Setting Goals for 2008 and Looking Back
It’s that time of year- reflection time. Cliché? Yes. Necessary? Indeed.
Inner realization is catalyst to self improvement.
I honestly tried as hard as I could to find a quote to support this, but ended up pulling out the proverbial thesaurus and laying it down. You may not need some random quote, but I really like the colour of my blockquotes. Back on track…
What was set for 2007
I delved deep into the full extent of the archives (… January) to find those goals I made for 2007. There weren’t any! I did set goals month to month but I never put down any solid long term goals to reflect on come 2008.
The reason for this? I didn’t think I’d still be doing this for more than a month or two at the most. After putting my $9.95 stamp on the internet in October 2006 (not for the first time, mind you, but this time my name was involved) I went through a series of different sites until some howI managed to find my way back to WordPress (the original plan) on January 13th, 2007.
Looking back at that post, I get two things that come to mind:
- I couldn’t write to save my life. I racked my brain for the ultimate intro post and that’s what I got.
- Mike had the first comment and has stuck around ever since. That’s pretty awesome, I’d say.
Back to my totally optimistic attitude towards maintaining a blog in January. Not even two weeks into things I already redesigned. Luckily I decided to write some digg bait and that got me going.
More Early Observations
It is reflection time, so I might as well lay ‘em on thick. This one I couldn’t resist. From the post “Snow Day? Finally…” (you just know it’s a deep and insightful post):
Well it’s about time that I wake up in the morning to see a think layer of snow and freezing rain on the ground
The entire global warming thing has been pretty apparent here in southern Ontario for December/January so far and it looks like it’s finally snowing and getting colder. Not that thats a good thing, because I was enjoying the break from winter (hate it) and some cool/crisp weather was a lot better to me than snow and shoveling. I haven’t shoveled all year! Thats always good.
First thing that is apparent to me: my “early works” are riddled with smiley faces.
Next, on a personal note on behalf of all those in Southern Ontario: I’ve shoveled the snow off my driveway a ton of times already this year, and these “snow days” you hear of? There’s been 4 so far. This is a month before last year when all this happened. We just happened to be recovering from the supposedly worst snow storm to hit South Eastern Canada since the 70’s.
Now try and tell me about global warming while I’m moving hundreds of pounds of frozen water from my driveway 
2007 as a whole
Personally, and for my quaint little piece of the ‘net, it was a good year. For the latter, the only year, however. The former managed to get out on three occasions to some live music. While that may not seem like much to some, I could’ve lived with only one. The second was a pretty awesome bonus, and the final was more or less a spontaneous decision that couldn’t of turned out better.
The first saw my favourite band, barre none, Dream Theater on their Toronto stop. Not much can compare of the experience of that. Later that month Rush came back home to Toronto where me and my Dad went as a Father’s Day gift. Never has a gift benfitted the giver so much!
Finally, a few weeks ago Bon Jovi came to town and we managed to get 8th row seats online. It might seem like a weird choice compared to the first two, but let just say Jon and Richie blew the doors the two previous acts.
Enough Personal Stuff! Blog now!
So far 2007 has seen around 250 posts and 1,563 comments. I never would have thought I could make it past the big one-zero in terms of post count, but it looks like things worked out pretty well.
Six or so designs, averaging less than 2 months each, brings us to the current one that will stick around for a while. Seriously. For many reasons, mainly because I like it and really don’t feel like going through the personal design process again for a long time.
Realistic Goals
I’m all about goals that are actually attainable, though I’ve been found guilty on multiple accounts of aiming lower that I know I can achieve.
Come 2008 I’m going to be less about the numbers and more about just writing. I’d be lying if I said I still didn’t care, so here’s the big, all encompassing goal:
Improve. If I end the year on 134 readers (like today) and have 135 at the end of 2008, I’m happy. If I post 250 times this year, I’ll post at least 251 times in 2008. It’s simple and attainable. I like it.
This month has seen the content stream dry up after I promised it would flow. I know it, you know it, and as of right now there’s not much I can do about it. My blog can’t come before client work or even school work (which needs to move up the chain this time of year). With the holidays even more time is shifted away from potentially sitting down and writing something.
All that aside, a new leaf is turned come 2008 and hopefully under that leaf is a ton of new posts.
Leave a comment
Mike
December 18th, 2007 at 11:18 PM
Great post! I am still here I remember all the previous layouts even when you were going to code your own cms. You have come along way as a blogger in 2007 keep up the good work!
Its time for me to start thinking about some goals for 2008 and start looking back on 2007. Theres some things I think I would have done differently but they are all in the past now. I am looking forward to what the future brings.
Keep up the good work have a good x-mas and a happy new year if I dont leave another comment before then!
Mike
Rob Schultz
December 19th, 2007 at 12:01 AM
Ah…looking ahead at 2008. I just started to do the same thing for my sites.
I love that your first realization was that you aggressively used smiley faces early on. It made me chuckle.
I bet that you can aim higher in 2008 as long as you stop changing your theme every two months. I myself have the exact same problem, and found that when I’m not worrying about the sites layout (I quite like your current one) the posts seem to flow a bit more naturally.
Congrats on a successful year and heres to an even better new year.
Rob
Henry
December 22nd, 2007 at 5:58 AM
Nice post, i’m going to set some targets for 2008, doubt i’ll meet them though. Best to aim high than aim low, e.g. aim for an A and get a C, aim for a C get an E.
Congrats on the year!
MrCorey
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:29 PM
Its been an interesting year watching your writing. I hope that you will follow through with more, ensuring that you don’t concentrate on the numbers. I haven’t, and my visitor count is over 800 unique daily. Concentrate on the writing. It will come and flow. You have talent. Do what comes naturally.
Freebies Online
January 1st, 2008 at 12:58 PM
More writing! I like this blog, but I am a little disappointed in the post frequency.
Plumbing Course Andy
January 4th, 2008 at 12:44 AM
Looking forward for more great posts in your blog the 2008.
Well, I guess it’s time for me also to set my goals for this year. May we all achieve the goals and expectations we have for this year! More good things to happen this 2008!
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