2015 Resolutions

I never much saw the point in New Year's resolutions until two years ago, when a Cracked article changed my perspective on resolutions completely. Rather than setting vague, wishy-washy goals for self-improvement, I could set clear, actionable goals for myself for the next year, and self-improvement would be a byproduct.

It's worked out pretty well these past two years, so it's time to set a few more goals for 2015.
My 2013 resolutions were all monthly goals. My 2014 resolutions were a daily goal, a weekly goal, and a monthly goal. Next year I'm going to go with a weekly goal, a monthly goal, and a goal for the year. That may sound less ambitious than the 2014 set, but I think it will be more manageable and also more ambitious.

My weekly goal will concern this blog. As great as it's been to write a new blog almost every day, it's also kinda stressful, and often I felt like I just needed to poop something out in order to meet my quota. As a result, I don't think most of my posts were terribly high quality.

So, instead of sticking to one blog post every day, I'm going to aim for one quality blog post every week. I still plan to post multiple times per week, but I'm gong to make sure that at least one post each week is something I feel proud of. If that means I need to spend a few days researching stuff, then so be it.

Next, I'm hoping to get familiar with at least one new album of music each month. My music playlist has been stagnating for a while now, and though I recently spiced it up with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust (which I'd never really listened to before a few months ago), I'm interested in further expanding my musical repertoire.

This goal might be a bit difficult since it's dependent on my tastes--I have to find things I actually like. I expect I'll be wading through a lot of music trying to find gems that really connect with me.

Finally, I'm going to lay the groundwork for a video game by the end of the year. I managed to cobble together something simple in a month, but if I want to do what I'm envisioning I'm going to have to break away from RPG Maker.

To be more clear, I want to figure out a game mechanic that will help me tell the story I want to tell. If I can get something that's at least playable by the end of the year, then I can start working in the story at some other point. I have no idea how long such groundwork will take, but I'm hoping to use some of the time I was previously using for blog posts and watching movies to work on my game instead.

A year-long goal is still kinda hard to grasp, though. So, I'm going to set a more specific goal of working on my game for at least 5 hours each week, with monthly blog reports on my progress. That ought to be manageable while keeping me accountable.

So, to recap, I have something that will keep my mind sharp, something that will expand my appreciation of the arts, and a constructive and creative project. I hope I'll be at least as on-the-ball with these projects as I was with my 2014 goals.