My Year Ahead
I am writing this as I do most things: on the fly, improvising. Even I have no idea what I'm going to write now. Lemony snickers wicket flicker thicket lickers.
Brought to you by the acclaimed writer of My Year is a story of a guy sitting in his bedroom a few hours before New Years because the entire town of Uppsala is practically empty for the holidays, contemplating what he’s going to do next year.
I can’t say I haven’t been giving it any thought lately. Last year I went into the year determined to make my life better and to find some way to bring out the potential and the vigor in my life. I have been on the run, physically, mentally, spiritually and have had to question myself, my determination and my internal fortitude, if you will.
Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.
-William Jennings Bryan
I have realized now, that these are not the questions I should be asking anymore. It is time to get things done. Too often I realize that I have the skills, means and the ability to do something and I don’t come around to doing it and my inaction affects me and the world around me. If the things I do or don’t do are going to affect people, it will be because I have been pushing it, it will be because of my own actions.
On the final episode of the first season of my podcast, I said the next year was going to be the best year of my life, and it will. I am confident about it. But, it’s upto me. It is time for me to push myself to my absolute limit and start putting more stuff out into the world. So, that’s the mentality I’m taking into this article and this new year.
1. Decide on what to do next year
Yes, this is happening live, you are currently reading my train of thought on what I am going to do next year in real-time. The thing that pops into my head whenever I think of next year is the word “more” because that’s what I’ve got to do: more work, more time with the people I care about, more time pursuing my passions, more time on self-improvement. It all needs to increase.
But what do we call this new-old attitude? Phil Jackson would always have names for Chicago Bulls seasons that would be dramatic, eye-catching and would fit the theme of the season. It was an effective tool that kept the players focused on the game, and made for a great documentary title with “The Last Dance”. I think I already accidentally did that with my LinkedIn banner:
So, that’s where it will start, that banner. I will use some of the graphic design skills that I have acquired over the past couple of months:
Perfect, and there you have it, the them for the year: It’s Time. I like it.
2. It’s Time To: Find some goals
See what I did there? Goals are interesting. For something like this, they cannot be too specific, but to actually do something, they cannot be something fluid either. So, here are the things that I want to do that will be converted into goals in 2024:
Become smarter.
Become better.
Do more.
Okay, so I’m not very good at better defining goals, but this is a good start, honestly. Lets me define the rest of the goals in this article.
3. It’s Time: Becoming Smarter
Here, I will pick up mostly from where I left off last year:
Books: I’m writing one and I will write more. But as far as reading goes, I only managed about 55 books this year, I was going for a 110-ish. So, I’m going to step that up, I will read 150 books.
Swedish: This is very important for where I live and work currently and I will continue exploring avenues to get better at it. I might even try to make some content in Swedish, who knows?
There are going to be a lot of things that I will do to learn stuff and get my brain going faster, but that is going to require a lot of the other stuff that I’m talking about to get done too.
4. It’s Time: Becoming Better
This is important, becoming better and more rounded out. There’s a few activities that I have lined up for this, though more will be added as the year progresses (don’t stop adding stuff after New Year’s people):
I’m going to have a bigger prescence on social media. Not just LinkedIn, but a lot of other stuff too.
I’m going to learn how to swim properly, finally and step up my exercise routines at the gym.
I will focus on tasks for more than 30 minutes at a time. I sometimes have a hard time doing this, so this will be a big breakthrough for me.
I will meditate more.
Becoming better is all about rounding yourself out so that you are in optimum shape. You should do this for all the stuff I’m going to mention in the next section.
5. It’s Time: To Do More
I adopted a lot of this motto by the end of this year, but now I have the position and the resources to take it even further. I will not relinquish an opportunity, I will take every chance and every spot I can find. Basically, I will do stuff, like I always do, but even more. I have a few ideas, but the fact is my calendar will fill up all on its own, as I have found out at the end of this year. And that’s fine by me. It’s what I want and what I deserve. It’s all about time, and I will use my time optimally.
6. It’s Time, To Conclude This Blog
Alright, I have been incredibly vague so far, and that is because for all the things I want to do, I can’t really organize up an entire year, can I? And you shouldn’t either, the moral of this story is to take it one day at a time. I did that all the time in 2023 and its a blast. So, make some New Year’s Resolutions but also make resolutions every day to believe, to get better, to have hope that your life will get better and that you will contribute to a better world.