no really

at the start of the year, three people told me they are making new years resolutions. every one of them has vowed this is the year they would do the same thing as all the others, "find work life balance". last year i vowed to learn to play the blues guitar; buying yet another bloody guitar, on the last day of the year, was less than an optimum outcome for that goal. maybe i need another way to look at this?

i was reading a book on using data to drive decision making. "super crunchers" as a good title to catch my eye during the pre-flight book selection process. the book was interesting, but i was hoping for math or technical sides to data analysis and presentation. the audience it targetted less at data architects and more social scientists. that's fine, i have a poli-sci educaton and my work is more about people than systems right now anyway.

in the final chapter the author makes a strained connection from the book to a website he and his friends had created. i found the conversation out of context, but none the less interesting. stickk.com is all about making and keeping your resolutions. the site and new years came together in time. maybe using technology would help in the success of resolutions, the simple idea is that you should commit to the goal, and have someone monitor you. if you like, you can then put your money where your mouth is, put a "contract on yourself" and pay off when you inhale the nicotine you know you are addicted to (or slip on whatever front you know you will slip on).

the site says:

i like the idea, i need goals which are easy to messure, and a data guy building a website to track process on decisions makes alot of sense to me. i like working against MBOs or KPIs that are simple and direct to measure. so, resolutions like:

• exercise more
• learn to play music
• do things i enjoy

are just not strong enough for me. what does "more" mean anyway. "almost never" is "more" than "never" right? given where i have been for the past 8 months, it wouldn't take much to do things "more" than i have been.

so what about resolutions like:

• lose 20 lbs
• run a 10K race
• read at least 2 books every month
• write code and a blog every week
• learn one song on guitar a month, prove it by playing it in public

these are much easier for me to measure and know that i am either failing or succeeding at. i am almost a month into the resolution season. i have done little or nothing on any of these. i started this blog 24 days ago, i have not been able write anything other than email and reviews in three weeks. i have run once, i haven't cycled or swam in months, i have picked up one of my guitars three times, no new songs have been learned.

i have a break for the next few days. as you can see i am writing. it feels so good to have the words flow again. i was sitting in a cafe yesterday and read a best life article that argued eating chocolate before a workout helped the author both exercise harder and to eliminate writers block, something about the endorphines and mood alteration. eating chocolate to improve exercise might sound counter-intuitive, but "eat fat to lose fat" worked for me better than anything ever has.

if this year is going to become unblocked and is going to have some balance, i am going to need to try some solutions that seem counter-intuitive. i may also need someone to monitor me in a stickk way. i am going to need to let go of work-life balance, and work on the KPIs. last year's goals were written this year during review season. this years goals need to be written now.

looking back and reviewing myself on the actual accomplishments is not the way for me to succeed. it might bring a good review on paper, but it was not the success i wanted, just the one i ended up with.

so the bullets above are my resolutions for this year, who whats to monitor?