A busy week ahead with lots of goals to be met. I’m going to force myself out of the house more. Rumor of some snow later in the week might provide some weather shots I didn’t get a chance to take advantage of in December due to flu.
Something to brighten your evening. I hear that cold wind blowing outside but I’m thinking warm thoughts. Photo by Mike Hartley
It hasn’t been the most productive day of the week yet, but there are still 6 hours left to finish strong. It’s been a good week. Got a few dozen prints made and uploaded images, took care of some computer issues, read a bit, learned a lot, played with Canva, spoke to friends and made plans with family.
I’m trying to take the whole of days into account when I think of what I hope to accomplish. That is taking exercise and rest into account when summarizing a week now. This was a well-rounded week. There were a few restless nights, but also a few with good sleep.
I worked on my photography and writing mostly, so I’ve neglected to increase my painting skills or lack thereof so far.
This week is going to be even better. I started to push myself a little harder yesterday in the exercise area and I’m keeping it up today. Now to stretch it out all week and make it routine.
Random Thoughts of the Day
Another day, another test of this country’s morality.
Had a great beef stew this evening.
Talent isn’t always natural. Sometimes it comes from a lot of hard work.
Blindly following lies seems to be a difficult path to walk.
I don’t make resolutions, but I do take the beginning of the year to refocus, renew efforts, rebalance or start over. And then of course it’s always wise to maybe drop things that weren’t productive or fun.
Coming off being sick for a bit this month I feel especially inspired. So, I’m off to enjoy the last hours of 2025.
Physical
In 2025 I got off to a strong start regarding exercise. Spring and Summer were active and even early fall, but after that I fell off the table and got slack. Grade for the year C+. So, I fired up the treadmill earlier this week and that will again be my daily companion till the weather warms. I’ve also decided not to measure distance but in time, walking, jogging or lifting weights.
Photography
This will be my primary focus. I believe the saying goes practice makes perfect. I’m going to set aside 3-4 hours a day minimum to shooting and editing. More if possible.
I could fill a post with just things on the list to learn. My own equipment to start with. Lighting and different aspects and areas of photography. Like more street shooting and many more.
Then there are the printing goals and building out the photo site on Zenfolio.
There are several projects I hope to attempt both shooting and presentations.
Writing
I hope to Chime In on many topics for the coming year here in the blog, but I’ve got to get going on the books I started to write. So those two will be competing for my time all year.
Nature plays these. Photo by Mike Hartley
In terms of my written communication, I will probably continue to keep the pace I have now. I write to my children a few times a week. My friends fairly often and even extended friends periodically.
Arts
Well, if I’m increasing time spent on my other hobbies I might as well declare that here also. And given I did more drawing and painting in the last few months of 25 than anything previously I might be on a roll there.
Food
Oh yeah, I love to eat. So, you will see me sharing those great meals more often. And I’m committed to getting in the kitchen more often myself.
Focusing and Results
Lots of ideas and weak execution. Time to change that dynamic. I’ve been enjoying the flexibility of retirement and maybe spending time on the wrong things.
A Happy New Year to you and wishes for good health and happiness in your lives.
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself? – I answered this question from the daily writing prompt last year in a post called Goallll. And all of that still holds true today.
I’m going to add two more. The first is my goal of becoming a working artist in my retirement. I’m doing average at it so far but that might be a generous assessment. I’ve always known good work takes time. And time is what I’m not devoting to what is needed to achieve that goal.
I didn’t realize how busy retirement is. Doctor’s appointments, watching grandchildren, home and garden work and many more all keep the schedule packed.
The second goal was overcoming something a lot of us deal with but don’t talk about. I learned about depression at an early age. How I’ve chosen to overcome it over the decades haven’t always been the best choice.
It did become a goal that I knew I would either overcome or keep control of. I’ve been blessed with a good memory. That is both a blessing and a curse. There are some difficult events that leave me shaking today when recalled. Luckily, I have more good than bad memories.
Just keep that mindset to keep battling whatever it is. There were periods professionally where it was very difficult to work with some managers making the love for what I did difficult. We’ve been married a long time, and you don’t go through decades together without difficult times. But our goal was forever, and we have stuck to that.
As we all do we adapt. Either that or sink. And it is easy to give up and sink. I’ve occasionally been under water myself. More accurately alcohol. But that is a problem solved from the past. I stopped drinking to kill myself decades ago.
I’m not sure if I consciously thought about overcoming depression or just got to a point where something was really eating me and I made the effort to turn it around with a new goal. Whatever works for you, do it.
How do you plan your goals? – Asks the daily writing prompt again.
I plan goals day to day, minute to minute, thought to thought, conversation to conversation, idea to idea, feeling to feeling, season to season, impression to impression.
Also scheduled around the kid’s needs for help or watching grandchildren or pets. And around our health and funds available.
This is an interesting 2025 WordPress Challenge. To relate my experiences during 2024 and hopes, dreams and goals for 2025. It is always good to start a new year with some challenges.
This past year, was my first year of retirement. And what a year it was. It was the first year in decades I’ve been able to enjoy every holiday because I didn’t have to work on any of them.
2024 has been a wonderful year. It’s beat my expectations. I was worried about having transition issues from that intense job focus to my own goals, but it turned out to be simple.
I have gotten to enjoy my family immensely. Being able to spend more time with friends. I’ve started down the road of actively pursuing my hobbies. The progress on home and yard projects picked up dramatically. I worked my ass off this year but what I do now is not work anymore.
We ventured to new local spots and favorite locations throughout the year. My health has held up and my friends have also. I’ve been catching up with some old friends and making new ones.
I’ve never been prouder of both my children than I have been in the past year. And their children remind me to keep looking at life with wonder, like a child does.
Dreams, I hope to make come to life in 25. – A few words I am thinking I need to incorporate to make that happen.
“Attitude” – Live for today. Time to run through those walls now before they leave a mark or prevent me from moving forward. No sense waiting for my health to fail.
“Love” – The coming addition to the family will certainly remind me of the preciousness of life. I’d like to spread some love to people and organizations that need help. And of course increase it to those around me.
“Image” – In addition to publishing images here daily I’m really going to build out my photo site and work on videos to add to the YouTube collection. My goal of daily shooting will begin today.
“Sponge” – I want to get back to being a sponge for knowledge. I’ve gotten lazy and I need to stay even more challenged mentally as I age.
“Daytripper” – We are going to be active again this year. I have a list a mile long so every week it will be an adventure.
“Beach Bum” – I am going to wear a path between Ocean City and my house this coming year.
“History” To go through some more family history and learn. For instance, a few thousand slides.
“Car and Driver” – I’m going to get a little more seat time this year in the Miata, and maybe do a modification or two. It’s going to need a new exhaust so that will be first this spring. Then maybe a few handling mods. As the group Little Feat say, “Let it Roll.”
“Dust” – If I have my way, I’ll be creating a lot of sawdust carving and etching in 25.
“Easel” – I got an easel for Christmas, and this means no longer hunched over on the floor or table. I can sit upright and draw away.
“Reader” – I do read a fair amount, but I let myself down in terms of what I hoped to accomplish last year. This year that will not be the case, this is one of those scheduled activities now.
“Writer” – Another area I was slack on. I need to finish writing that book this year.
“Risks” – I will be taking some more risks here and in life.
“Schedule” – I’m hoping it will help me with both production, quality, consistency and enjoyment in this and other endeavors like my exercise.
“Powerhouse” – No, not the energy bar. I’m going to turn next year into taking care of some needs of our humble abode. I have more than a dozen so far that are significant home and yard projects that I’d like to complete before June. Some I will have to hire out and others I’ll be attacking.
Being our family celebration is postponed I had some time to PLAN.
For 2025 I hope to take many steps here and elsewhere in my life to improve. I hope to work much harder at ideas I’ve been flushing out and execute them.
A few of the words I’m thinking I need to incorporate into my 2025 plans.
“Risks” – It’s time to take some more risks here and in life.
“Schedule” – I’m hoping it will help me with both production, quality, consistency and enjoyment in this and other endeavors like my exercise.
“Love” – The coming addition to the family will certainly need me to turn up the Papa Factor. I also have to spread some love to the local pet shelter. And do a better job with my better half and children.
“PowerHouse” – No, not the energy bar. I’m going to turn next year into taking care of some needs of our humble abode. I have more than a dozen listed so far that are very significant projects that I’d like to complete before June on the home and yard. Some I’ll have to hire out and others I’ll be attacking.
“Sponge” – I want to get back to being a sponge for knowledge. I’ve gotten lazy and I need to stay even more challenged mentally as I age.
“DayTripper” – Yep we are going to be out and about again this year. Hopefully even more than 2024 and we were more active than we had been in decades. So why not build on it.
“Attitude” – No sense waiting for my health to fail. Time to run through those walls now before they leave a mark or prevent me from moving forward.
“BeachBum” – I’m going to wear a path between Ocean City and my house this coming year.
“History” I have to go through some more family history and learn. For instance, a few thousand slides. Also some old papers from my father.
“Car and Driver” – I’m going to get a little more seat time this year and maybe do a modification or two. It’s going to need a new exhaust so that will be first this spring. Then maybe some handling mods. As the group Little Feat say, “Let it Roll”
“Image” – In addition to publishing here daily I’m really going to build out my photo site and work on videos to add to the YouTube collection. My goal of daily shooting will begin today and not stop till I can’t hold a camera or see through the viewfinder.
“Dust” – If I have my way I’ll be creating a lot of sawdust in 25. I’ve got to move that activity outside. It will save cleanup time.
I’m going to be a bolt of energy this coming year. Photo by Mike Hartley
Do I wish I had retired earlier? Yes, but I didn’t do the right things to make that happen. So here we are, a bit older but inspired to have an opportunity of a second chance at pursuing my artistic interests that I set aside early in life.
I didn’t put any restrictions on anything when I retired on the last day of 2023. I needed to unwind for a few months and take care of both financial and medical transitions. I was just going with the flow for the first 4 months of the year. I allowed myself to be lazy at times. I picked the pace up after that in both our travels and my hobbies. It’s not till recently that I’ve added some structure and dedicated time each day to move my hobbies along and exercise regularly.
The secret is to keep busy with them. When I run into a creative block or tire of one discipline, I move on to the next. Secondly is to do them every day. I’ve learned this with exercise. Trying to do it piecemeal I fail at it every time. If I don’t make it part of everyday it doesn’t happen.
With that being said, it’s not like I didn’t get a lot more active in these pursuits throughout the year. For instance, this blog. I will over double the number of views this year over any of the previous 10 years of blogging. By working on more content and hopefully better quality it might be on the way after a slow start.
I don’t put a lot of weight on stats so maybe it’s not completely accurate. It could be the volume of posts I’m making. The previous high for the year was last year at 404. With 14 days to go, I’m at 758 posts so far this year.
I’d like to think some of it was better quality, but I won’t make that leap of faith yet. I know I haven’t invested in being found except for WordPress. I don’t market or publicize my blog. Hell, some of my friends and extended family aren’t even aware of it.
Doing it helps me grow. It gives me purpose and goals. And when I create something, I like or that someone else likes the effort is well worth it.
Feeling like it’s very important to make use of every opportunity. Photo by Mike Hartley
Did I meet all my goals this year, not quite but I exceeded some and others I was a bit behind. I’m going to spend the next few weeks organizing for 2025. The list for home/yard improvements is complete for the first half of 2025. A lot of my personal goals for the year are done. I’ve got a fairly long list of state spots to visit and some out of state ones also.
I’ve completed the list for blogging goals and now I’m starting on my photography and woodworking goals. This year I’m also starting something new. I want to do something special with each grandchild. Something they will remember. Maybe a new tradition like a hike or and activity. Maybe a ballgame or two together or whatever Something new that would make that lasting impression on them.
It’s going to be another year ahead of change. One of my best friends might be moving further away. Family members are looking at homes also. We had a good bit of changeover in the neighborhood last year and there might be more this year.
Like they say, the only constant in life is change.
Refueled and ready to obtain victory today. I’m off and ready to go after a slow start to the morning. Probably the effects of being with friends, for the Lakers game, and some late-night work.
Hopefully, there’s time to fit in a bit more photography today. A few early afternoon errands and then grilling out later today.
It’s all in the tank. Photo by Mike Hartley
I’m excited about the coming week. I’ve set some hard goals and will work hard each day to complete them. The first task is to complete a pastel piece I started a few weeks ago. I’m also going to finish 1 charcoal piece.
I have a few hundred images to upload to the photo site today. I hope to go through the pack of 50 sheets of paper I just loaded into the printer and maybe more before tonight. So off I go to the hobbies I love.
Random Thoughts of the Day
Reaching out is risky. But it’s always worth it. For nothing else than your peace of mind.
The right time is now. Regardless
An opinion is just that. Now a strong feeling is something to think about.
A very cool day in late April is not to my liking.
