Happy new year! I usually start off the year like gangbusters on my resolutions, leading to sweeping changes and a brand new me - often a new job, too. The more sweeping the better, in my experience. Of course, there are always a few that I fall short on. These would be the also-sweeping-but-more-like-nice-ideas resolutions like, "Get in shape," and, "Have a great lawn this year," always a little short on the specifics. So this year, I've decided to keep my Top Ten List format and shoot for at least 80% efficacy instead of the 60-70% of the past two years. Most challenging among the new resolutions, I think, are the items that having me finding balance, doing more, and balancing these against "6. Commit to fewer things." Impossible? I'm hoping only 20% so.
A few in particular are telling of my place in life right now, and I'll share them here.
More practicing, less Law & Order
I can't tell you how often I've turned on the TV after a long day & the baby's down for the night, sucked into two episodes of L&O while I casually work while my wife is doing something either productive or edifying in the living room to recover from her also hectic day. On top of the probable fact that I've SEEN all of the syndicated episodes in just this year, it seems like a good idea to get into the basement and pick up an instrument during part of that time every evening instead of waiting for a call for a gig to whip my chops into order. I used to be really, really good at keeping a practice schedule. Home and work and baby and healthy marriage are more important, but Vincent D'Onofrio, somehow, is not.
Read more (including novels, technical reference materials, and periodicals)
I haven't been what one would call an "avid reader," at least as defined by my wife, in a lot of years. I get by on technical articles online, pick up the paper to (a) learn how close we are to nuclear holocaust and (b) read Get Fuzzy
I am, totaling issue dates, roughly 12 years behind in the following stack of periodicals: This Old House, Wired, Golf Magazine (do I even GET that anymore?), PM Network, MSDN Magazine, and, well, you get the picture. I need to read these as they come in. Perhaps I should have a separate magazine bin at home so I don't lose sight of them behind Lucky and Oprah?? Right now, the only thing differentiating our pile from a dentist's office is the missing copy of Highlights.
START THE MBA
This resolution is, at least in part, padding. I've enrolled as a non-matriculated student in the University at Buffalo PMBA program, and my first class starts in a couple of weeks. Once I take my GMAT and fulfill one or two administrative requirements, I will have completed the early admissions requirements for Fall enrollment. It's a 48-credit program (12 core courses plus electives), so it will be driving part of my to-do list for a few years at least.
But these are sort of indicative of my current state - I want to make music more, maintain some sort of mental acuity, and finally move my career in a direction other than, "Here - code this No no, I meant THIS No no, that requirement has changed... only three people will use this app now ."
I'm hoping to hit 40-50% of the list by the end of Summer 2008 - I'll try to remember and post a follow-up.
0 comments on Resolutions