So,
here at the start of 2015 I'm not going to give all the wonderful things I want
to accomplish this year, but rather I'm going to state them as if this is
December and I've already accomplished my goals. Here it goes.
It
was a great year! At long last I've tackled what I've longer considered the
biggest vice in my life, procrastination. It was a hard job, and not something
I did overnight. How did I do it? By an accountability system, and hard deadlines.
According to Parkinson's Law, we tend to use up all the available time that we
have to do something (Parkinson's Law, 1955). So if I have 12 days to do something that will take a few
hours, I'm probably going to wait until the last minute. And if I don't have a
time limit? Well, I'm probably not going to do it until I think I'm about to
die. If I force myself to have a hard deadline however it is more likely to get
done. I'm so glad this has worked for me, and I have finally become productive
with my time. I have accomplished more in 2015 as a result than I have in any
previous year!
I
have also finally gotten into shape. I can honestly say that this wasn't nearly
as hard to accomplish once I finished the before mentioned conquering of
procrastination. I'm eating healthy, exercising daily. I feel better than I
ever have, and I have infinitely more energy. This is amazing. It is incredible
what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it, and the benefits reaped
from it are usually far more than we even realize.
This
has really been a great year for me intellectually as well. I have finished my
first year as a junior in college. I put off starting my advanced undergraduate
work for so long because I was waiting for a better time. I have come to
realize though that there is no better time than the present. Learning new
programming languages has been particularly fun, and I'm thankful I've finally
pushed myself through it. I'm just a year of classes away of finally getting my
bachelor's degree. More than the professional goals I'm hopeful it will help me
achieve, it is also a matter of personal fulfillment for me. I hope to
continually challenge myself throughout my life, and college is just one of the
ways I plan to do that.
Of
all of the other goals that I’ve accomplished this year I cannot forget the one
that has perhaps brought me the most pride. I have finally finished my first
book. After starting over and over again in 2014 to try to figure out the right
version of the story, I finally just sat down and wrote my book this year. A
science fiction tale that I hope you all will read once I finally finish all of
the editing. It was a truly rewarding
experience, and there is nothing quite like that sigh of relief after finishing
a book.
References
Parkinson's Law. (1955, November 19). Retrieved
January 4, 2015, from http://www.economist.com/node/14116121
