Exactly one year ago yesterday I compiled a list of 10 goals to complete within 1 year. Yesterday I reviewed the list and spoke of those goals I put a big fat tick next to, those that are about to receive a big fat tick and those that fell a little by the wayside. Like all good traditions, goal setting is useless if you don’t update those you have completed with new, more challenging goals. Personal bests are made to be broken, again and again.
This year, I plan on completing a few of the goals I didn’t manage to achieve last year but I also have a few fresh ideas to push myself out of the comfort zone. So let me stop wasting words and lets dive right into what I plan on doing in the next 365 days.
MY GOALS TO COMPLETE WITHIN ONE YEAR TODAY:
1. To have a secondary income from something fun.
I want to tie this in with the idea of building my own business. For the longest time, I have wanted to build my own thing. I bang on about it on this blog a lot and I have done very little about it for too long. However, this year I want to simplify the goal and instead of trying to start a business as the challenge, I feel the goal of creating a secondary income is less daunting and more manageable. Of course, I’d like this income to come from a ‘business’ that I own, in which I am doing something that I love.
2. To have completed an Ironman.
I love an athletic challenge and the Ironman has been on the bucket list for a little while. Last year I challenged myself to achieve the sub-3 hour marathon; I put my all into it and achieved it with 5 minutes to spare. This year I’d like to put my sport focus into a few challenges, one being an completing an Ironman and completing it well. An Ironman, for those that don’t know is a 2.4 mile swim, a 114 mile cycle followed by running a marathon. In all honesty and in the least cocky way possible, I feel I could probably pull out an Ironman with little changes to my training programme but I’d like to do it and do it well. Training to complete something and then training to get a better than average time requires two different types of focus. I don’t like doing things with half a heart so a good time will be a priority. Bring it on.
3. To completely avoid social media.
Exactly a year from today I hope to have been on social media less times than there are fingers on my hand. I’ve made a pretty good effort at breaking the addition in the last few months and I plan on continuing this forward. I feel like I’m in a good place with it all at the moment and I am most certainly making use of the time I’ve gained from not being on it. The real challenge for me is to stay away from YouTube as this was my real vice, so far I’m not doing too badly but I wish to do more. One tactic I’m going to try is to take my reading book with me to work. This way, even in the smallest of breaks, I can read a page or two and ‘decompress’ that way.
4. To have visited a new country.
Yes, this was on my list last year and despite it getting a tick next to it, it’s on this years list. I want to travel, and the more I travel, the more I want to travel again. It’s a never ending cycle but to have a goal of visiting a new country is always a good one. Not only does it ensure on travel but it also encourages adventure outside the known. I’ve visited a fair few countries through my short time here on the planet and I don’t plan on letting the list get stale. There’s already plans in the works for some rad adventures, however, none of these yet contain a country I am yet to visit. This will change and I would like the new country to be somewhere wild and unthought of. It would be easy to book a flight to Norway, but it wouldn’t be so easy to visit Fiji or Japan…
5. To get a Yoga instructors qualification.
So if you’ve been reading any of the posts lately you’ll know that I’ve completely fallen for Yoga and I’m obsessed. So much so that I want to become an instructor. This ties in a little with my secondary income goal but even still, I want to become a better Yogi with a much better knowledge of the practice. What better way than to become an instructor myself? I love it and I plan on going at least 3-4 times per week for the next year but I also plan on taking my own classes, perhaps in the hot pod, perhaps elsewhere? I’ve looked at courses and I’m going to commit. This isn’t by any means a career turn either, this is just something I want to do on the side, hence the nod towards goal number 1.
6. To write a book and have it published.
I’ve been reading up on how to publish a book via Amazon and it turns out it is relatively straight forward. Now writing has only really been something I’ve been interested in since I started this blog but overtime I’ve become increasingly aware of how much I love it. To have a book that people could hold in their hands with my name as the author would fulfil a new bucket list item, so this year I’m going to make sure that this happens. Now I actually have a few ideas for books that I would like to both write and try and get published, these including a cook book, a biographical tour diary, a running journal and a fiction book based on real life events. It would be ambitious to perhaps try and do all of these within a year but its not a challenge I’ll shy away from.
7. To run 100 miles in a week.
It honestly is a bit surprising, even for me, that I have never actually completed 100 miles in a week. I’ve been running on a solid 5-6 days per week training schedule for about 4/5 years but I am still yet to complete 100 miles in 7 days and it is something that I feel just needs to happen. This goal should be easy to tick off as I’ve already scheduled in the week I intend to do this and I have sat down numerous times to work out a training schedule in order to complete it. What would be more fun though, is to complete this with an ultra run somewhere within the week. Perhaps I’ll have a look at some race calendars and see what I can do.
8. To say ‘yes’ to everything for a weekend.
Laura and I were reading a ‘bucket list’ book last night. We read a story in which, a man who wrote a bucket list, completed one of his items which was saying yes to everything for a whole week. I’ve seen the film Yes Man and I’ve watched several ‘Yes Challenges’ on YouTube, I know how these things can go. Luckily for me, I don’t have many friends around who would likely exploit me. Also, I don’t tend to see that many people on a weekend, however I do think it could end up with me doing some rather random things. Laura said she’s up for being involved and doing the challenge too, so maybe this will be something I have to document on this blog.
9. To amp up the blog with creative content.
Last year my goal was to put more creative content online and I did so with various YouTube videos, an attempt at a PodCast and plenty of posts on this blog. As I said in my last post, this year I’d like to keep uploading content and ensuring my work is somewhere to be found, incase I die and don’t have much to show for it. However, this year I don’t want to be going onto YouTube or logging into Facebook to tell people that I’ve put something online. Instead, this year, I am going to use this blog and if people find the content then thats cool but if they don’t then at least its somewhere to be found. I plan on starting this with ‘Music’, ‘Photo’ and ‘Art’ tabs which will be on the navigation menu very soon.
10. To concentrate on giving.
Okay so a bit of a generic one and something that doesn’t necessarily have a finish line but this year I want the primary focus to be about what it is I am giving or providing, as apposed to what I am getting in return. My goals of starting a business, writing books, doing this blog, adventuring around the globe, becoming a professional Yogi and running all the miles are all very well, but why do I want to do them? Yes, there are selfish reasons but more so, this year, I want to approach the reasons why with a stand point that I used the completing and fulfilment of these goals to give and provide for other people. The reason I love my job and get so much fulfilment out of it is because my living is made by providing something to people that otherwise would not have or get. I want to seep this mantra into every aspect of my life and instead of thinking of things to do with a mindset of ‘just because’ or ‘because I want to’, I want to make it so all these things benefit other people too.
How are these goals are going to give?
A secondary income, for example, is obviously money for me but I hope to do this by providing a service or product that benefits other people. Completing an Ironman will be a personal fulfilment but I want to document it and perhaps even do it for a cause that benefits others, even if its just to inspire other people to challenge themselves. Not going on social media will be a huge benefit to my brain, mental and physical welfare but to spread the message of how to break the addiction will hopefully help and inspire others to do the same. Visiting a new country will be the perfect opportunity to do something whilst in the country that provides or gives back. A Yoga qualification means I can teach and practice Yoga which is an obvious return to other people. A book to inspire, help, teach and entertain is also a nice straight forward provider to other people. 100 mile week I will do for charity. Perhaps the ‘saying yes challenge’ could also be for charity. Last but by no means least, this blog platform is a place for thoughts and creative content that I hope one day inspire someone somewhere even the slightest bit.
So there we go, it took me 2 days to think of this list. Some of the goals were obvious and some took a little more thought. I can’t quite believe its been over a year since I wrote the last 10 goals. Time flies.
Almost-daily posts continue tomorrow.
Thanks for the last year readers.
Much love.
BG
benedict. 
Well done! It’s been a while since I wrote my last list of goals… You’ve inspired to write another! Thank you! Keep on keeping on! 🙂
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