At the beginning of 2012, I wrote down 10 New Year’s Resolutions and taped it on my wall. At the end of the year, I reviewed my resolutions. I started this process without a specific outcome in mind, but found that I learned a lot about myself, not just from reflecting on my resolutions, but by also taking notice of my reactions as I reflected.
I wrote down 10 New Year’s Resolutions for 2013, and here is me reflecting upon them. The one key thing I noticed, is that I seem to be setting goals that are specific to that moment in my life. What I mean is that while I’m trying to better myself, it feels less like an upward motion (which is what I assumed it would be like) and more like a balancing act.
For the purpose of candidness and transparency, this post (and many others) are barely edited. It’s a purposefully different communication method from writing a well thought-out, edited essay. Also, I’m just lazy and would never post anything if I took the time to edit things.
1. Create more art
When I wrote this as my first resolution, I must’ve been stressed about how I was lacking opportunities to creatively express myself; that’s no longer a problem I feel. Early in the year, I bought light gloves and gave light shows to friends, danced a lot more expressively, painted my face for festivals, dressed silly for events, carved pumpkins, decorated for christmas, and made gingerbread house cookies.
2. Understand my finances
As embarrassing as it sounds, I had no idea how much money I was spending at the beginning of this year. Over the course of the year, I’ve taken some time to manage my Mint.com account, which alone helped my understand my expenses. In addition, I started using my Simple debit account. I haven’t seen the direct results from this since it’s been less than a month, but I’m proud to say I’m finally enjoying the process of tracking my expenses.
3. Maintain an awesome body
This seems like a rather cocky resolution since I don’t think I have an awesome body, but I see what I was trying to do there. This year, I biked a lot (commuting and running errands), consumed a lot more veggies and fruits (also the occasional juice cleanse), and spent more time doing yoga than I’ve ever spent at a gym in one year. So I’m feeling pretty good about this one.
4. Stress less about small things
Perhaps it’s the yoga, perhaps it’s the meditation, or perhaps it’s being surrounded by amazing friends I call family. I don’t even remember why this was a resolution. I feel pretty much zero stress right now. #WINNING
5. Help 100 entrepreneurs
Thanks to the amazing opportunity Coloft gave me, this one was a breeze. I’ve set up approximately 50 classes this year, averaging approximately 15 or so students, which comes out to well over 100 entrepreneurs I’ve helped, even while taking into account students who’ve attended multiple classes. In addition, I had the honor of teaching the Santa Monica Youth Tech Academy this Summer, mentoring SW Next, guest lecturing at university classes, and I had the time to create a resource guide for entrepreneurs.
6. Make more strangers smile
I can’t say I crushed this one, because I’ll admit: sometimes I’m not in the mood to entertain strangers. I guess that’s okay though. I smile and dance a lot, which I notice is sometimes enough to put a smile on a stranger’s face.
7. Trust myself, my decisions, my path
This is another one that I apparently crushed, because at this moment it seems silly that this was even on my resolution list. I have nothing but faith in myself, my decisions, and my path. I guess it’s a good reminder that sometimes we do question ourselves, but that we also have the ability to bounce back.
8. Thank my friends often
I think I’ve done a good job with this. I feel like I’m constantly having the conversation with my friends about how lucky we are to have each other. I wish I did a better job keeping in touch with friends I don’t see often. I kind of tackled that during Christmas when I made a “Naughty & Nice List” (because all my friends are both naughty and nice. lol), which ended being almost 200 people. I spend most of Christmas day individually texting people, and managed to reach out to 100+ friends on that day alone. Since it wasn’t in any particular order, I definitely missed some people I wish I’d reached out to, it’s better than not reaching out to anybody at all.
9. Do awesome shit
Killed it. I feel like I did nothing but awesome shit this year. Coachella, running a school for tech entrepreneurs, Lightning in a Bottle, teaching high schooler’s entrepreneurship, biking regularly to free pier concerts during the Summer with a big group of friends, throwing awesome house parties w over 100 people, traveling to EDM shows by party bus (at a water park in Arizona, on the beach in Huntington, and on a boat in Newport), starting the local Code for America meetup, organizing Startup Weekends, organizing Civic Hackathons, dancing the night away at Desert Hearts, weekday game nights with friends, pumpkin carving parties, orphan thanksgiving potluck dinner, christmas decorating, and so much more…
10. Dance more
I’m dancing so much, it’s not even funny. Coachella, Wet Electric, Lightning in a Bottle, Nervo, Boatylicious, Swimming with Sharks, Desert Hearts, Chainsmokerz, White Panda, Candyland… and all those small dance sessions with friends. Life’s one big dance party.
Extra Credit: Be happy
Is this even a question? I’m happy as a camel on Wednesdays, everyday of the week.
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