one month checkin [09/20/2006 19:42:20]

So, it's been a month since I wrote out my goals for the year. They're still posted all over my apartment, and I've still got them as a major focus. I haven't made as much progress as I wanted to, but I have made some headway. I'll just go down the list here.

Raise $8k for LLS - 1/8 of the way there! Long way to go.
Weigh under 200lbs - I know I've put on some muscle (especially in my legs) but nothing's changed on the scale. I'm going to start lifting weights again.
Read the book stack - I skimmed through a couple dry tech books, and read Covey's First Things First, which I'll say more on in a minute. Not quite the 2 books per week I need to be hitting to make it through the stack.
Release web framework - Did a whole lot of refactoring work on the cornerhost control panel, extracting the core platonic library. One of my goals for this week is to mock up a wireframe for the public website. I also spent several hours working out exactly what I'm trying to accomplish with this project and where I'm looking to go with it. So decent progress here.
Net worth to $10k - I plan to jumpstart this with the lifetime hosting offer, so getting the T-shirt thing going is the first step, and that's in progress right now.
Salary to $5k/m - The lifetime offer should help here too. I'm not going to use the money directly as salary, but invest in marketing. I've found someone to help with marketing part time, and I'll be writing out a marketing plan this week.
Tangentstorm - no progress. One software project at a time is plenty, so the framework first.
100k word rough novel - some progress. I've been gathering notes and have a rough concept in mind.
Visit 25 groups - I went to a team in training picnic, but that's it, so far. Need to work on the socialization stuff. I've committed to going to karaoke night on thursday, and I've made a list of other groups I want to get involved with.
6 dates - No progress, and I don't plan to make much effort here until I get my weight under control.
Rondo Alla Turca - I've tapped out a few notes on the keyboard, but no serious practice. I looked through the score and marked out the repeating sections. I've also broken the midi file down into separate files for each section, and printed each out.
Trading System - No progress. There's no real point in working on this until I have some money saved up, and again, I've already got a main programming project.

I've been getting better at deriving my weekly goals from the larger goals. It's really nice having a larger framework.

That book I mentioned, First Things First, is a really good book. It's a time management book, but with the Stephen Covey slant, with a lot of emphasis on principles and character and doing what's important rather than just what's urgent.

I learned I'm pretty weak when it comes to what Covey calls independent will. I'm pretty self-aware, tend to follow my conscience, and have all kinds of vision (the other three human endowments he talks about in his books), but my will to make things happen is pretty darn weak. That's why I'm so proud that I've stuck with these goals a whole month - I really didn't know if I could do that.

Covey makes the point that if you say you're going to doing something, your integrity is on the line, even if it's just a small commitment. The way to build your independent will is to make and keep promises, both to yourself and to others. I've had a real problem with that. It's not that I'd commit to things I didn't mean to finish, but somehow I usually wound up sidetracked. Part of that is launching projects without a real end in mind, but mostly I just tended to get caught up in other things. The new stuff always seems more important than the old stuff, but I see now that integrity is more important still.

I don't want to forget that again. I've started keeping a commitment list separate from my normal to-do list. There's a large number of things I really ought to do, but I don't want those things to wash out the things I've committed to doing. I'm making my commitments the priority, even when the commitment is to myself, or to people I might not know, like my standing promise to answer my work email in 24 hours (a commitment I've fallen behind on many times in the past).

Anyway, I have a few of those commitments to attend to right now, so I'd better sign off here...