be more selective and thoughtful about what I am reading, more caring and insightful. There is a bit more about this in a scheduled post I have about reading in 2018. Essentially, I would like to spend less time consuming and more time creating. 

Write More

Like I say above – less time consuming, more time creating. I wrote about this yesterday.

Run Less Now and Better Later

I want to run a bit less at the start of the year. Same reason as the reading – I ran a lot this year, and it was not always the most productive thing. Hoping to write in January about my running in 2018.

I would like to be able to run a half marathon in about an hour and a half by the end of the year.

Role More Dice

Another thing I want to write about is that I started playing both Star Wars: Destiny (a collectable card/dice game) and Dungeons and Dragons. I plan to keep doing this, and I want to win a weekly Destiny tournament event at some point in the first quarter of 2019.

Data Visualization

The Associate Dean in my department paid for me to attend a training on Tableau in the Fall – since attending the training, I have used Tableau maybe twice. I want to build my skills in the data visualization area so I can use the retention data I work with to tell our story to stakeholders.

Academic Presentation/Publication

My last academic presentation was in 2016, my last academic publication was in 2017, and I have spent all of 2018 trying to recover from the whirlwind that was doing a lot of things – and trying to give my work some space to be able to have more and better content to present on. I think I am at that point, and I am excited to re-approach presenting, then turning that work into writing.