2011 Personal Development Goals

Sat, Jan 1, 2011 with tags development , academic , running , habits , goals , personal , 2011

I hate the concept of New Year’s Resolutions with an utter passion. It’s arbitrary for people to pick a single day and decide to change everything. Some people might call these resolutions, I call these personal development goals. None of these are dramatic changes from things that I already do, or should be doing. Rather, this set of goals will help keep me on track for 2011.

Academic

  • Submit papers to FSE, CSCW, and ICSE
  • Submit at least one journal paper

Physical

These and a few more are covered in a post about 2011 goals on my marathon blog.

  • Run a mile in under 5:50
  • Run a marathon in under 3:50
  • Bench press my own weight
  • Get down to 170 lbs
  • Barefoot/Vibram race of 10k or more
  • Run to and from work at least five times

Personal

  • Release a new and interesting Open Source project
  • Visit a new country
  • Read two “Classics
  • Win at least two of my existing video games before buying any new ones
  • Spend less than $60 at the cafeteria at work
  • Do four “10 day trials”
  • Cook Creme Brulee - accomplished on 12/27/2010. That’s what getting a Creme Brulee torch for Christmas will do for you.

Breaking Bad Habits

  • Only 12 sodas in the year
  • Only 6 packs of Starburst in the year
  • Only 3 visits to McDonalds in the year

The most annoying thing about setting such personal development goals is that I haven’t been able to find a good tool to track these goals. If anyone knows of one feel free to post it in the comments. I’ll revisit these goals at the end of the 2011 calendar year.