My 2018 Goals

So as you can tell, this is juuuuuust a bit late. And I haven’t even wrapped up 2017, which I’d still like to do.

In short: life has been crazy busy in December and January, and I’ve often felt a little stressed with how much I’m attempting to get done. Releasing the podcast episodes, which includes editing, putting together show notes, and marketing, has required a huge amount of time. I love the project, and it’s also felt “too big” at points. Definitely learning from this and re-thinking how I would want to proceed.

 

With that said, let’s get into 2018!

I enjoyed doing quarterly goals last year, and I’m going to continue that trend.

You can read my 2017 goals here.

Overall I’m happy with 2017 and my progress, even though technically I only completed about 45% of my goals last year. Of course, writing something down at the beginning of the year never accounts for the crazy turns life will throw at you, and Richard III was definitely one!

 

So, here are my 2018 goals:

A few over-arching items I’d like to keep doing and improve:

• Lap swimming
• Bread-baking
• Traveling
• Learning
• Exercising
• Meditating
• Reading for pleasure
• I’d also like to post more often here. 10-12 posts total for the year, however that works out.

 

Quarter One (January-March)

• Releasing season one of The Working Actor’s Journey podcast (update: complete!)
• Working with my uncle to publish his children’s book on Kindle and in print (update: complete!)
• Training our new puppy Paz with his classes and at home (update: in progress!)
• Reach out to contacts regarding a new “short-form” Shakespeare podcast, and about doing an online Shakespeare class (update: postponed)

 

Quarter Two (April-June)

I’ll be located in Trujillo, Pero with Sharon for March, and then we’ll be volunteering (and mostly offline) in the Bocas del Toro islands of Panama for May. Then back to Chicago for her med school gradation and then moving to wherever she’s going for residency (she’ll be matched in mid-March—update: San Diego!). So, probably not a big “goals” period as a lot of life stuff needs to happen. Nevertheless…

• Create an abbreviated “podcast” version of the Free Meditation Course (renamed/re-branded it last year) using Anchor.fm (update: postponed)
• Take a couple free online SEO classes and decide if this is work I’d like to pursue (feels like it could be a headache and not fun, yet I know it’s important—also feels like something I “should” be offering, so I just need to check it out more) (update: not doing)
• Could be a good time to return to an un-started 2017 goal: create 1-2 active/artsy guides for TripAdvisor (update: discovered you are “selected” to write the official guides, so I may add these to individual city forums)
• Perhaps a good time for the second installment of See the Speech? (would really like to find a distribution channel for this first)

 

Quarter Three (July-September)

• Begin recording episodes for season two of The Working Actor’s Journey (update: complete!)
• Publishing my uncle’s second book on Amazon (update: postponed)

 

Quarter Four (October-December)

• Releasing season two of The Working Actor’s Journey podcast (update: complete!)
• Add videos excerpts and clips of the WAJ podcast to YouTube (update: complete!)

 

Does this seem sparse?

(Actually, it’s two more goals than last year.)

Perhaps I’m just being more realistic about the year. It’s not that I’m unambitious: there are lots of other things I’d like to do (reading, cooking)—I just don’t have goals set for these activities, and I’m ok with that.

For me, this is a way to get more clear (and feel more relaxed) about some of the bigger projects going on in my head. If I ever decided to start baking-bread as a side gig, that would definitely be on the list, but if I just want to continue doing it, improving, and experimenting, that doesn’t need to be here. I’ll just do that.

And of course, if I think of something new, I reserve the right to come back and edit. 🙂

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Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash