Moving Forward Into 2017

Time to prepare for 2017. I posted my review of 2016 a little over 2 weeks ago, but I wanted to take some time to think about what I wanted this year to entail. As I have for the last 2 years, I’ll be using the same structure and categories:

Goal – Something I want to accomplish that is measurable and relatively continual. eg. exercise X times per week or decrease sugar consumption by X percent. These are often habits I want to build into my life and my hope is that by doing it for a year, it will stick.

 

Theme – A central topic for the year – something I can spend time thinking about and take a few concrete efforts towards. eg. build community or rethink what health means. These are often abstract ideas that are hard to measure but important to spend time focusing on.

 

Challenge – Something I want to conquer. Crossing an item off my bucket list. eg. climb Mr. Everest or learn to tight rope walk. These are binary, I either complete them or I don’t.

2017 Goal: Volunteer Once Per Month

I had a hard time picking this, especially relative to the theme and challenge for this year… Originally, I was going to do something that was cooking based, but I had a hard time committing to it. I wanted something centered around self improvement, but also something I could stand behind and really feel like I was invested in. The choice I made was definitely not what I expected it to be.

I chose to do a voltunteer situation once per month. I wanted to make sure I worded it in a way that was, despite being achievable, not something that was mundane or easy to fulfill. The specifics around this goal are that I want to partake in some kind of volunteer activity once every month, as long as it does not limit what or how I accomplish that on a monthly basis. I also do not want to lock myself into a specific kind of volunteering from month to month, such that I would feel like it would be a chore, making it difficult to have it be consistent. Specifically, I’m defining this as any activity, whether done for 1 hour, 1 day, or even more than that, that involves a volunteer effort to complete a task, regardless of different purposes or goals, completed on a monthly basis.

2017 Theme: Intentionally Value Friendships

I value my friends very much, but I’m not generally very good at showing it. Many of my closest friends live a fairly large distance from me, which means I don’t often get an opportunity to see them. This usually means communication over social media is about the only way I stay in contact, and even then, I’ve noticed myself drifitng apart from some of these friends more than I’d like.

I want to put effort this year into being able to show my appreciation for these friends, and to simply be able to have a closer and better friendship with them.

There are also friends who live nearby that I’ve come to consider to be a second family to me (Factory Shoutout!!!). These people have been a fantastic support structure, and very down to earth, helpful, fun people to have in my everyday life. I’d like to be able to really connect on a much more personal level with the people I see everyday.

My friends are such a massive part of my life - and given where I’d like to see my life going in the next 5 years, that will only be ever more true. I want to make a shift in my mindset to a place where I’m much more intentional with valuing my friends.

I feel like this, in combination with my goal for the year, will provide me with many opportunities to really connect with those people whom I consider close friends and figure out what, intrisically so, matters to them. Between this theme and the goal listed above, I feel like there are so many ways I can make 2017 a year of growth and imrpovement for not just myself personally, but how I interact with both friends and the community around me.

2017 Challenge: Acquire a Tandem or AFF Instructor Rating

Starting this year out, I have 287 skydives. It was always my plan to eventually get a Tandem Instructor rating so that I could take friends and introduce them to the world of skydiving. I’ve also been very enamored with the idea of getting an AFF Instructor rating simply because I’ve enjoyed this past year of coaching so much. I get a lot of joy from seeing someone who is new to skydiving really find the beauty and excitement in the sport. I would love to be able take my coaching and teaching to the next level.

In order to accomplish this challenge, I’ll need to reach a minimum of 500 jumps, and subsequently take the courses to get at least one of these ratings.

I really do appreciate you reading my post, and would love to hear any thoughts or questions you might have, so please feel free to leave a comment below.