Chris Wiegman
On Friday I wrote my review of 2021. It wasn’t an accident that it only looked backwards and not forwards. For as good as 2021 was to us I’ve hit the point where I don’t know what I want out of 2022.
That’s probably a bad way to phrase it. For the most part I don’t know if anything can change for 2022. I have a number of small goals but I largely feel like the big ones, the things I would really want to do or start doing, will never happen. Given that, I’ve spent a lot of time these past few days thinking about what I would like to accomplish in 2022 and, for my own sake, I think it is important that I put those on paper, so to speak.
The little things
When I read most yearly plan posts the thing that strikes me is that most people either want to change completely or keep their momentum going and they express this in the little things.
I guess I’m no different. That said there are some things I definitely want to keep going and others I really do want to change radically. For the former I think these can be mostly summed up as the “little things.” These are the goals I’ve got the mindset, time and ability to already work to. All it takes is the will and a little luck.
- Read 100 books
- Break all my step records (all but my single day step record were set last year in 2021)
- Get back to learning German (or another language other than English)
- Write 150 posts for this site
- Lose 10lbs
Pretty simple, right? I hit 94 books in 2020 so I would like to get back to that pace. As for the steps, since I bought the Apple Watch I’ve gotten much more into walking again. If the weather can cooperate (it doesn’t get to hot) I’m hoping to do a lot of it before the summer hits.
With the rest it’s mostly just a continuation of paths I’ve already been on. Only German will be a change to daily habits. I had been working on that for almost 3 years until last summer and then I stopped after realizing it is rather pointless to learn a language I’ll never get the chance to use.
The life goal
Beyond the little things I would like 2022 to be a year where Joy and I can find a place that feels like home. We left Austin because it didn’t feel like home and moved to Florida. I grew up about half around Florida so moving back to the Gulf Coast would, I thought, feel like home to me.
That was a mistake.
I’ve since learned I’m as miserable here as I was in Austin. After spending the first 3-4 years with the idea that “it will get better, I just need to get used to it” I realize I chose poorly.
We bought this particular house sight-unseen as our only real criteria was a walking neighborhood. We have that and, now, I realize it takes more than that to make a home. It takes a community we want to be part of, a house we enjoy and weather that doesn’t leave either of us absolutely miserable for 8-9 months of the year.
I don’t know where we’ll wind up but I do hope we at least have a plan to get out of here. For Joy we still need to keep somewhere that at least gets warm. For me I can’t do the eternal summer again. I hate it. We both want a walking neighborhood and I would prefer a real city with infrastructure and culture. Joy would love to get back involved with community theatre. In the end we’re making our list of what could be home and I hope 2022 is the year we can, if not get there, have a solid plan and timeline to do so.
The rest
While I would love to say I have numerous life goals I want to move towards, I would be lying. COVID has shown me just how miserable I really am in Florida and I’m ready to change that. That is one of my top priorities.
Of course looking for a home leaves time for plenty of other things too. I’m really hoping that 2022 is the year I can start building a self-hosting setup that my entire family can live with, not just myself. I don’t expect to buy any new computer hardware but I would like to spend time trying out apps that can replace the services I use with private alternatives that won’t cost Joy or my parents too much grief to use with me.
Finally, I would like to spend some time working on this site. Until 6 months ago it ran on a nice, minimal theme that really let it scream with tiny download sizes and very few chances to slow down. While I like the looks of the current theme I’m realizing it is just too slow for many of the people who read it. I’ve had multiple complaints from friends in parts of the world where high-speed internet isn’t the norm and I want to fix that. Accessibility, after all, means everyone, not just the rich, right?
I don’t know how much of all of this I’ll be able to get done this year. Reading back over the list some of it feels impossible already (I’m not sure I’ll ever escape the hell that is Florida, for example). It is all, however, something we can try to work for. Without goals, what is that point of anything?