2018 Wrap-Up

It is time once again to list out my goals for the coming year.  Based on my performance in 2018, I have a great feeling about 2019.

Before I post my new list, let's recap. Here's how I ended up on my 2018 goals.  I'll start with the successes.

Accumulate and maintain six months' budget (Success)
Through effort and discipline, I have saved enough money to cover about six months of expenses if I were ever to lose my income.

Read 12 non-work related books (Success)
Thanks to audio books, I blew this number away by nearly four times.  I read 48 books, but I did end up counting textbooks among them.  Still, I read (or listened to) over 40 non-work related books.

Play at least one video game per week (Success)
I've played PS4 and Wii games with my kiddo, plus a few new PC games and mobile games.  If you count casual mobile games that only take a minute or two to play, then I do this more than once a week.

Increase frequency and regularity of contact with friends (Success)
I still don't have regular contact with all of my dear friends, but I do vastly better now than I ever did before.

Figure out my next career move (Success)
Well, I started a new job at Triton College this year!  That has turned out to be a great career move so far.

Improve flexibility and balance (Moderate success)
I am nowhere near where I had hoped to be with this goal, but I have improved a little.  I'm going to keep working at this in the coming year.

Walk 1000 miles (Outcome uncertain)
My old phone quit working about halfway through the year, and my pedometer stopped along with it.  I had no way to track my steps for over three months.  Before it stopped, I was ahead of schedule on this goal, so it is entirely possible that I met it.  However, I have no way to definitively assess it.  I will start again in the coming year and try for another thousand miles.

Play music every month (Failed)
Again, I did better at this goal than ever before, but still fell short.  Another goal to renew for 2019.

Decrease weight (Failed)
My weight had decreased in the beginning of the year, but came back with a vengeance and I ended up further from the goal than where I'd started.  I will renew this goal for the coming year.

Complete Testing Tutor prototype by May (Failed)
Nothing whatsoever had been accomplished by May.  Toward the end of the year, my student team had successfully completed a database design and some preliminary web design, and they had begun some research on how to implement some of the functional requirements.  Real progress is being made, and I am renewing this goal for the coming year but with a much better head start.

Rebuild my website (Failed)
I have experimented with some CSS rules for layouts, but have yet to apply it to my actual site.  This is not a priority at the moment.

In my next post, I will list my new goals for 2019.

I'm INFP now?

A friend of mine posted a link on Facebook recently that leads to a Jung Personality Test on SimilarMinds.com. The test and the way it is scored are similar to the standard Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

I found it interesting that I got mostly the same result except that my T has become an F. My feeling appears to have overtaken my thinking. The last two times I took a similar test, they both had me straight down the middle on every category and resulted in INTP. Now, nearly 15 years later, I am suddenly INFP. Personally, I don't feel a strong dominance of either one over the other, and I don't think it matters much anyway.  I do feel, however, that this summary of INFP is an accurate assessment.

INFP - "Questor". High capacity for caring. Emotional face to the world. High sense of honor derived from internal values. 4.4% of total population.

Take Free Jung Personality Test
Personality Test by SimilarMinds.com

Progress Report: March 1, 2018

In my first post of the year, I outlined some goals that I intend to accomplish in 2018.  I believe the best way to improve my chances of success is to keep track of my progress on each one. To that end, here is my first progress report.

Goals	Status	Notes
Continue to improve my physical health. I will walk 1,000 miles as measured by the pedometer on my phone and Google Maps. I will improve my flexibility and balance through brief daily and longer monthly activities. I will monitor and chart the progress toward my ideal body weight.	On track	So far, so good! All three of these sub-goals are progressing well. As of the end of February, I have walked 203.17 miles. That puts me ahead of schedule so far. I have been doing various stretches every day. I'm not sure if they're helping though. My weight has dropped nearly five pounds since the beginning of the year.
Continue to improve my financial health. I will accumulate and protect the equivalent of six months' budget as a safety net for the turbulence during my inevitable job transition.	Uncertain	With the major real estate transaction that I just made, along with the various expenses involve in this unique fixer-upper opportunity, it is difficult to tell whether this goal is happening or not. I will continue to monitor it as the dust settles.
Read an average of one non-work related book per month.	On track	In January, I finished reading The Biggest Mistakes That Keep You From Living A Miraculous Life by Marci Shimoff and Debra Poneman.  I also re-listened to some good old audiobooks: As You Think by James Allen, Law of Attraction by Michael Losier, and E-Squared by Pam Grout. In February, I began reading The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn. I have also listened to two audiobooks by Jerry and Esther Hicks: The Law of Attraction and Ask and It Is Given.
Play at least one video game per week.	On track	Through most of January and February, I was able to take short but frequent breaks to play Gauntlet: Slayer Edition and Fat Princess Adventures with my son.
Raise my professional credentials.	Not started	I probably shouldn't even list this separately, since the only credential I can really work on right now is my Ph.D. which is in the ABD stage.
Complete a Testing Tutor prototype for my dissertation by May.	Not started	I have debated and strategized on how to go about this, and I have a plan. Now to clear away enough other things from my task list so I can concentrate here.
Rebuild my website rather than work on a game.	Not started	No time yet.  I suspect that my dissertation is going to take precedence over this.
Play music at least once every month.	Failing	I enjoyed moderate success at this in January, but with the chaos of moving in February, it all fell through. I intend to get back on track with it in March.
Increase the frequency and regularity of contact with my friends.	On track	I have reached out to some of my friends through text, IM, email, and social media with brief updates. I still have friends who I have not yet contacted, but it's a work in progress that is off to a great start.
Figure out my next career move.	On track	After much contemplation and soul searching, I have come to realize that I need to stick primarily with education. To that end, I have stopped looking at software development jobs for now, and have focused my search only on education-related opportunities, including a very unique and exciting short-term curriculum support contract for a local company.

Farewell, 2017! Hello, 2018!

Every year at this time, like most people, I make resolutions and set goals which play out to varying degrees of success. The list is generally vague, though, including loose examples rather than objectively verifiable metrics. This year, I'm going to take a different approach.  I'm going to be specific. I'm going to include things I want to do on my calendar alongside my obligations. I'm going to share my progress with a few close friends. Maybe I'll even blog some updates along the way. (You may have noticed that I haven't been posting much of anything lately. Rather than bemoan the reasons for that, I'm going to focus on correcting them.)

Here is my refined list of goals for 2018:

Continue to improve my physical health.

• I will walk 1,000 miles as measured by the pedometer on my phone and Google Maps.
• I will improve my flexibility and balance through brief daily and longer monthly activities.
• I will monitor and chart the progress toward my ideal body weight.

Continue to improve my financial health.

• I will accumulate and protect the equivalent of six months' budget as a safety net for the turbulence during my inevitable job transition.

Read books that are not just for work or school.

• I don't know what kind of pace I can keep up for this, but I would like to average about one book a month by the end of the year. I'll keep a reading log and make use of GoodReads.

Play video games on a regular basis.

• I will take at least one brief video game break every week. I bet my son Avery will help me with this. I'll keep a game journal.

Raise my professional credentials.

• Eventually I want to upgrade my certifications, but my one and only goal for this year is to make substantial progress on my dissertation. I intend to complete a prototype by May.

Rather than work on a new game this year, rebuild my website.

• It's embarrassingly out of date and poorly designed. If I am to be taken seriously as a web technology professional, I need to redesign my website.

Reacquire and improve my musical ability.

• I have a list of nearly 30 songs that I intend to practice on a regular basis.  Every month I will practice at least one or two, and more if I have time.

Increase the frequency and regularity of contact with my friends.

• I'm not sure what's a reasonable metric for this, but it is a goal. If my loved ones see this, maybe they'll do their part, too.

Figure out what my next career move is going to be.

• Maybe I'll find a new job this year, or maybe the events of the year will present a new path, but no matter what happens, this will be the year that I take the first steps toward whatever comes next for me.

Have a great 2018, everyone!