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2017 Reflection

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By Jess Chandler 9 min read

I was trying to set up my 2018 GHDR when it seemed like a good idea to look back on the previous year before setting out new goals. Not rocket science, surely.

Summary of 2017

Before I go and see how I did on my goals, I’m interested in just summarizing the year. If I gave it three words, they would be: Exciting, Learning, Adapting

Ordinary things I did

  • Homeschooled the kiddos, actually managing to finish the year with projects and tests and grades and all that
  • Kept the kids, dog, and cat alive
  • Grew food - man, I love growing food
  • Updated my glasses prescription - well, it was the same…but this is a symbolic reflection that I kept up with scheduled human maintenance :)
  • Regular meditation practice that kept me not crazy
  • Kept the house clean

Things I know I did out of the ordinary

OMG - So much happened in 2017. I’ve probably missed stuff - even great stuff.

Concerts/Plays/Musicals/Games

  • Guns n Roses concert (Jan 25) - this was amazing. Slash really made the concert amazing and Axl started out a little rough but managed to keep it going for hours
  • Tyler Farr concert (Mar 31) - this guy was sick and still played. It was a great show. I didn’t care for the venue
  • Love and Theft concert (May 6) - These guys were fun
  • Suessical (Jun 2) - I love musicals as it turns out
  • Baystars game (Jun 18) - rainout but still fun - what a different experience than US baseball
  • Natalie Imbruglia concert (Jul 2) - She really kept the crowd going
  • Van Gogh exhibit (Nov 5) - What a treat to see art with friends who really cared about it
  • Harlem Globetrotters (Nov 9) - Entertainers for sure
  • Sound of Music (Nov 16) - I’d watch this again in a heartbeat
  • Aaron Lewis concert (Nov 30) - Bringing us waaay back

Trips and hikes out of the ordinary

  • Seven lucky gods tour in Oppama with Terri and friends (Jan 14) - it was pretty chilly but I enjoyed seeing several temples that I had not already stumbled on in the area.
  • Hokkaido ice and snow festival (Feb 4 - Feb 7) - I wrote about this one: Hokkaido travel post
  • JAMSTEC Marine Science Vehicle tour (Mar 3) - it was interesting and exciting to see the actual research vehicles and some of their science
  • Mt Fuji actually all the way to the top (Aug 26)
  • Hiked Nokogiriyama (Oct 1) - the boys and I did this one ourselves, and it was very crowded, but neat
  • Nikko samurai parade & Kinugawa boat ride (Oct 17) - the samurai parade was so much longer than I imagined, but I love the trees on the shrine grounds and all the fun mythology and stories surrounding the place
  • Joogashima exploring/hiking (Nov 24) - I wrote about this one: Joogashima travel post
  • We spent two weeks in New Zealand! (Dec 15 - end) - I wrote about this one caution: long : New Zealand travel post

Fitnessy things

  • New Year, New You (Until Mar)
  • My team Pants Optional, completed our 2,017 in 2017 by summer!
  • According to my fitbit, I moved a decent amount:
    • 5,404,785 steps
    • 8389 floors
    • 2,358.96 miles
    • 769,900 calories

New things I did

  • Made my first ever flow chart/ art from a podcast and shared it on twitter with creators (Mar 26) - this was fun and I get these ideas often, maybe I should do this more. I think what is holding me back is I don’t want to seem like a scary podcast stalker fan
  • Ate my first pavlova made by my lovely friend (Apr)
  • Had an artsy latte in Kamakura (April 15)
  • Tried coffee from a nitro tap (Jul 6)
  • Setup facebook page and took photos for the youth baseball team (Aug)
  • Went to a glass blowing studio and made my own glass it’s orange (Nov 11)
  • I saw a penguin (Dec 30)
  • I became really active with the American Red Cross Yokosuka Disaster Action Team
    • Regular on call
    • Earthquake Simulator (Aug 19)
    • The Big Rescue (Sep 1)
    • Yokohama English Disaster (Sep 5)
    • Enoshima Disaster Drill (Nov 9)
  • I got really antsy about taking action on some of my entrepreneurial ideas and quit my day job
  • I started my own business, complete with a real license and DUNS and bank account
  • I helped with lights for a couple of Yokohama Theater Group productions - I like lighting.
  • I started coding outside of statistics and work stuff - did about a thousand tutorials and started 100 days of code. I summarized my first 100 days
  • I created a website for my artsy kiddo to share his art P1GFX (Oct 19)
  • I shipped my first iOS application - Crushing It (Oct 31)
  • I learned how to use jekyll and moved all my sites off of wordpress

Things I tried and dropped

  • Habitica - it was too much
  • 50 Daily CSS - the project was cancelled by the owner
  • Linux - I moved the old pc laptop to ubuntu finally, but couldn’t find a use for it.
  • Dropshipping site - I set up a shopify store with things that I really liked to help people who run with dogs (because there is so much crap to sift through to find the good stuff), but I didn’t make any money. I’d need to focus much more on marketing to make this work. I still think it is a good idea.
  • Hacker Rank - I liked the idea of the algorithm challenges, but I didn’t see how it contributed to my priorities for the time it took.
  • Drawabox - the boys and I tried really hard to do this but it went from draw a thousand lines (doable) to stuff that we just couldn’t do without feeling incompetent. We let art lie for awhile.

Quotes I found in my notes

  • Doodle saying: “later equals never”
  • “Loki makes the world more interesting but less safe”
  • “The rock in the water does not know the pain of the rock in the sun.”
  • quote from character Vimes in Thud! by Terry Pratchett: “Once you have a good excuse, you open the door to bad ones.”

Questions I found in my notes that didn’t have answers

  • Was daVinci a cat person?
  • Do I need a XIB?
  • Can I build GPI for all counties?
  • How is it different for metros?
  • Montenegro?
  • Noun project?

Goals and How I did 2017

Goals for 2017

Word for word from my journal on January 2, 2017:

Here are a few things that I’m thinking of already:

  • I’m going to crush 2,017 walking/running miles in 2017. Hopefully just my intentional miles, but I’ll take the healthy benefits as a win even if I do not make it with just those miles. I will definitely get there counting all of my miles walked.
  • This year, I will recover the triceps that I melted in 2015. Surely, aging contributes to the lack of definition on my triceps, and I am going to fight it. Beautiful, strong, defined triceps…I’m coming for you.
  • I will write more consistently, for myself and to develop an audience. Writing every day in this journal is one intention. Writing at least weekly on my blog is another. If nothing else, I can share one thing that I learned or saw. This benefits me more than anyone else. I can do this for myself.
  • I will send a real card (at least a postagram) for each important birthday for my friends and family this year. Getting something in the mail is such a treat. I want to do that for my friends and family.

Also in my January 2 journal entry, I said I would update it for realsies on February 2 with the whole GHDR thing, but I guess I never did that - hmmm.

Ok, so how did I do?

  1. I definitely got past that mileage goal
  2. I did not recover my triceps, but I did start lifting weights - need to try to continue that
  3. I did log my days pretty well. I did not do a weekly recap, which I think would be helpful
  4. I did not be a good person with the remembering - I think most folks got text messages - LAME! But, that lameness inspired the gifts-done service that I think will help lots of folks.

Looks like I’m at about 22% performance. My completely arbitrary percentage based on completing 1 of 4 goals and partially completing others

What went wrong: It seems like my focus and intent changed over the year. While I started out focused on health and relationships only, it seems I spent most of the year on adapting and growing my skillset. I bet that I made some internal unwritten goals that are now so much harder to consider and reflect upon. Within my trello board, I have over two dozen cards of things to do. Almost none are done. I attributed that to my having disparate goals and notes and not one list from which I’m trying to build towards. I think staying focused - perhaps reevaluating throughout the year - will help. Also, I need to not write goals and plans in more than one place!

Things I want to continue from this year

  • Enthusiasm to start new things - I had this in abundance in 2017, and I think that is helpful for keeping momentum when times get hard.
  • Relatively consistent fitness - I don’t want to be on again and off again
  • Go to concerts and shows and hikes - I have fond memories from all of these even when I know I didn’t want to go at the time. More Yes!!!

Things I do not want to continue

  • Too many things at once - I was a little all over the place
  • Forgetting important dates for people - I really do want to be better at this. Clearly, I failed in 2017, but I don’t want to let that become or continue a trend.

Concrete things to consider

  • Journalling/logging with reflection really helps
  • Perhaps accountability partners for different activities
goals
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