Last year I wrote down what my goals were for the coming year and it turns out to be a fantastic way to describe precisely what I really wanted. After reviewing my successes and failures, I think this year I'm going to do a better job of setting new year resolutions.
If you want it to work, you have to be focused, hence you can't have too many goals. I'm going to define only 3 but from a higher point of view compared to last year.
Write, write and write again
It was already in the list last year. I said that I wanted to publish at least one great article, which shouldn't be hard in 12 months, but I failed.
Now that I'm reading much more, I want to write. I always liked it but I'm really not good at artistic stuff.
By writing, I mean that I want to actually produce contents but also improve my skills a lot. If you ever read something I wrote in French, you'll be freaked out by the unbelievable amount of mistakes I make: grammar, conjugation and spelling. I know I do a lot in English too, but at least I have an excuse: it's not my native language.
My primary goal is to improve my writing in English. Maybe French will come later. The main reason is that I work in English, not in French but I also have this feeling that English is easier that French. Try learning French conjugation if you don't believe me.
Even if I always knew writing was important, I never really understood why. In class, they will tell you that it's important so you don't look dumb at work or among your friends. Honestly, I couldn't care less.
I fully understood how important it is by reading Joel Spolsky's articles and 37signals' book (Rework and Remote). They both consider writing as one of the most important skills and they explained it to me in a way that made me click. To summarise: clear writing means clear thinking.
Become an athlete
Yeah I know, that's very pretentious. I wrote here how I got into losing weight and exercising and how it makes me feel much better.
Last year I said I wanted to "get back to the gym", "eat better" or "sleep more". All those things are actually related, it's about being healthier so your body doesn't stop you from doing something you want to do.
I like the way Jeff Cavaliere put it: I want to get out of the diet and exercising spirit and get into the nutrition and training one. I don't know if you get the difference I'm pointing here, if you don't, you should watch this video.
My way of saying it is: have a greater goal. For example this year I decided to run a full marathon. I don't particularly enjoy running or going to the gym to do cardio but since I have this goal I do it anyway. At the time of writing, it's winter, it's cold and rainy, it's very hard to find motivation to go out and run but I do it anyway because I get motivation and pleasure in my greater goal. I hope you get me.
The other thing is that I will have to watch even more what I eat, and especially, what I drink. I'll probably quit beer. :cry:
Be amazing at my new job
After 3 years at PrestaShop, I'm moving to a new adventure and I am very excited about it. The product is great and leading its market but even better, the company is everything I wanted. They built their culture based on the book Freedom Inc which develop the idea that people do a better job when they care and when they're freed from micro-management.
I'll pour everything I have in this job and I believe in return, it will make me a better engineer and a better coworker in the end. Basically, a better person.
I can't even express how excited I am about this new opportunity. I will write later here about it.
Game on.