2017 Goals

Last Saturday I visited my friend Eric. He showed me a cork board full of pinned post-it notes. On the board, a sign: ‘2017 goals’.

He said: “you inspired me to set my own goals”.

I felt happy and surprised. Eric inspired me to share my own 2017 goals.

I spent the first weeks of January thinking about this. Last year I set goals using the SMART method and it served me well: I reached three out of four… a needed ego boost, I must confess.

Hereby I’m announcing to whom it may concern my five 2017 goals.

 

1. Run 10km in 42 minutes

In Italy we say ‘fatta la legge, trovato l’inganno’. It means literally ‘when a law is made, a way to circumvent it is found too’, but equivalent to the English ‘laws are made to be broken’.

And when in 2016 I set a goal to run 1,000 km, my mind started working accordingly. My mind was only thinking about distance.

Well, I can’t blame my mind for trying to reach a goal I set myself, but we know that our mind can be our enemy.

Every training aimed to accumulate kilometers, to contribute to the total mileage.

Even if I became faster, (I did my 10K PB) it was a side-effect of running more often than I ever did, rather than the result of the training. I didn’t train to get faster. Every time I was going out for a run, I was thinking quantity over quality and most of the sessions were steady moderated 8K run.

This year I go the other way. Screw distance, I want to improve speed. Bring it on with fartlek, intervals, and sprints.
Let’s bring in some pain.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPSWqoWBR25/?taken-by=danielebesana

I was with my running buddy and friend Marko at De Zotte, a great Belgium pub in Amsterdam, when after a Kwak and before a La Corne the idea came up.

Hands were shaken, and a south European promise was made: let’s run 10K in 42 minutes!

My current PB is 45:25, so I have to improve it by 3 minutes. That means shaving off 18 seconds per kilometer.

Achievable? Yes. Realistic? Yes. Easy? Nope!

 

2. Dedicate 3 hours/week to Write

Originally this was ‘publish a piece of content a week’. Then Fabrizio (a psychologist (not mine) and mastermind member) pointed out that using the SMART approach with creative goals is tricky.

While I can push myself to go out and run 30 minutes when I don’t feel like, I can’t push myself to write an article in 30 minutes if I’m not in the mood.

Makes sense?

On the other hand, I already tried the ‘I want to write more’ new year resolution. It never worked because, as we now know, it’s not following the SMART approach.

The new approach is to focus on the process that helps the creative goal, not on the outcome.

This year goal is to reserve time every week for creating content.

I’ll start dedicating one evening a week. I know that evening may not be the best time of the day. I know people that prefer to dedicate the first hours in the morning to this, they say are the most productive hours.
I may change this but I like evenings as I can fully concentrate for three hours in a row.

A piece of content can be a blog post, a video (let alone Snapchat & Instagram stories), an audio (like a podcast interview), or some other mediatic operation I can’t conceive yet right now.

This material can be related to any of my projects, personal or business related. Here a few projects I’d like to create content for:

• This very own personal blog;
• VivereAmsterdam, a blog about living in Amsterdam (and The Netherlands) in Italian;
• The WP-OK blog;
• RouterFreak, my blog about networking and geeky stuff.

So far I published:

1. 2016 Year Review
2. Come raggiungere Amsterdam partendo da Roma
3. HTTPS: cos’è e come aumenta la fiducia dei visitatori (written 4-hands)
4. Come raggiungere Amsterdam partendo da Milano
5. this article 🙂

 

3. Read 12 books, at least 4 business-related

I keep this goal same-same as 2016, but different. This year I want to read more business-related books, at least four out of twelve.

Some books I’d like to read:

• From Last to First: A long-distance runner’s journey from failure to success
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
• Tools of Titans
• The Camper Van Bible
• Content Machine
• Flightless: Incredible Journeys Without Leaving the Ground
• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
• DotCom Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Company Online
• The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

 

4. Reach 17% body fat

I’d like to weight 75kg but I reached 80kg. But what if the added weight is muscles?

Well, I can tell you it’s not my case, but it’s a valid question 🙂
Losing weight by losing muscles is probably the easiest way, but not the desirable one.

That’s why I set a goal to reach 17% body fat from the current ~20%.

No idea how – suggestions are welcome even if I feel that I’ll have to cut down on this:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPATaABhg_P/?taken-by=danielebesana

 

5. Travel a month with a camper

I had a Volkswagen van a few years ago, and I’m still in love with big vehicles. Plus, I’m location independent and I like to go basic.

A camper seems the logical evolution to travel around Europe combining the freedom of a road-trip with the comfort of a mobile house.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOKY-umBwrq/?taken-by=danielebesana

I’ve been investigating the world of campers (yes, it’s a parallel world!) and it’s a fascinating one.
Hanny likes the idea very much so I hope we can tour around Europe this summer.

Goal: travel a month with a camper.

 

That’s it for me. What are your goals?