With a New Year…

January is typically a time where everyone makes goals and plans for the upcoming year. I am not immune from this, and most Januarys find me doing the same thing. Last year, I wrote about the four things I wanted to do, which I mostly failed at, though I was mostly happy this year until my father passed away two weeks ago. Two years ago, I highlighted a lot of the previous years’ goals, which tend to repeat from year to year.

This year is no different. I have a lot of the same goals that have followed me from year to year, primarily because I fail at accomplishing goals. Things are a little different this year, because my success means a bit more with a new wife and being back in Utah for the entire year. For the most part, I’ll be sticking with the same goals as last year, though they are changing a little bit. Without further adieu, here are my goals for 2015:

1) The Fitness Goals

The fitness goal is comprised of a couple different things just like last year. All in all, these goals will help me become more healthy for this year and beyond.

1. Lose 80 pounds by the end of the year, with intentions of losing 110 pounds my next March;
2. Run 300 miles this year, including at least one half-marathon;
3. Find a workout routine that I can do at least three times a week, hopefully preparing me to return to the Army;
4. Sleep better when I can; and
5. Completely eliminate soda by the end of the year.

My fitness goals this year are mainly to see if I can get back into Army shape, hopefully making it possible for me to rejoin the Army Reserve through a Direct Commission or,if possible, even OCS. But even if I can’t get back into the Army, I just want to be healthier so that I can be around for a long time.

2) The Writing Goal

I totally failed at this last year. I had grand intentions to write a novel in November, building up by writing over a thousand words a week on this blog. I never got to that point. I wrote 30 blogs total last year, mainly movie reviews and other things, but definitely no where near my goal for last year.

This year, I have different writing goals, and will probably be spreading it around a bit. A friend and I have been talking about writing about stocks for some time, and I think this year, maybe even next month, I’ll finally get around to writing those things. They goal is three times a week over there, and once we get going, I’ll be sure to share that site once it goes live, and I’m hoping that it will at least pay for the hosting cost the first year, but we’ll see how it works out when it gets up and running.

I also plan on blogging a bit over at my financial services website once that goes live as well, so many of the things that might have ended up here will show up on the site above or there, but I still want to write a couple of days here, but who knows what it will be about. Either way, I hope that it will be more than a few movie review posts and random crap that was here last year, but I guess we’ll ultimately see.

3) The Employment Goal

As I am still in the midst of a permanent job search, the ultimate goal is to find something that will hopefully align well with my long-term goal of becoming a financial planner. In a perfect world, I would start working towards that goal right now, but I have bills to pay and things to prepare for later this year that can’t really be supported without having some savings and whatnot. Therefore, I am focusing on finding something that has potential to be a career, and then focus on building my business on a part-time basis until I’m able to step away from normal full-time work.

Either way, the goal this year, once I get a permanent job, is to figure out a way to take the CPA exam, or, at a minimum, pass the exams necessary to become an Enrolled Agent. These certifications would help with my future goals, and while they won’t matter during the upcoming tax season, it might help attract future clients this year as hopefully do taxes on a part-time basis this year.

4) Personal Life Goals

The biggest change this year will happen right around July, when my first child is expected to arrive, so a lot of the first part of this year will be preparing for that. Everything else that I am doing this year will be to benefit my child one way or another, so the goal is to be the best dad that I can and hopefully not screw up too bad. Furthermore, I want the relationship with my wife to remain strong for this year and beyond, so hopefully we can add the child to our happy home and not skip a beat. Luckily, Kim makes it really easy to be married to her, so I anticipate achieving this goal without a whole lot of difficulties.

I hope that this year doesn’t see the dramatic changes that ended 2014, but I hope that everything changes for the better for me and everyone else.

Until next time…