The World's Common Tater

I was asked again today about career goals. I said again that sometimes it is hard to have a career goal when my goal might be to have a job that is not open or to have a job that they won’t hire me to do. I thought about posting a big thing about goals and how they can change. Then, I remembered I posted last month about goals for the year. Since I have control over these goals whereas I have little control over someone hiring me to a job that might fulfill my career goals, I decided to check in to see how I’m doing. Let’s see…

This one is an actual goal – My usual read 100 books goal. I’ve been able to get to 100 every year so far, but just barely. I would like to read more and look at my phone less this year and make the 100 with time to spare. I would also like to read more authors I’ve not read before and take the time to go back and read older books I missed when they were released.

I’m a little behind on the number, but I’m not worried about that. I have time to catch up. I’m doing good on reading new authors by reading books that won awards at ALA Midwinter. That, combined with my book club book means it has been a bit since I’ve read a book by my regular authors.

I would like to spend less time sitting at home on the couch and more time out of the house doing stuff. I don’t really care what I’m doing. It could be a movie. It could just be dinner out. It could be spending more time exploring DC and Baltimore. We’ve gotten in the bad habit of spending most of our non-work hours sitting at home in front of the TV. I like TV, but I need more.

Doing OK with this one.  We did go out to eat on a Monday night, but only because we had a deal we needed to use. I did go out last week for a free birthday entrée and we went to DC for my birthday lunch and walked around a little bit. I feel like I have a better chance to do this when the weather is better. I do still need to go see more movies.

To go along with the above, I would like to spend more time outside. It rained a lot last year and because of that, I spent a lot of time inside. I need to take more walks, hike, sit on the deck and read when the weather is nice. Just be outside.

I made sure to eat outside on the days it got warm recently. We went to Orlando last month and I spent a lot of time outside. I’ve walked the dog. I want to do more of this when it gets warmer. To go along with the above, I want to do more fun day trips on days off instead of sitting at home.

Find some way to not dread leaving the house in the morning. I think some of the above sitting on the couch comes from the fact that I don’t have a day-to-day life that makes me happy to leave the house in the morning. My days can be mentally and emotionally draining and that leads to wanting to go home and hide from the world. Whatever it takes, I need to find something that makes me not dread going to work in the morning.

Still a work in progress. I will know soon if more drastic changes are needed.

I want to figure out if I should try to write something besides a blog post I can write in 15 minutes or less. Do I have what it takes to do more long-form writing? Do I want to do that? Do I want to write content that takes research and time? Do people want to read that here? Do I want to consider moving from a paid WordPress site to a self-hosted site? Will any of this really matter on a blog that is lucky to get 20 views a day?

So far, I’ve been doing just more of the same. I still haven’t decided if I should go self-hosted. I’ve thought more recently about trying to write something more substantial than a blog post. I just don’t know where to start or what I should write, Maybe it will come to me soon.

I would like to make the time to do a couple more short trips to Kentucky to see my family even if it means taking a long weekend and driving a lot in a few days to do so.

Not yet, but I should look at the calendar and figure something out. Maybe I should go for the NFL draft in Nashville next month.

Whenever my friends from high school plan the 50th birthday celebration for the class this year I want to do what it takes to get there even if that again means two days of driving for one day there.

Still no word yet. Maybe they have a plan and just don’t plan to tell me.

So, I would say this is a decent start. Once the weather is better I can work more on doing more than sitting on the couch.  I need to plan a trip to Kentucky and convince my high school friends to tell me the plan for a get together this year. I will go see Captain Marvel and Avengers in the next couple of months. I will check back in in a few months to see if I’ve kept up with my goals.