This last week of the year has been a delightful piece of time off with family and friends, and I’ve been using the time to duck my head around the incoming corner of 2019. But we’re not quite there yet.. before we go all the way to 2-0-1-9, it’s time to look back on the wonder of the last year where, yet again, quite a lot has happened.
Let’s take a look at the list from a year ago first:
- 210
- Breathing
- Duathlon
- Photography
- Two Houses
- Less Phone
- Tech Free Nights
- Active Doing (e.g. Producing not Consuming)
That was an ambitious list. How’d I do?
210
Nope, didn’t get there. I did pretty well for the first quarter of the year, and got down to 230. But I hit a wall there for awhile - plateaus are expected - but that one nailed me and I didn’t recover. So I’m finishing the year now at about 245, 5lb. more than I started.
This has got to stop. It needs to go for longer than 3 months.
Breathing
Pretty happy on this one, although it started later in the year. I’ve been doing a small 10-15 minute yoga routine nearly everyday since the beginning of November. It’s been a great addition to the morning and has really worked to help slow me down and let me focus on the day instead of rushing headlong into things.
Duathlon
Another win here. Maureen and I (and Jess!) did the duathlon together this year in nasty, windy, rainy conditions. Despite the rain, it was a wild success. I won the Clydesdale division (225+, see previous Goal #1) and hit a pace of 20.2 mph on the bike and a 9:08/mile pace for the 4.6 mile run. Most importantly, I didn’t stop once on the run!
Photography
I didn’t sell much, but I maintained focus and got 12 Inches Behind to a point where it’s out there, maintainable, and ready for more. Happy with the project, not especially happy with the rest.
Two Houses
Here’s another one we nailed! Having two houses definitely felt daunting when we started this adventure, but throughout the year we really managed to get the hang of it. Maureen and the kids spent the whole summer at the beach, which was amazing by itself, and I was able to come down every weekend from Thursday night through Friday morning. The overhead between the two houses (finances aside) wasn’t that much more than one house either. Maureen added an end-of-summer summary that encapsulates things well.
Less Phone
Eh, a mixed bag. I ditched Facebook this year on my phone, and only check it rarely. So that’s good. But I’m still an IG addict and need to learn to put it down more.
I got a “Phone Crate” for the beach house and we instituted a rule this fall for both us and guests: phones stay and can be used only in the front room of the house. This has helped quite a lot, but we still have a long way to go.
Tech Free Nights
Failure. I love watching shows on my phone in bed. Would still like to get back to more books.
Producing
I gotta say, I’m pretty happy with this one too. I count 34 new entries on this here blog - which doesn’t include the other one - and some of them were on the longer side. Then there’s also 12inches and a few other smaller things. On the more physical side, I tried my hand at furniture building and came away reasonably pleased with a walnut slab desk:
In general, I feel like I’m starting trends and building habits that can last for the next four or five decades. These are habits of production and fulfillment that will keep me both feeling good and out of the traps of consumption that our world lays out so ably, while also maybe being interesting to others as well.
And with that, 2018 is done. Cheers and on to 2019!