The 2012 Wrap Up, The Year Ahead

The Christmas holiday is ending with this Boxing Day evening with a frigidly cold, -40 degree windchill outside. I've cocooned myself inside since I returned from visiting my family. The flickering flames in my fireplace tonight have kept me in a hypnotic trance for too long now it seems, and I had to reboot my mind again with some writing. I'm actually glad that it is this cold: all the more to dissuade me from getting involved in the Boxing Day sales hype and madness happening earlier today. I had only enough energy to drive back from visiting my folks, and that was it. All the excess feasting has rendered me a bit sluggish. I don't just feel like I ate like a pig; I feel like some python that just swallowed a whole pig that ate like a pig.

I'm realizing that the year is quickly winding down; I'm opting not to waste too much time reflecting on it as I did like last year. Successes were achieved, but not really significantly glorious ones; there weren't any hugely glaring, abysmal failures though either (on my part of the grand scheme of things). My highlights were generally pretty much the personal bests I have recorded already in previous entries regarding my fitness goals. My low points were my failure to find the right mix of time/energy and dedication to follow through with my learning/career enhancement challenges, and not getting to build a better network of more positive and like-minded people. For the past couple of beginnings of the new year, I've been stricken with bad luck in the realm of health problems. I hope the lack of them now will be a signal for a better year for me coming ahead.

For the year ahead, the focus will be on continuing to implement efficiency, and to pick up on those things that I started learning, but lost track of midway through last fall. The key elements are:

• trying to limiting it more to things that accord with the 80/20 principle (learning/mastering the 20% of the things that control 80% of the whole system I'm learning, or operating with)
• being more mindful to formulate things as a recipe: finding and stationing the right set of tools, establish the variables, and then commit to procedure(s)
• using creative shortcuts with mnemonics
• meta-learning (un-learning, and then re-learning how to learn), and a low-info diet (there is too much useless stuff in the junk drawer of my brain as it is): to break bad habits and acquire better ones
• having sounder worse case scenario strategies/contingency plans when it comes to taking bigger risks

The things I want to accomplish in 2013* are:

• Completing a full-marathon distance (either through training or racing)
• Keeping on top of staying fit for it
• Getting away for an actual vacation for once
• To implement the stuff I've been studying into a major career shift
• Catching up on those things I didn't get to do/complete last year

Special thanks to authors Tim Ferriss, and David Allen, and especially my friend MJ who has been so supportive so far in with my current life improvements and ambitions. I'll be sticking close to all of you for your advice, tips and suggestions to help guide me through 2013.

Cheers to all of you!

*-Sorry. Ambitions in regards to matters of money, love/sex/relationships, and spirituality are matters too private for me to mention here.