2017 Goals

You are under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago.

This quote hit a cord with me late in the year.  I knew something had to change. Politics, Facebook, job, hobbies, kids, wife, family, were all fighting each other for a time slot.  My sleep schedule oddly wasn’t very picky and for quite some time my wife considered me to be on the the sleepless elite but from around November to now, I’m just tired. My body needs to rest and reset.

Like most people, I suppose, I set some goals for myself this year.  Some of them I had and failed in 2016 but want to dedicate some time to them nonetheless.

Here they are (in no particular order):

• Read 1 book a month for entertainment, not specifically work related.
• Learn to code in python.
• Become an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional.
• Ditch Facebook.
• Lose 50 pounds.
• Implement retirement savings plan.
• Learn to be patient with my kids.

Laying these out in such a pubic fashion will hopefully keep me honest about them, however, I’ll take it one step further and lay out my current plan of attack for each of them.

Reading

This should be easier than it ends up being.  In 2016 I read a total of 5 books.  My favorite was Elon Musk’s biography by Ashlee Vance which I read on the beach in Mexico while on vacation with my wife and parents.  I have a pretty broad range of interests from science and engineering to philosophy and even economics.  As long as it isn’t a romance novel, I’m probably OK but I’ll likely read books that will still benefit me in some way.  Feel free to comment below on recommendations.  My first book will be: Our Revolution by Bernie Sanders

Coding

I’ve enrolled in an Introduction to Computer Science course through EDX which is presented by MIT as well as picked up the Udemy class for Automate the Boring stuff.  I begin the EDX course today and will follow it for the next 12 weeks.  Shortly following and depending on where my next goal is, I’ll start the Udemy course.

AWS (Amazon Web Services)

The first time I learned about “cloud”, I think I was hooked.  Not having to worry about specific underlying hardware and other resources and just focusing on the “thing” that you want to do was really intriguing to me.  I’ve been a longtime fanboy of Google Apps (G Suite) as a cloud based email and document handling service as well as Microsoft Office 365 but the real 800 pound gorilla in the cloud computing space is Amazon.  Amazon Web Services has a true vision for how “cloud” should be accomplished and have laid out certification courses for various aspects of these services.  My end goal is AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional, I’ll be taking a few stepping stones along the way and using A Cloud Guru’s courses on the associate level certifications to get started.  This is actually a carry over from 2016 and am more than 75% through the initial learning process.

Facebook and other Distractions

Between Facebook and Reddit, my time in front of a screen was getting a little out of control.  I am reducing the time I’m on Reddit for “bathroom” breaks but Facebook is going away from my daily habit completely.  I figured I could use this time more wisely with the rest of my 2017 goals.  Over the past few years my mailing lists and email subscriptions got a little out of control as well.  As a result, I’ve unsubscribed from around 45 publications and will only seek out the information I desire on an adhoc basis.

Weight Loss

Keto is my plan and my plan tastes like bacon 🙂  Super low carb, high fat, adequate protein.  I’m going through some sweet tooth cravings right now but able to quince those with some sugar free options and lots of water (no room for other stuff).  In addition to diet, I’ll be breaking out the bikes this year and have a goal of 2000 total miles.  This will be tracked with Strava and my progress will be available on this site after a while.

Retirement

I read an article last month about retirement savings and how much I need to be putting away into investment accounts every month and determined that if I don’t do this now, I simply won’t be able to afford to retire when the time comes.  I’ve read enough personal finance books to have a fairly well rounded foundation but will be leaning towards simplifying rather than being overly aggressive which is loosely based off of I Will Teach You to be Rich by Ramit Sethi.

Patience

I have no idea what I’m doing here just that I  know I lose my patience too quickly.  My daughters both stubborn and I need to do better to remember this.  I’ll start off by counting to 5 instead of just 3.