2017 Retrospective and 2018 Goals
Jan. 3rd, 2018 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckro2017 Retrospective:
The thing is, all told, this wasn’t a bad year for me. Terrible year for the world at large, and I certainly had my problems and unfulfilled goals, but on paper, I did just fine.
1. Be a good father, a good husband, a good friend and a good employee. Try to keep emergency room visits, fights, disappointments, and risk of being fired to a minimum.
Well, there was one emergency room visit (on mother’s day, no less), but all was well. I had one massive fight with my mother and sister in August—that was super-fun. And I’m probably too lenient with ARR and should get better about sternly enforcing things like respectful behavior to me in public. (This has been hindered by the fact that I usually like it when he climbs on me, so it’s more about establishing the right time and place for it.)
All that said, I’m on speaking terms with my relatives, ARR is doing great (he can read!), Jethrien seems happy with me, and both got a nice bonus and I’ve been in demand at work, which usually bodes well.
2. Do at least one big “performance” thing: It looks like I-Con may be reviving this year; I should contact them about being on panels. If there’s a murder mystery again in the fall, I should do it. I don’t think this will be the year I join a theater troupe, but I’ll be keeping my eyes open and we’ll see which activities ARR gets particularly excited about.
While it seems likely 2017 was I-Con’s last hurrah, that wasn’t due to any lack of action on my part: Jethrien and I filled 9.5 hours of programming. I couldn’t do the murder mystery because it fell on double-wedding weekend. I did, however, co-run a LARP and an rpg advice panel at GKE. And I hosted several karaoke nights for my friends.
3. Finish at least one of my long-outstanding personal projects: Post more of my rpg writing, try building a video game, learn some guitar chords, get back into knitting, write more stories or LPs. Virtually all of these are, “Learn or refine a skill,” and that’s the real meat of the goal. In 2016 I ended up adding something to the list and completing that instead, but if I end up learning to meditate or doing a father-son karate class, that’s okay too.
I did two Let’s Plays covering four games, so I did address this goal. That said, getting up the motivation to tackle learn a proper skill wasn’t so much in the cards.
4. Self-care: Keep tabs on myself, make sure I’m eating well and getting regular exercise, allow myself opportunities to vent and recover, pursue things that actively make me happy. Keep up with managing my weight, flossing, and wearing my nice clothes. Explore my new interests, try attending a few new events.
Honestly, a lot of this past year was characterized by being very tired, generally unmotivated and uncreative. Turns out I have low testosterone, but not low enough that my doctor wants to deal with the side effects of testosterone supplements for now. I did increase my Zoloft dosage in November, which seemed to be mildly helpful after I finally got over a two-week cold in December. I’ve gained weight, but I have managed to keep flossing and have been having a little more fun with clothing choices since my company went business casual mid-year. I think I’ve also been pretty decent about pursuing social events I actively enjoy and one-on-one time with friends I like.
5. Relationship care: Make sure that Jethrien and I have time to do things—and just enjoy the time—together as a couple. Have date nights and vacations/staycations away from ARR, but also get better about enjoying each other even when we’re dealing with him and are exhausted. Find ways to give her time to pursue her goals for the year while I pursue mine.
We did pretty well in terms of dates and time off (mostly thanks to my parents), and took a week-long vacation without ARR in August. On the flipside, we actually split and went to different cons in November. We have more tv we both want to watch in the queue this year (and she finished editing her novel), so hopefully more couch-snuggling will be in order.
6. Continue to have regular social activities; maintain new and old social ties with people near and far. Make sure I get time with both groups and 1-on-1, with and without ARR, and with and without Jethrien. By the same token, I’d like to start trying to set up social activities that are both “for” us and ARR—the trip to Sesame Place and the Halloween party were very good steps in this direction, for instance.
We’ve been pretty good about play dates, I hosted the aforementioned karaoke nights, we threw a bunch of parties and I attended a bunch of parties. I’ve had weekly lunch with at least one person, often several. I made a few new friends. And we made the double-wedding weekend work, which meant getting to see folks I usually don’t.
7. Consume media, but try to remain sensible about not struggling through things I don’t enjoy. There’s plenty of good stuff on the shelf and not enough time to read/watch/play everything. And spend more time on enjoyable media and less on soul-crushing social media / pseudo-news scare pieces.
I read, watched and played a lot, but I think I was pretty good about culling things that didn’t win me. I’m still struggling to find the balance between enough news to stay informed but not enough to make me depressed (because everything Trump does is aggravating and Congress is no better). Working on that.
2018 Goals:
Let’s edit a bit, using the running theme as a template:
1. Be a good father, a good husband, a good friend and a good employee. Try to keep emergency room visits, fights, disappointments, and risk of being fired to a minimum.
2. Do at least one big “performance” thing. I’m not sure about my opportunities to present at a con, but that’s something worth looking into. If the timing works out, maybe do the murder mystery. Definitely have more karaoke nights.
3. Finish at least one of my long-outstanding personal projects: Post more of my rpg writing, try building a video game, learn some guitar chords, get back into knitting, write more stories or LPs. I think the key here is to pursue creative activity that feels worthwhile, that at the end I have made a Thing.
4. Self-care: Keep tabs on myself, make sure I’m eating well and getting regular exercise, allow myself opportunities to vent and recover, pursue things that actively make me happy. Keep up with managing my weight, flossing, and wearing my nice clothes. Get more and better sleep. Ideally I’d like to lose some weight, but mostly I want to get enough exercise to help keep my energy levels up.
5. Relationship care: Make sure that Jethrien and I have time to do things—and just enjoy the time—together as a couple. Have date nights and vacations/staycations away from ARR, but also get better about enjoying each other even when we’re dealing with him and are exhausted. Find ways to give her time to pursue her goals for the year while I pursue mine.
6. Continue to have regular social activities; maintain new and old social ties with people near and far. Make sure I get time with both groups and 1-on-1, with and without ARR, and with and without Jethrien. Try to encourage ARR’s ability to play with his friends but without a grown-up; and try to enjoy my time with him rather than biding it.
7. Consume media, but try to remain sensible about not struggling through things I don’t enjoy. There’s plenty of good stuff on the shelf and not enough time to read/watch/play everything. Try to actively engage with media and actively enjoy it. Find a balance between being informed and letting the news wreck my life.
The thing is, all told, this wasn’t a bad year for me. Terrible year for the world at large, and I certainly had my problems and unfulfilled goals, but on paper, I did just fine.
1. Be a good father, a good husband, a good friend and a good employee. Try to keep emergency room visits, fights, disappointments, and risk of being fired to a minimum.
Well, there was one emergency room visit (on mother’s day, no less), but all was well. I had one massive fight with my mother and sister in August—that was super-fun. And I’m probably too lenient with ARR and should get better about sternly enforcing things like respectful behavior to me in public. (This has been hindered by the fact that I usually like it when he climbs on me, so it’s more about establishing the right time and place for it.)
All that said, I’m on speaking terms with my relatives, ARR is doing great (he can read!), Jethrien seems happy with me, and both got a nice bonus and I’ve been in demand at work, which usually bodes well.
2. Do at least one big “performance” thing: It looks like I-Con may be reviving this year; I should contact them about being on panels. If there’s a murder mystery again in the fall, I should do it. I don’t think this will be the year I join a theater troupe, but I’ll be keeping my eyes open and we’ll see which activities ARR gets particularly excited about.
While it seems likely 2017 was I-Con’s last hurrah, that wasn’t due to any lack of action on my part: Jethrien and I filled 9.5 hours of programming. I couldn’t do the murder mystery because it fell on double-wedding weekend. I did, however, co-run a LARP and an rpg advice panel at GKE. And I hosted several karaoke nights for my friends.
3. Finish at least one of my long-outstanding personal projects: Post more of my rpg writing, try building a video game, learn some guitar chords, get back into knitting, write more stories or LPs. Virtually all of these are, “Learn or refine a skill,” and that’s the real meat of the goal. In 2016 I ended up adding something to the list and completing that instead, but if I end up learning to meditate or doing a father-son karate class, that’s okay too.
I did two Let’s Plays covering four games, so I did address this goal. That said, getting up the motivation to tackle learn a proper skill wasn’t so much in the cards.
4. Self-care: Keep tabs on myself, make sure I’m eating well and getting regular exercise, allow myself opportunities to vent and recover, pursue things that actively make me happy. Keep up with managing my weight, flossing, and wearing my nice clothes. Explore my new interests, try attending a few new events.
Honestly, a lot of this past year was characterized by being very tired, generally unmotivated and uncreative. Turns out I have low testosterone, but not low enough that my doctor wants to deal with the side effects of testosterone supplements for now. I did increase my Zoloft dosage in November, which seemed to be mildly helpful after I finally got over a two-week cold in December. I’ve gained weight, but I have managed to keep flossing and have been having a little more fun with clothing choices since my company went business casual mid-year. I think I’ve also been pretty decent about pursuing social events I actively enjoy and one-on-one time with friends I like.
5. Relationship care: Make sure that Jethrien and I have time to do things—and just enjoy the time—together as a couple. Have date nights and vacations/staycations away from ARR, but also get better about enjoying each other even when we’re dealing with him and are exhausted. Find ways to give her time to pursue her goals for the year while I pursue mine.
We did pretty well in terms of dates and time off (mostly thanks to my parents), and took a week-long vacation without ARR in August. On the flipside, we actually split and went to different cons in November. We have more tv we both want to watch in the queue this year (and she finished editing her novel), so hopefully more couch-snuggling will be in order.
6. Continue to have regular social activities; maintain new and old social ties with people near and far. Make sure I get time with both groups and 1-on-1, with and without ARR, and with and without Jethrien. By the same token, I’d like to start trying to set up social activities that are both “for” us and ARR—the trip to Sesame Place and the Halloween party were very good steps in this direction, for instance.
We’ve been pretty good about play dates, I hosted the aforementioned karaoke nights, we threw a bunch of parties and I attended a bunch of parties. I’ve had weekly lunch with at least one person, often several. I made a few new friends. And we made the double-wedding weekend work, which meant getting to see folks I usually don’t.
7. Consume media, but try to remain sensible about not struggling through things I don’t enjoy. There’s plenty of good stuff on the shelf and not enough time to read/watch/play everything. And spend more time on enjoyable media and less on soul-crushing social media / pseudo-news scare pieces.
I read, watched and played a lot, but I think I was pretty good about culling things that didn’t win me. I’m still struggling to find the balance between enough news to stay informed but not enough to make me depressed (because everything Trump does is aggravating and Congress is no better). Working on that.
2018 Goals:
Let’s edit a bit, using the running theme as a template:
1. Be a good father, a good husband, a good friend and a good employee. Try to keep emergency room visits, fights, disappointments, and risk of being fired to a minimum.
2. Do at least one big “performance” thing. I’m not sure about my opportunities to present at a con, but that’s something worth looking into. If the timing works out, maybe do the murder mystery. Definitely have more karaoke nights.
3. Finish at least one of my long-outstanding personal projects: Post more of my rpg writing, try building a video game, learn some guitar chords, get back into knitting, write more stories or LPs. I think the key here is to pursue creative activity that feels worthwhile, that at the end I have made a Thing.
4. Self-care: Keep tabs on myself, make sure I’m eating well and getting regular exercise, allow myself opportunities to vent and recover, pursue things that actively make me happy. Keep up with managing my weight, flossing, and wearing my nice clothes. Get more and better sleep. Ideally I’d like to lose some weight, but mostly I want to get enough exercise to help keep my energy levels up.
5. Relationship care: Make sure that Jethrien and I have time to do things—and just enjoy the time—together as a couple. Have date nights and vacations/staycations away from ARR, but also get better about enjoying each other even when we’re dealing with him and are exhausted. Find ways to give her time to pursue her goals for the year while I pursue mine.
6. Continue to have regular social activities; maintain new and old social ties with people near and far. Make sure I get time with both groups and 1-on-1, with and without ARR, and with and without Jethrien. Try to encourage ARR’s ability to play with his friends but without a grown-up; and try to enjoy my time with him rather than biding it.
7. Consume media, but try to remain sensible about not struggling through things I don’t enjoy. There’s plenty of good stuff on the shelf and not enough time to read/watch/play everything. Try to actively engage with media and actively enjoy it. Find a balance between being informed and letting the news wreck my life.
