I caught a tweet from a certain party pooper who reminded everyone that New Year's Day is a "cosmically arbitrary event, carrying no Astronomical significance at all". Not that anyone's asked, but if you're wondering why no one invites you to parties anymore Neil, I think I know.
So what's the point?
It's so easy to get caught up in the daily grind that we seldom stop and re-evaluate where we're at. People take vacations to slow things down and think about where their life is at. People wax nastolgic during a sunset, and consider the endless possibilities during sunrise - but I'm sure some people would say the Earth is just spinning in circles and that sunrises and sunsets are cosmically arbitrary events.
Seriously though, why do so many people celebrate New Year's? It serves as a convenient marker in what would otherwise be just another day in endless days. In this endless cosmic event, we need something to ground us. We need something to anchor us for a few moments, so we stop moving along with the stream and take a good hard look around us, and our place in it, and consider whether we even want to be in this particular stream.
If you doubt this, check out any gym anywhere after New Year's Day. There's no reason (well, other than silly "deals") for people to suddenly join a gym on January 2nd, yet they do in droves. It may be just another revolution of the Earth as it spins around the galaxy, but it happens to serve as a damned good place for us to plant our feet in the ground and consider, what did we do during the last 365 revolutions? What do we intend to do during the next 365?
So with that, I'll sidle off this soap box and consider my goals for the New Year...
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Blogging more regularly and personally is high up there. So far I've been erratic and technical.. and usually impersonal. I enjoyed challenging myself to research and writing about 15 APIs in 15 days and - although that pace was pretty crazy - it pushed me to write more in 2 weeks than I probably do in 3 or 4 months. I think I'll do more 10-whatevers-in-10-days style things that keep me on a topic for awhile.
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Blogging more publicly, although it kinda scares me. There are good publications out there that get a lot more traffic than my meager site, but more traffic means the potential for more criticism, and that's scary! Writing a few things on dev.to has gone very well. There's also medium but wow... that just seems like the ultimate goal. Maybe I'll even find a project or two that I can get behind and see about writing for them. Erik Dietrich has had good luck with this - his posts are great btw, very pragmatic, very relatable.
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Reading more frequently. I don't do this nearly enough. I used to be a voracious reader, but now I seldom bother. My wife thinks it's ridiculous that I check a few books out of the library, renew them like 4 or 5 times until I'm not allowed anymore, and then return them all. It's bad. It's tough with kids, but if I set aside a few minutes before bed, maybe I could just read one chapter a night. That'd be easier though if I set another goal...
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Get more sleep. I also don't do this nearly enough. I push myself until well after midnight pretty often, reading blogs and trying things out, or working on some side project, and then collapse. Then it's up at 7 with the kids. There's all kinds of studies that show how this has diminishing returns, and in fact I was just reading an article where the owner of some company says he gets over 9 hours of sleep a night, and is ready to go each morning and attack the day.
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Plan intentional stuff with the kids. Have kids? How's that going? I've got 5 and we (who am I kidding? my wife) homeschool, and I don't do nearly enough with them. When I do something one-on-one with them, it's great - they're in a better mood, I'm in a better mood, everyone learns something. I'd like to be better this year about planning things like hiking, side projects, STEM stuff, whatever, and getting it on a calendar! After all, anything that's not scheduled somewhere (similar to financial budgeting) ain't gonna happen.
What're your goals?
Do you have some goals too? Anytime is a great time to sit back, think about where you've been and where you're going to. But the turning of a New Year is a great excuse to place the brakes on everything and take a hard look at yourself and your situation.
What would you like to change this year?