Building on Success: 2016 Year In Review/2017 Goals

I realize that 2016 was not a great year for a lot of people, and definitely a lousy year for celebrity deaths. That said, it was a pretty good year for me personally, and as a sort of year end review/new year goals, I want to focus on five things that I accomplished in 2016, and how I want to build on those successes in 2017.

One of the most fun things you can do with your clothes on.
Photo credit: Me.

1. I got a motorcycle! I love riding, I wish I’d done it sooner. I don’t know I would have afforded it years ago, but I wish I’d found a way.

For 2017 I want to improve my skills. This means three tangible goals:

• Take the MSF’s Experienced Rider Course. The Basic Rider Course helped me get my license and spend my first season riding safely, so the ERC is the next step.
• Road trip: The longest rides I took on my Sporty in 2016 were about an hour and a half. I want to get some three hour rides in, and collect a few t-shirts from some of the other Harley dealerships in South Dakota.
• Ride more. This largely will get covered by accomplishing the first two, but in my first full year of riding, I would like to hit at least 3,000 miles.

2.  Health and Fitness. At the beginning of 2016, my office had a weight loss challenge that got me to within a few pounds of being under 200lbs for the first time in a very, very long time. Later in the year, I successfully completed a couch to 5K program and ran my first 5K race in a reasonably respectable time.
Unfortunately, the weight started to come back once I stopped paying strict attention to my food intake and resumed treating my body like a fast moving garbage truck, and my follow-up to the 5K has gotten a bit derailed in terms of both consistency, and possibly a minor injury I picked up while running.
For 2017 I want to build on the things I did successfully in 2016. This means two major things:

• Weight loss. My office has another weight loss challenge coming up, I’ll be participating again. I aim to be under 200lbs by the end of this year.
• Fitness. I know that I can maintain a fitness plan, I need to get back on it. However, I want to combine strength and cardio now. The plan is to do cardio (running or swimming, most likely) three days a week, alternating with weight training. Sunday will be my rest day.

3. Youtube/Twitch. I saw a lot of good channel growth this year, but struggled with consistency, both for my broadcast and upload schedules.
For 2017 I’m not setting any Follower/Subscriber goals, because I can’t control those. What I can control is the quality of the product I am putting out, and the consistency with which I appear. Two goals then:

• Regular broadcast schedule. Be on Twitch at least three times a week, with regular hours.
• Upload at least one video to my Youtube channel a week.

4. Writing. This year I got a short story published, started writing for Marooner’s Rock, and got better on my blog.
For 2017, I want to be more consistent.

• Publishing two posts a week (Monday & Thursday) right here on SticksStoriesScotch.blogspot.com.
• Publish at least one article/review a week on Marooner’s Rock.

5.  Reading. At the beginning of the year, I jokingly said I was going to not read any books by white, heterosexual men in 2016. Turns out I accidentally accomplished this, mainly because for the first time that I can remember, I failed to finish a single book this year, and am still slogging through Atlas Shrugged.

2017 goals:

• Finish Atlas Shrugged.
• Read some other books. Literally ANY other books.