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I recently read a post by Holly Hoffman about giving your year a theme instead of resolutions and it got me thinking about the goals and resolutions that I've set in my life in the past. While I've never been much of a person for resolutions, simply because I knew I would never keep one,  I've also never been much of one for following through with the goals that I set for myself. I can't count the number of half-started journals, notebooks, sketches, or other projects that are lying around my room, or how many times I've said that I would join a gym and actually go regularly to get back in shape. Most of the time I get busy with work or life, and I just forget to keep up with what I'm trying to do. Other times, I find myself discouraged after hitting a speed-bump in the road. When it comes down to it, I've never been the best at follow-through.

The part of Holly's post that struck a chord with me the most was that a theme is "...about changing your mindset toward a certain area of your life". In the past, I've been rather indifferent about not finishing my projects, the journals that get left on the shelf with only one or two entries in them, or the blog that sits untouched for ages. I guess, then, that my theme for this year is one of follow through.

My goal for the next year is to work on following through with more projects and goals that I present for myself. This does seem kind of vague, and I know there are going to be times when I'm not going to be able to finish something, for one reason or another. But, mainly, I want to be able to work past the times when I lack motivation to continue a project, or when I get discouraged from continuing. I need to remember to make time for things.

So, to finish this up, here're my goals for 2010:

• Write one blog post a week: This is part of an effort to improve my writing skills and also an attempt to put something useful, maybe insightful, maybe helpful, out there onto the internet. I've had this blog for quite a while now, but not really posted anything, so time to try exercising that follow through.
• Become active in the .NET community: Part of my goals for the future, especially in my career, is to become a Microsoft MVP. I'm passionate about my work, and the products I work with, so it just makes sense to share my knowledge, build my knowledge, and share that passion.
• Improve my physical fitness: I'm not setting any specific metrics on this, but I'd like to start working out again and just feel better in general. I've been plagued with high blood pressure for a while now, a shame at my age, but it is under control with medication. I'd like to get it under control without the medication, though.

And with that, here we go!

So, recently I had a sudden and unexpected career change thanks to the wonderful state of the economy and the lack of business for the consulting workforce. Sadly, I was laid off from my rather cushy software development consulting job. After taking the necessary two weeks to let it all sink in, relax, and basically take a vacation that I've been needing for way too long, I've come to the conclusion that sometimes these things are for the best. As I said before, I really needed a vacation. Three years out of college and I haven't taken more than a week off at a time, none of which I would consider a real vacation. Besides that, though, this gives me plenty of time to catch up on my reading, brush up on a number of skills that I've let fall to the wayside and reinforce things that I should know well already, but probably don't.