In January of 2021 I committed to some New Year’s resolutions: spend 15 minutes per day learning Spanish, workout 3 times per week, shoot my bow 3 times per week, read 73 books, and stay off tobacco. This is my progress so far in the year.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September
October 2021
I’m back! This month was way, way better than August or September, both of which kind of sucked.
Week 1: October 03 – 09
Somehow I missed a day of Spanish. I don’t know why it was such an ingrained habit for the first five months of the year, yet seems so difficult for me to keep up with now. Otherwise I’m back in the game with a strong week.
- Spanish: 85.7% (missed one day)
- Workouts: 3/3 – Workout A on the 6th, Workout B on the 7th, Workout C on the 30th
- Bow: 3/3 – 24 arrows on the 6th, 30 arrows on the 7th, 24 arrows on the 30th
- Books: 3 – Good Day: The Paul Harvey Story by Paul Batura, Learn to Drive Like a Pro by Anthony J. Scotti, Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant
- Tobacco Free: YES
Week 2: October 10 – 16
I don’t know how I managed but I missed another day of Spanish. I just woke up the next day and immediately knew I’d forgotten. I did get 3 workouts. I only shot my bow two days due to my work schedule, and rain on one of my days off, but I’m really prioritizing working out. I’m happy with this week.
- Spanish: 85.7% (missed one day)
- Workouts: 3/3: Workout A on the 11th, Workout B on the 12th, Forest Service Arduous Pack Test (opens to PDF) on the 13th,
- Bow: 2/3: 48 arrows on the 12th, 30 arrows on the 5th
- Books: 1 – Take a Nap! Change Your Life. by Sara Mednick, PhD
- Tobacco Free: YES
Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
~Robert Collier
Week 3: October 17 – 23
Not a banner week, but not terrible. On the two days I actually had off this week we drove three hours away for a quick little vacation to catch up with an old friend. I did what I could and I’m pretty happy with it.
- Spanish: 100%
- Workouts: 2/3 – 100 KBS on the 17th, 8.5-mile walk on the 20th
- Bow: 1/3 – 24 arrows on the 21st,
- Books: 3 – When All Hell Breaks Loose by Cody Lundin, The Guest List by Lisa Foley, Hate, Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes us Despise One Another by Matt Taibbi
- Tobacco Free: YES
Week 4: October 24 – 30
Slacking off again a bit this week. I’m having a very hard time finding time to shoot the bow. It rained on my days off and to be honest, this is the least important thing so it feels somewhat expendable.
- Spanish: 100%
- Workouts: 2/3 – Workout A on the 26th, 8 hours of construction work on the 28th
- Bow: 0/3 – Bow shooting was the first thing to go this week. That’s OK – I got the important stuff done.
- Books: 4 – The Lost Art of High Performance Driving by Ross Bentley, The Ballad of the Green Beret by Marc Leepson, Surveillance Countermeasures by Aden Magee, Casca: The Eternal Mercenary by Barry Sadler
- Tobacco Free: YES
Wrap Up
I lost some momentum toward the end of the month, but honestly it wasn’t a terrible one.
