Archive for the ‘Goals’ Category

Remembering 2017

January 1st, 2018

All of last years blooms have gone and died
Time doesn’t give a reason

2017 literally began with my heart being broken on the night of January 1

I traveled to Boston for work twice

I traveled to Las Vegas for Adobe Summit Digital Marketing conference for one last time. While sitting at the airport to waiting to board, I found out my grandpa had passed away

I traveled to Boston for a week of work, and Scotland for a week of work, with a week in between spent being a tourist at a family reunion in Barnoldswick, Holland, And Belgium

I went to a Liverpool vs Crystal Palace English Premiere League Game

I went to a Manchester City vs Everton English Premiere League Game where I got to see Rooney play

I went to 2 games at Fenway Park

I went to a Celtics game at the Garden

I went abseiling off of a giant building in Rotterdam

I visited with friends I met on a cruise 15 or so years ago

I met many great people, kissed many great ladies, and saw many great sites. I drank many great beers, wines, and cocktails

I was promoted at work, and now am a people manager

I killed all of my work goal numbers

I saw many great live music shows

What will 2018 hold for me? What do I want it to hold?

Commissioning A Symphony In C

January 1st, 2015

I place stock in songs I hear randomly. There was that time where I heard the Screaming Trees sing Nearly lost you that came on during the car ride to a break up. Then there was the time that a song triggred an emotion, which triggered yet another song. We all have songs that take us back to a person, or a moment. There is Crazy 4 u by Madonna. There is the Dog Days of Summer by Florence and the Machine. I remember vividly 5th grade and doing homework in the laundry room and talent show tryouts anytime I hear Paul Revere by The Beastie Boys. I think of my junior/senior year in high school when I was trying to determine what college to go to, and therefore the rest of my life, while Disarm by The Smashing Pumpkins played. The Sarah’s, Adam’s and Michael’s of the music world are the Sextons, Yeats, and Shakespeares of our time and I apply their words, knowledge, and emotions to my life.

The first song I hear in a new year when I press shuffle, is a sign of how life will transpire in the next 365 days. There is a lot of pressure to this fate. But is it fate or ordained?

Today is January 1, 2015 and I went for a run, as people are want to do today. Or at least the day after. The passing of a year brings with it reflections, regrets, hopes, depressions, and a flurry of nameless emotions. New Year’s eve always brings me a strange level of reflection (and typically some Counting Crows). You may be many miles away (or sometimes even in my own city) but I miss you. What would you change in 2015 from your 2014?

there’s things i remember and things i forget
i miss you
i guess that i should
three thousand five hundred miles away
but what would you change if you could

Today is January 1, 2015 and I went on a run today. When I run there is clarity of mind, levity of thought, and words that are dying to exit my mind’s trap. I don’t write much on this blog anymore, as the guards have made the trap more difficult to escape. I wish there was a clearer path, route, existence. Anyway circling back yet again, I put too much faith and fate in the lyrics I hear, and their timing. Today when I pressed shuffle and began shuffling my feet down the sidewalk in this cozy RB town, the song Commissioning a symphony in C by Cake came on. And now I am left to decipher its meaning for my life.

So you’ll be an Austrian Nobleman
Commissioning a symphony in C
Which defies all earthly descriptions
You’ll be Commissioning a symphony in C

With money you squeeze from the peasants
To your nephew you can give it as a present
This magnificent symphony in C
You’ll be commissioning a symphony in C

Completely filling the palace concert hall
It’s warm and golden like an oven that’s wide open
It has a melody both happy and sad
Built on Victoria’s young triads

You’ve entered the room with great caution
Though no one in the hall is even watching
They are transfixed
They are forgetting just to breath
They are so taken by your symphony…
In C

You’re sitting there thinking your thoughts
They are not about what is but what is not
You are sitting there breathing in your breath
You are seldom breathing life but mostly death

So you’ll be an Austrian Nobleman
Commissioning a symphony in C
Which defies all earthly descriptions
You’ll be commissioning…
A symphony…
In C

I am not going to be an Autrian Nobleman – but maybe I will be doing something important, or something that leaves meaning behind, like a symphony.

Maybe i’ll be a great uncle to my nephew, but maybe I will be using my nephew to hide from my misdoings.

2015 will be a year of both happy and sad melodies. There will probably be tears, laughter, hearts broken, and hearts healed.

I enter into 2015 with great caution indeed. Every year could potentially be my last. There is always potential of the final time.

But it is the last stanza (is that still a thing) that I think i’ll take the meaning from

You’re sitting there thinking your thoughts
They are not about what is but what is not
You are sitting there breathing in your breath
You are seldom breathing life but mostly death

Whether it be new years eve, fresh starts, new jobs, old friends I am often focused on what came before, or what is not. It is my brain’s natural tendency. I have gotten well accustomed to it. As big as a downfall as that might be on my emotional state, it is also a part that stimulates other good parts of my brain. I am well aware of who I am, and this is part of it. Don’t read this and then preach at me. I digress. Sometimes I let this get too much of me, and I then am breathing death.

So for 2015, my resolution is to be more intentional in stimulating thoughts about what is, versus what is not.

The next song that came on was Here I Am by Skid Row

It’s main line is

Here I am
Close your eyes and I’ll be Superman

So it looks like 2015 I become a super hero. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.

2010 Goals

December 8th, 2009

Will you be calling it “Twenty-Ten?” or “Two-Thousand and Ten?” or my new favorite, “010” (oh-one-oh).

I have never been a big proponent of New Year’s Resolutions, or more generically of goal setting.  I have learned over the years that life doesn’t always go the way you expect it or hope.  I have adjusted to life by being adaptable, not getting stuck on any one thought or idea, and having the flexibility to change directions.

I have created goals these past few years, but staying with this go with the flow type attitude, I have kept them generic yet worthy.

I have decided that every year I am going to have the goal to get in better shape:  mentally, spiritually, and physically.  This is a generic enough goal, but also a goal that has deep substance to it.  Although pithy, it is a goal that I can always strive for and feel good about.

However, all that being said, I think this year I am going to box myself in a little bit more, and create goals that fall within those categories;  Actual specific outcomes to help  me get in better shape in those categories.  I will try to keep them realistic and reachable, so as to not overwhelm myself and give up.  And the physical goals are dependant on a healthy body (I go in for a knee MRI tomorrow).   Baby steps towards measured life improvement.  Also, since some goals could perhaps be covered in multiple categories, I won’t separate them.

Get in better shape phyisically, spirtually, and mentally-
In no particular order:

  1. Read one book during the year
  2. Read one chapter of the bible twice a month
  3. Go to church one time per month
  4. Post to Snide Remarks two times per month
  5. Go for a run or walk two times per month
  6. Go to the gym two times per month
  7. Volunteer one time for the year
  8. Review my finances two times for the year
  9. Write one card per month to a loved one
  10. Look to further my career once every two months
  11. Practice guitar two times per month
  12. Practice piano two times per month
  13. Do twenty-five push-ups a month
  14. Do twenty-five sit-ups a month
  15. Have a child
  16. Call my grandparents four times for the year
  17. Complete four of my “big” projects for the year – those items I always seem to be pushing off
  18. Donate money two times for the year
  19. Buy one new song a month
  20. Floss one time a week

I have been thinking over some of these for the past few months.  I should have written them down then.  I reserve the right to add to this list if I recall them.

This Week I'm Thinking About: Jason Roth