Skip to main content

Recap and 2021 Goals - ROW80 2021 Round One

I'm doing things a little different this year. With ROW80, we usually plan goals in 80 day increments. Perhaps it is because last year was so incredibly hectic and unpredictable, I have decided to focus on one month at a time.

My January goals are to develop the following:

- A DRAWING plan
- A FRENCH plan
- A HOME plan
- A MARTIAL ARTS plan
- A MUSIC plan
- A SKATING plan (complete)
- A WRITING plan

Now, I don't think I really did a summary of last year yet, but I'm not sure I have a lot that I completed. I did get a lot of momentum going that I will carry into this year. As I don't do resolutions, but rather choose a word for the year's focus, last year I had chosen THRIVE. I believe I managed to do fairly well despite many things not working out.

I enjoyed parts of my drawing course and will be continuing to learn and improve those skills this year.

French had to be abandoned while I fulfilled two job roles and had so much going on at home. I'm looking forward to getting back to this. It turns out that according to DNA, French is the largest ancestral group in me. Discovering this has brought new importance to it for me.

My bathroom is still under renovation. I was told that the wall I need replaced will be done mid-January, however, that was before the province went into another lockdown, so I'm unsure if it will be delayed. At least the job that was before mine was done. Now, I need to hope that no other emergencies happen before my wall gets done.

Otherwise, I am on the upholstery section of my DIY chaise. This is not something I want to get into beyond this project. It has been a learning experience, but I'm not in love with this type of project.

Martial arts didn't really happen much at all for me last year. This year, I am expanding my skill set by learning some new sword arts and I'm really excited about it.

Last year, I didn't do enough music. Actually, I haven't for several years. Part of that was because I couldn't decide what instrument I wanted to be my primary one. I have decided to focus on guitar since much of the music I want to learn is most naturally played on guitar. I'm not abandoning trumpet, I'm just going to play it a little less than my guitar.

One of the things that was wonderful about last year for me was returning to skating. In fact, I didn't know how much I missed it until I got back to it.

I didn't get to where I wanted to with Sparks, but I discovered important things that I believe will let me complete it this year, so I'm OK with how it turned out.

This year's word is PASSION and nearly all of the things I listed above are things I'm passionate about, so I want to fill my life with things I love for this year. When I can't do something I love, there might be something I can do that helps me improve at those things anyway. For example, maybe I can't skate right now because we're in that awkward phase when there is too much snow, but no ice yet, but I can do exercises that will make me better at skating.

My goals for Round One are to develop the plans listed above. After that, I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing when, but I feel like a slightly dynamic approach is more helpful to me.

Labels:
Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada

Popular posts from this blog

Warrior Wednesday - Cross-training

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] Martial arts are a great workout, but it can be easy to forget that we need to do other exercises to ensure total body fitness. That being said, it doesn't have to take a lot of time or be a miserable experience. One of my Iaido mentors, 8th Dan Hatekenaka Sensei, does hot yoga when she isn't practicing Iaido. She practices Iaido every day whether there is class or not. Now Iaido is great for many things. Swinging a sword about takes *some* strength, so it works the upper body. It's important to mention that we try to get a sword that is a reasonable weight. Many are only a couple of pounds because they are a giant razor and don't need to be heavy in order to cut things. Also, a light sword should be able to be swung as thought it were heavy and a heavy one as though it were light. It also is helpful to prevent repetitive strain injuries. W...
Read more

Merry Monday - My Retro Weekend

I arrived in North Bay in the late afternoon on Friday, my brother's 40th birthday. I gave him his card in which I started I couldn't tease him about his age because it was too close to my own, so I'd tease our other brother instead ;) His gift was some pink elephant popcorn I happened upon in my travels because we agreed to not spend much on each other. He presented me with a box. Inside was a Rainbow Bright lunch pail. Inside of that was a Super Nintendo game. He and his girlfriend had found these things while cleaning up and thought of me because I loved Rainbow Bright as a child.  Also inside was my ticket for Big Fish. I paid my brother for the ticket as if he was a drug dealer because our parent's poodle likes eating dollar bills.  The next day I went for a run and found a friend from high school theatre. There was a Pokemon raid and I stuck around for it while catching up.  Later, my brothers and I gathered with our cousins for beers and BBQ before I went off to ...
Read more

Warrior Wednesday - Learning Balance

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] When I was a child, I was shy and quiet. I barely said anything about myself. Even in high school, I didn't speak about myself much. I mostly just listened to others and gave advice when they asked for it. I guess that was part of the reason I started my 20s in social work. I'm an introverted type, so working in computers made sense for a long time after that. I'm still shy with some things like asking people out on dates. I often do that through social media because it's a little less scary. Also, sometimes it's really hard to get people alone to ask them out. These days, I've got enough Gryffindor bravery in me to tackle a lot of things like networking. I think that's a skill I've learned from working as a project manager. Sometimes I come off too strong and say the wrong things. I'm still learning. It's a common t...
Read more