I’ve struggled all week with what I wanted to do with my goal setting for 2013, but I think I’ve finally figured it out. I thank you for your patience 😉

Each year, I come up with a lengthy list of “smart” goals. The problem with this is it results in goals that are very number-based. While I’m a huge fan of numbers and statistics, I end up approaching each day rather robotically. At all times I know where I stand against my goals, what I need to do each day, and what I need to sacrifice to get them. While that does result in me attaining most of them, it’s not a particularly nice way to live. The other problem with number-based goals is the need to increase them year over year. Over time, that becomes impossible. Last year, I felt as if I had zero free time. If I increase my numbers this year, I’ll have less than zero time. That would suck. This year? No numbers. While I do have some in mind, I’m not going to keep close tabs on them; if they happen, they happen.

The following are what I’ve come up with:

• Find a place we love and can also afford to start a family in (Boulder, Portland, and Austin are the shortlist, but there are a handful of others).
• Spend more time with friends, both here and out-of-town.
• Beat some video games that I had previously put down.
• Keep up with my reading, reviewing, and blogging.
• Perform better in athletic competition.
• Eat smarter and lose weight.
• Strengthen our marriage.
• Overachieve at work.
• Do less.

I’m happy with it. I can’t create a nifty spreadsheet to chart my progress on these, but they’re clearly defined, attainable, and are not all reliant on BS things that are somewhat out of my control  like my knees holding up. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still collecting numbers on everything I do because that’s simply how I do, but they’re not toward any specific goal. Instead, they’ll merely be accomplishments.

2013, let’s go.