What can you challenge yourself with to be the best you? Here are mine.

A photograph a day.

In my "year in review" post I mentioned I got into photography. For 2019 one thing I want to do is take a picture a day. There are a few things I hope to achieve with this:

1. I hope to get better at composition and framing.
2. I hope it challenges me to explore more.
3. Give me a portfolio of stuff to hopefully sell/create monetary options.

To follow along, check out my flickr. I hope to move all the content to my own site soon. Just gotta buid it.

Read 52 Books

I used to be a huge reader. I would crush a series of books in no time as a kid. I have sadly fallen off in recent years, so I hope to pick that back up. The first three books of the new year are:

1. Jurassic Park (holy shit so good)
2. Into The Wild
3. Simple Path to Wealth

There is no real method to the madness here. I picked up Jurassic Park cause it caught my eye. As for Into The Wild, I loved Jon Krakauer's recount of the 1996 Everest Diaster in Into Thin Air, so I hope this will be a good read. Simple Path To Wealth is a book I've heard references on countless FI/RE podcasts and interviews. I love JL Collin's style of discussion. Even keeled, soft spoken but authoritative in the realm of wealth and investment, I think this will be a game changer.

To follow along, check out my goodreads

Two new blogs

As I referenced above, I want to move my photographs to my own content management system for a few reasons. Mainly I want to control how it is shown, and should something happen to flickr, I don't want to scramble to get my images.

The other blog will be a personal finance blog aimed at developers. I've tweeted about it a few times and the response is always "yes please". As I read a lot of 2018 review blog posts, one thing mentioned was getting the finances in order but very few people know where to start. I hope the aim of my blog will be a mix of good foundational starting points as well as more advanced topics like FI/RE, investing, real estate and more.

Look for these, I will be tweeting and posting about them as they get close to be done.

Walk more

I live in a great area of Nashville. There is a coffee shop .5 miles away, a brewery .3 miles away and an excellent sandwich shop .5 miles away in the opposite direction. There is no reason for me to drive other than I want to waste resources. So a challenge of mine is to walk more, be more in the community I am apart of and enjoy it. A side effect is hopefully some weight loss.

Weight loss

I've struggled for years to lose weight, or rather be motivated to lose weight. I am not getting younger, but I have plenty of time to enjoy life and feel better. I am to do this through better eating, less garbage like soda, more walking, more cycling, and maybe running. Maybe.

Remove the last of my debts

I have two loans right now. A student loan at $6,000-ish dollars and a personal loan for $8,000-ish dollars. These suck! It's a weight just hanging over you. I want them gone, so they will be. I've spent the morning running numbers and preparing myself for a financially healthy 2019. These should pave the way for my net worth to grow, and free up money to pump into stocks like VTSAX.

I aim to talk more in depth about all this on the financial blog I mentioned earlier.

Loose ends

I think this covers it. I am working on being happier, more confident and more at peace with life. 2018 was a struggle at times for various reasons. I gained weight, destroyed some relationships (dating and not dating), and basically was just down on myself the whole time. I am a good developer (sometimes), and I have things to offer but I can't offer them if I am not at my best.

So 2019, come at me. It'll be fun.

See ya!