Goals and Aspirations for 2022

Looking Back

I am not a fan on new year resolutions, never really have been. When people as me about new years resolutions, my usual reply is that I made a resolution many years ago to never make any more and I have managed to keep that to date. However, I am also a fan of a quote I heard from Eisenhower (quite probably paraphrased) which went along the lines of “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”. I do therefore, like to at least try and have a plan moving forward and the beginning of the year is as good a time as any to make one. Though to keep with my general contempt for new years resolutions, I like to use my birthday, which handily falls at the end of the January as the starting point for my ‘yearly review’.

Looking back over the last year, a lot has changed. This time last year I was attempting to teach phonics to 4 year olds remotely whilst locked up in our tiny flat for Lock down 3.0. Now I have had a complete career shift and am currently a sysadmin at an independent college on the other side of London. Things is my personal life have not changed significantly, although I am beginning to think that I might be facing the prospect of being single again in the not too distant future. But that is another story.

Looking back over the last year I think it is safe to say that I achieved my main goal, which was to make a career shift. However, many of my other goals that I had set around my personal development and fitness went unachieved. So, having succeed in making a career change, I want to make my 37th year on this earth focused more on my own development. Primarily I want to build sustainable habits that will help me to achieve more and grow as a person. I have tried to pair down my goals to the simplest and most achievable steps. Ideally focusing on action rather than outcome. I have tried to divide them into neat-ish subheadings.

Physical

This is probably the easiest to address, I have let myself go. There are no two ways about it. A few years ago I was training for triathlons and maintaining a really good level of base fitness. Now I have become a fat slob. I have gone from being able to run a 10k without training, to barely being able to manage 5k if I do go running. There are a number of reasons why this has occurred. Shortly before leaving Singapore I contracted Dengue fever. While I was lucky to not have any serious complications, It hammered my immune system which left my wide open when Covid became a thing. Then due to my weakened immune system It took me a long while to fully recover. It was 2021 before I really began to be able to train properly. But by then my focus had moved onto studying for a masters an I neglected to get myself back in shape.

Therefore, my first and most significant goal is to get back to having a healthy exercise routine. I don’t really want to assign a number to this. I want to focus on the process rather than the outcomes so my goals is simply at the moment to get to the pint where I am engaged in some form of training 5/6 days a week. I want to split my focus between cardio fitness and strength training so I will be aiming to complete 3 workouts for each.

The way I hope to achieve this is by blocking out time to use for these activities, I know from previous experience that the morning is the best time for me to achieve this so I will be working towards building a workout into my mornings before work.

Emotional/Spiritual

In a lot of ways 2021 was a very tough year for me. The combination of social isolation, lack of access to nature and working in a job that I found soul crushing took a massive tool on my mental well-being. I ended up having to seek professional medical help and for the first time in my life having to be medicated for my depression. Consequently, I want to keep the momentum I have gathered and carry on with sustainable habits that will help me to maintain a healthy mental baseline.

The main corner stone of this for me is and has always been exercise. I know that a regular excercise routine does wonders for my mental well-being. Other than that I want to experiment with other healthy activities such a journaling by setting my self challenges, like journaling everyday for a month. I also want to reduce the amount I am drinking. I definitely drink to much at the moment and I need to find healthier outlets for stress.

Financial

I am lucky to be in a fairly comfortable position financially. I have a job that pays a pretty reasonable salary and despite living in one of the most expensive cities in the observable universe, I am able to live pretty comfortably. However, my saving have taken a hit recently for a number of reasons so I have two goals in this areas. The first is to work on building my savings backup, the other is to start building some passive income streams.

I don’t have any clear ideas on what for these will take so for the time being my idea is to focus on developing an audience through making YouTube videos about my career change and the studies I will be undertaking and look for opportunities as they present themselves.

Career

Career is an easy one. I want to get a handle on what it is I actually do as a job now. I have very much landed in a job where I don’t really know what I am doing. While this has been great in terms of me learning how various systems work, I don’t really have a clear understanding of what a good system admin does. Therefore I think the actions I need to take in this area will focus on 2 areas, The first is gaining an understanding of the technologies I am using, this I will be working on through studying for various qualifications. The second is harder.

I think what I really need is a mentor. Someone who i can learn from by working with them and understanding what the job actually entails. I am not sure how to go about this. It will require further thought and research.

Productivity