2013 New Years Resolutions

Christmas is over. Resolution time. Everyone’s doing it. The independent travel lifestyle is as much about personal development as it is about seeing new things, experiencing new cultures, and eating foreign food. Personal development starts with goals, and as arbitrary as Jan 1 is, setting goals at the New Year is helpful if you have some discipline and track your progress. Sharing goals is helpful for accountability and public shaming, but staying true to yourself with some old fashioned pen and paper journaling is a my favorite approach to this.

Thus, My and Budget Globetrotting’s New Years Resolutions:

1. New Passport Stamp: Setting the bar low here. Given I’ve been to neither Canada nor Mexico, I’ll delete the blog if I fail at this. I have more ambitious reach plans for traveling, but I’ll keep those to myself for now.

2. Acquire New Language Skills: I want to commit to half-ass learning a language in 2013 (more on this to come).

3. Acquire New Technical Skills: By the end of the year, I’ll be a master at SQL Server. My 9-5 encourages me to gather new tech skills and fancy badges, so I’ll start with becoming certified in Microsoft SQL Server and Business Intelligence.

4. Restore BGT to Glory: Changes here have been slow but coming along. Have big plans for the new year. I’ll be throwing up some timeless guides and hope to provide some helpful tools for travel finances, etc.

5. Run a Marathon: Seeing this as the easiest to achieve at face value. This really only involves signing up and showing up. Time constraints may limit my training for this, but I should be able to finish a marathon with limited preparation. Thoughts of running an international marathon are still swimming in my head.

6. Get Healthy: This will involve learning to cook decent foreign meals, adhering to a strict lifting routine, and drinking less (beer). I’ll be following the tried and true Tim Ferris slow carb nutrtional/diet plan outlined in his book The 4-Hour Body (a must read, in my opinion).

Six public resolutions is enough for now. What are your resolutions? Shine bright like a diamond in 2013, you guys.