Bryce's Ramblings

Like many of you, I take the time every New Year's to set goals for myself. I take my goal-setting seriously, trying not to set too many, but also setting ones that will really help me do the things I want to do. This year I asked myself what I'd like to be able to say about my year next year. What things did I want to accomplish? Here's what I came up with.

• Write 2 books (first and second drafts of each)
• Get down to 200 pounds
• Continue to keep a daily journal
• Speak Slovak better
• Get better at whittling, guitar playing and astronomy (I like hobbies!)

So to reach those goals, I've set small individual goals that will help me stay on track:

• Write 500 words a day, or plan out writing for at least a half hour
• Don't eat food after 9pm
• Exercise 30 min, four times a week
• Write a journal entry on each day (don't write a bunch a week later to catch up)
• Speak Slovak as a family for at least two hours a week
• Work on the hobbies for two hours a week

To properly motivate myself, I need bribes. So do DKC and TRC (they've set goals, too). So to be sufficiently bribed, here's the plan: at the end of each month, we'll evaluate how we're doing on our goals, earning up to $15 each ($5 for TRC) based on our performance. That's not extravagant enough to make me feel like we're blowing a lot of money on this, but it's enough to make it feel like a reward. So far, I kept all my goals yesterday.

We'll see how long that lasts. :-)