Sigh. The second quarter of 2017 is over. The year is halfway done. 2016 flew by at the speed of sound, so I didn't get consistent reviews written, but this year, I'm trying to get back on the horse. More writing at a more steady pace!
This quarter was exciting. I started a new job right at the end of last quarter. That took up a lot of mental space, just figuring out what's what. @dmpatierno once told me that life is just managing other people's expectations. It took me a long time to come around to that mentality, but in work, I think it's incredibly accurate. You have to spend time figuring out what other people want, and how to manage that versus what you expect of them and yourself. It is a never ending struggle.
I've enjoyed my team and my new work, but I've been mainly deferring to others on what portions of the work are important. Soon, I need to start pushing back more to make sure I meet my goals, or else I won't be happy in the job.
Also this quarter, during Memorial Day, @mel_cantrell and I moved in together. @rohenpeterson and I split up, after two years of living together (putting us at a total of four years living together) and a year of working together. So far it's been great living with Melissa. We are almost done getting the apartment to how we like it. The setup has sapped away a lot of my energy, but it has been worth it! Multiple guests have commented that the apartment looks completely different.
My first quarter review was alright. I was making progress on my goals, not as much as I'd like, but some progress. Let's do this quarter's review. See what's going on.
My 2017 goals are as follows:
-
Improve physical health
- Stretch every morning
- Complete a 5K
- Complete a half-marathon
- Cook eight meals a week (Out of the 21 possible)
- Record all eating
- Join a sports team
-
Put out content to improve the internet
- Take in revenue from one side project
- Write 200 posts in 2017
- Maintain a four post per week average on https://writing.natwelch.com
- Give five talks to groups larger than 10
- Get 100 websites on Onesie
- Try to get one #opsparty office hour a week
-
Grow your brain
- Read seventy books
- Go to four art exhibits, live shows or movies a month
- Read one non-fiction book a month
-
Deal with reality
- Find an interesting problem to solve with people you like (aka a Job)
- Dedicate one day a month to address finances
- Reevaluate all investments, and define a general money strategy and tracking system
- Define what you want to be doing when you're 40.
A non-trivial amount of things. How are we doing at the half-way mark?
Improve Physical Health
As always, this is the section that suffers the most.
I've made no progress on running regularly, and Melissa and I have given up on running a half marathon this year. Maybe I can get my shit together and run something simpler... or maybe just get back to biking regularly.
I also haven't been stretching since the move happened. My sleep schedule has significantly changed, and I haven't gotten into a morning rhythm. I miss doing yoga though, so probably I can fix this.
I have been cooking a lot, definitely hitting the eight meals a week bar. I'm not recording what I'm eating with any regularity, but at least most of it is home cooked.
No, I did not join a sports team.
Put out content to improve the internet
No, I still haven't taken in revenue from a side project. But, I have a few plans in motion for that: one project I expect to come to fruition in the final quarter of the year, and the other in the next few weeks.
I am not posting enough content online. At all. Nor am I hitting one post a week, let alone four.
I didn't give any talks this quarter, but I did get accepted to speak at Strange Loop, so that's nice. That'll put me at three talks. So just need to do two more to meet my goal.
I am at ten websites on Onesie, and it's been semi-broken for months. I've spent some time working on it, but not nearly enough.
There have been no #opsparty chats this quarter. I also haven't been pushing or promoting them, so I guess that's my fault.
Grow your brain
I am on solid progress to complete 70 books this year. I've read 36 out of 70. I'm going to switch to non-fiction soon I think, so I imagine my speed will drop significantly (so far this year I've mainly been inhaling fantasy trilogies).
I did not complete any non-fiction books the last three months.
I was doing solid on the live are ingestion until June, which was just busy with all the move stuff. Here is a list of things I saw.
April
- Your Name.
- Guggenheim
- Bowery Boys Live Taping
- LORE Live Taping
- Ghost in the Shell
May
June
- Pop-Up Magazine
- Wonder Woman
Deal with Reality
As I mentioned last review, and earlier in this post, I am still employed, so that's nice.
Thanks to @niket's suggestion, I've started using Personal Capital, and have been doing my monthly finance check in with more regularity. I've also been talking to my dad about fund allocation and rebalancing, which has been interesting. These steps are knocking out three bullets at once, which is nice.
Define what you want to be doing when you're 40.
Thinking about the future is the thing I've been ignoring by pounding through those fantasy novels. I don't want to think about the future too much. I feel like I'm in one of those stabilizing moments. Focusing on creating a stable and safe environment for me to then move forward in (#nesting?). But if I learned anything living in London, it is that I need avoid becoming overwhelmed when I am doing that, and keep thinking about both the present and the future.
I still believe I need to spend some time being my own boss. Maybe in my 30s, I can do that.
I wrote most of this post on July 1st but sat on it for a month, and I still don't have a strong way to end this, so I am just going to publish. Thanks for reading, see you in two months.
/Nat