2014 came and went, it’s now 2015. This is the moment we traditionally make plans and resolutions for the coming year, so I figured I’d share mine with you. Some of them are not new, others are. Some of them you already know of, others perhaps not. Either way, here goes:
- Get my health back. After years of deteriorating health, I was finally diagnosed correctly and had surgery about three months ago. Since then, I’ve been doing loads of rehab and recently also solo training to fix all the problems. Progress is slow, but steady. The one thing that amazes me is how extensive the changes to my movement patterns have become in the last few years. Now that muscles that had atrophied completely are finally working again, I’m slowly teaching my body to do the most basic things like walking or standing upright correctly. Getting back to optimal physical shape will be my main focus this year.
- Clean house. Because of the previous, a lot of direct and indirect problems arose in both my personal and professional life. It’ll take some time to get all that fixed, especially in the first few months. Once things are back on track, I’ll have more peace of mind and extra time.
- Finish the book. Because of my health issues and then surgery/rehab, I didn’t write nearly as much as I wanted. I just didn’t have the energy for it. Now that’s behind me, I want to finish the self-defense tips book as soon as possible. If all goes well, it’ll be done around mid- February.
- Improve writing productivity. My plan is to each time finish a “big” book, send it out for review and editing and in the mean time write a “small” one. By the time the big one comes back, the small one should be ready for review too and I can alternate working on them. The goal is to clear my head after I finish a manuscript, to help get a fresh look when it comes back to me. If this works out, it should increase my output a lot.
- Work on my blog more. Writing was hard the last year and as a result, I didn’t publish much here on my blog. That’s going to change. I might not get back to the 2-3 posts per week like I did a few years ago, but once a week should be doable.
- Shoot more videos. As I get in, better shape, I’ll make more videos again. They’ll probably go to my Youtube channel for the most part but I might put them on social media too. The Youtube ones usually take a lot of editing and sometimes I really don’t have the time for that. But the social media ones can be done quickly, even though that means less of a finished product. Either way, you get to see more videos.
- Try new things. I want to try out some new ideas on-line that look like fun. The first one will be a webinar where I do a Q&A session with you all. The second is starting up a podcast, probably a monthly one. I’ve looked into the technical aspects of both and it should be doable to do the webinar soon and the podcast in a month or so.
That’s it for the things that have a direct relevance to my on-line activities. Contrary to what some think, I do have an off-line life as well and have goals for that too:
- Travel. So far, I’ll be in the US in a few months and in France sometime this summer. Mostly when I travel, I am either teaching seminars or private sessions. The seminars aren’t always open to the public, but when they are I’ll let you know. Also, if I have additional time and you want to set something up, I’ll mention that too. Other than that, I plan on doing some traveling to train with my teachers.
- Visit friends. I’m unfortunate in that most of my friends live across the world from me. I don’t see them nearly as often as I’d like, so some of the traveling will be to see them again. Life is short and spending it with people you love is the best use of your time.
- Learn more Japanese cuisine. My lovely lady lived in Japan for several years and she has been teaching me to cook, bit by bit. One of my goals this year is to improve my cooking. First and foremost because I enjoy it; Japanese food is by far my favorite cuisine. Second because my kids love it too and it gives me joy to see them dig in with enthusiasm when I put everything on the table. I already achieved that goal today, by the way, as I made onigiri for the first time. Not much of a challenge, I know, but it’s one more recipe I have under my belt now…
- Write more fiction. I wrote some short stories last year and had a tremendous amount of fun with them. I want to do a lot more of them and then release them as a compilation. After that, I’ll start on my urban fantasy series… Featuring an MMA fighter… And vampires… And lots more…
All that together means there’s a lot on my plate, which is fine by me. It’s going to be a fun ride and you’re more than welcome to join me on it here or on my social media.
mechanoid says
“So far, I’ll be in the US in a few months…”
Any chance you’ll be in Portland, Oregon?
I’ve been to a few training sessions with Rory Miller and see that you have his work included in one of your books.
Wim says
Yes, there’s a chance. Not sure yet but I might go that way.
Rory’s a friend. He’s a great instructor.