Plans of the past and the future

For the past few years I have written out a list of goals for the calendar year, and while 2019 was fairly successful, last year obviously went off the rails a bit. Well, we are now back to January, so new plans for a new year.

This is a quick look at how things went last year and a preview of the year to come. My goals for 2021 can be found at EricHarty.com/2021

Running

2020 was the first year since 2013 where I had not run a single marathon. Lots of races got canceled, although I did manage to run seven trail races. For 2021 I am already scheduled to run a few events that were deferred from last year, but there is some uncertainty if they will happen. At the very least I anticipate a more normal racing schedule in the fall.

Travel

Obviously a global pandemic was bad for travel plans, but I did get in a trip to the Adirondacks to climb a few mountains. Short term things are not looking great for 2021, but I am keeping international travel on my list even if it comes across as a bit of a reach this year. I am also committing to more local travel such as getting to both Letchworth and Niagara Falls.

Coding

I was two for three on my coding goals last year with most of my success coming on the Android side of things. For 2021 the focus will be on iOS, giving me a use of the fancy new M1 laptop I bought late last year.

Books

I went two for two on reading last year (and the year before), so for 2021 I am pushing out my goal for three different titles.

Movies

Don’t let me claim that watching movies is one of the more difficult objectives for the year, but after going 7/7 in 2019 and 11/11 in 2020 I am increasing my list to 15 films for 2021.

Music

Listened to plenty of new music last year, but after seeing Thrice in February the opportunity to go to concerts suddenly disappeared. I am keeping the goal for the coming year at two concerts, but this may be a bit outside of my control.

Cooking

Stuck in quarantine should have been a good time to try new recipes, but this ended up being one of the most disappointing categories for me last year. Homemade empanadas was my final completed goal of 2020, but turned out to be a huge success, and something I have already remade in the early part of this year. For 2021 I am keeping all of last year’s misses and adding a few new recipes as well.

Home Improvement

New for 2020 this was a very successful category, with me completing three of my planed four tasks. However, that doesn’t even include the complete remodel of my shower at the end of the year.

For 2021 I have some even bigger plans for the roof and the deck, but the first task of replacing a faucet is already complete. Additionally the trees that didn’t get planted last year should have a better success this year as we will hopefully avoid a lot of the uncertainty that plagued last spring.

Altruism

Charitable giving was on pace last year, and I am targeting to give even more this year. Additionally for 2021 I am committing to donating blood and attending protests, both of which I did last year even if they were not explicit goals at the start of the year.