2016: Looking ahead

It’s that time of the year where I take a look ahead.

I am not a huge person for New Year’s resolutions. I think they are goofy and people tend to make them and never follow through.

Think about it — how many people do you think said they wanted to go to the gym more often? And how many do you think have already quit?

Exactly.

Instead, I try and make some goals each year and post them here. I’ve done OK with them the past few years, so we’ll see how this year goes.

Do I know I need to get into better shape, lose weight and things like that? Absolutely. My health is something I need to work on, but that’s not a resolution or a goal — that’s changing things in life and sticking with it.

Instead, these goals will focus more on things I’d like to do this year. We’ll see how it goes.

Geocaching

This goal is always on my list because it’s something I want to keep doing, but the biggest issue becomes time and finding people who are interested in going.

This past year was decent, to a point. I was a few caches short of averaging a cache find per day, but I did a bunch of travels to events and such. I don’t think I’ll be doing any major caching trips (though one event is possible), but there are a few things I’d like to do.

• Average a cache per day (so, I’ll need 366 this year)
• Add another state (or more) to my list
• Place 10 new caches (not including events)
• Host at least 5 events

I think this is a doable thing, so I’ll look forward to going at it. I only have one cache find so far in 2016, so I need to get going!

Home brewing

A total fail in 2015, I need to change this in 2016. And to do that, I already have purchased some interesting kits. I just need to get going on them and go through the process.

So my goal for 2016? Brew at least three beers. I’d like to think I could do more, but I want to make sure I at least get three done. Considering I do the smaller batches (one gallon), I should be able to pull it off.

I have some fun ideas for names and such, too, so we’ll see how it goes.

Just three beers. I’m hoping if I do those three, I’ll get the itch for it again and do several more.

Blogging

This is always on here as it makes sense, being this is a blog and all. So what king of things would I like to do this year for my blog?

• Write a new “about” page
• Post at least 250 times
• Have a minimum of 12 posts every month (and avoid my “lags”)
• Take part in or run a few other challenges, to keep things fresh.

I truly love blogging. And one thing I’d like to do is definitely get more back into the community aspect of things. I fall off on that sometimes, so I’m going to try and keep that up. That’s not a goal, per say, but part of the bigger picture of blogging. I am happy with how the blog is going and I look forward to keeping it updated for 2016 and beyond.

Board games

This is a new one to the yearly goals, and one I’m glad to have added because of how fun this hobby is.

Over the past few years, I’ve gotten into board gaming. It’s a lot of fun and the difference in games is amazing. My personal collection has grown, too, which is pretty sweet. So I need to make this part of my goals. But I can’t just say I want to play games, else that wouldn’t make sense. So in 2016, I’d like to:

• Play 225 times (I played 181 in 2015)
• Play 100 different games
• Go to a game convention

The board gaming hobby is definitely a growing thing, and I’m glad to be involved in it. It’s a lot of fun, especially once one looks past things like Monopoly being the holy grail of board games. There’s a lot of amazing things out there, that’s for sure.

There are other things I’d like to accomplish, but I know might be tough this year. So I’m going to leave this new addition a little more simple to start. In future years, I’ll build it up.

 

Day Zero Project

I didn’t do much with this at all in 2015, which is really too bad. It doesn’t end until 2017, so I still have time (though the odds of me completing it are not good), but I’d like to cross off 25 items in 2016.

Obviously, I’d like to check off more than that, but I think that’s a good goal. Some of them, as I look at it, just won’t be done by the end. Those are for a variety of reasons, be it having the time, or the funds etc. But I still think, if I put my mind to it, I can get several of these done and chip away at the list.

Let’s see how 2016 goes for the Day Zero Project.

Travel

I’m going to scale back on this goal this year. By travel, it just means getting out and seeing some places. It might be day trips or overnight trips, but I want to see things.

So this could be covered in my baseball trips, or planned trips etc.

One definite part of this goal is getting out and seeing a minimum of five New York State parks. They are wonderful places and worth checking out. Hopefully, I’ll hit more. But I’ll leave it at five to start.

There are some obvious other things I’d like to do (Montreal, Maine etc.), but we’ll see how things go. The base goal here is to get out, see things, and take some photos of my travels.

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With 2015 in the books, there are my goals for the upcoming year. We’ll see how I do with them. If I can remain focused, I’m sure I can make a good run at them all. Come next January, I’ll see how I did with these. I hope everybody else has a great 2016 and accomplishes all they would like to get done!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!