New Year, New Plans (Update)

At the beginning of 2014, I wrote about 25 goals I want to accomplish before my 25th birthday. My goals are things I wanted to do for a while, but always seem to be on my back burner. Since I set these goals Alison and I have focused on them and I am on track to complete my goals before I turn 25. 

1. Return to my mission - completed: 4/22/14 – 4/27/14, Alison and I have talked about going back to my mission many times and this year we finally just did it. We had an amazing time visiting my old areas/places I loved during my mission. (Oakland, Dublin, Livermore, Stanford, and Capitola) I enjoyed seeing many great friends and reliving many great memories.

2. Complete my bachelor’s degree - nearly complete, This summer is my last semester for my bachelor's. It has been a difficult semester, but it is almost halfway over. I am so excited to finish this goal so that I can start the MAcc program this fall.

3. Visit a new baseball stadium - completed: 4/26/14, during our trip to the Bay Area we went to a game at the Oakland Coliseum and AT&T Park (home the Giants). Both games were a blast. They also brought us two stadiums closer to our goal to visit every baseball stadium.

4. Run a 5K - completed: 4/19/14, we ran the SLC 5K and walked in the Race for the Cure. Both were good experiences. Last year, I watched Alison run some 5Ks and it was cool to see her reach her goals and be so happy. It was much more fun to run with her.

5. Learn to Ice Skate 

6. Write in my journal at least 4 times a week - so far, so good, on my mission I wrote in my journal every day and I thought this would be a habit I would keep when I got home. School, romance, and life quickly got in the way and I completely dropped this habit. Last year, during a special promotion, I downloaded the Day One app. It makes journal writing easy. My journal is stored in the cloud and I can access it anytime on my phone, iPad, and computer. I can also upload pictures. This is my favorite app and it keeps me on track to reach this goal.

7. Cook a fancy and romantic dinner for my wife - completed 06/02/14, Alison and I celebrated our third anniversary recently. I really wanted to do something special for her so I cooked a nice, romantic dinner for her. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it.

8. See a musical I have never seen before - planned, this year Alison and I have season tickets to the Hale Center Theater. We will see a couple musicals I have never seen before so this goal should be pretty easy to complete.

9. Learn to golf - completed 3/14/14, I have talked about doing this for a couple years (One night we watched Tin Cup and I have been talking about it since then). I knew I could go out on a course and start hitting the ball, but I wanted to do it right so I signed up for lessons. Alison actually decided to take lessons too. We went through a guy named, Chip (great golf name) Thorpe, and his company Straight Flight Golf. It was a good experience. I really enjoyed golf. Alison not so much. Now I could go out and play with some of the guys from work and know what I am doing.

10. Read the Book of Mormon - in progress, this is one of Alison's goals this year and we started reading at night. We haven't been as consistent as we should. We will need to pick up the pace if we want to finish reading the Book of Mormon this year.

11. Go with Alison to a new art museum

12. Reconnect with an old friend

13. Attend Music and the Spoken Word or General Conference

14. Find the name of an ancestor, learn their story, and take the name through the temple - in progress, a couple of months ago I started working on this goal. With Debbie's help, I was able to find a lot of names in my family line that needs the work done. Now Alison and I need to get to the temple and do their work. 

My reading list keeps expanding and this year I was determined to knock a few books off my list. I stayed focused and I have already read all the books on my list:

15. Read Driven - completed 1/31/14, Driven is one of my all-time favorite books. Larry H Miller lived an inspiring life. He wasn’t perfect; in fact, he faced many challenges in his life, but he didn’t let his challenges stop him from achieving great things. It was an inspiring story. 

 
16. Read Steve Jobs - completed 05/05/14, This was the longest on my list (I actually started it once two years ago and didn't finish). I am glad I finished reading it this year. There are a few lessons I learned. 1. Take care of your health. This year I read two books (Driven and Steve Jobs) that are about great visionary men whose lives were cut short by neglecting their health. I want to stay healthy so that I can live a long and happy life. 2. You don’t need to be perfect to do amazing things. Steve Jobs accomplished so much and he still had a lot of problems and some pretty big faults. I can be successful by working through challenges and faults. Steve Jobs was able to do what he needed to when he needed to do it and was able to be very successful. 3. Focus on creating quality and everything else will fall into place. Steve was not worried about money or results as much as he just wanted to create a good product and a great company. Focusing on the details of the product and the big picture of the company allowed him to be successful. 4. Never neglect family. The biggest regret Steve Jobs had was that he neglected his family during his career. At the end of his life, he built a better relationship, but he lost a lot of good years. I will make sure I don’t lose sight of the most important thing in my life – my family. 

17. Read The Godfather - completed 3/29/14, Alison read this book last year and raved about it. I love the movie and decided I needed to read this book. It didn't disappoint. From page 1 I was hooked. I think I read the first 1/3 of the book without putting it down. The book was even better than the movie. 

18. Read Casino Royale - completed 01/02/14, Last year I got interested in James Bond and watched all of the movies. This year I decided to try the books. Casino Royale is the quintessential Bond story. It has intrigue, fancy cars, a complicated love interest, and espionage. The story started out quite slow, and I didn’t really think I would like it. By the end, I enjoyed the story as much as any Bond movie.

19. Read Eight Men Out - completed 12/30/13, Eight Men Out is one of the saddest books I have read. It is the story of the events before, during, and after eight members of the Chicago White Sox decided to throw the 1919 World Series. Reading this book the history and future of baseball. It was a riveting story and I could hardly put the book down.

20. Leave a 100% tip - completed 4/24/14, completing this goal helped me make good on a much older commitment I made to myself. While I was serving in Palo Alto I would often eat at Indochine. The restaurant was owned by a member of the church and missionaries at free. The food was good and the service was always great. The waiters would never let us give them a tip. I always thought that if I came back I would give them an awesome tip as a way to thank them for their service. Alison and I went to Indochine in April and I have then a 100% tip. What really made it great was that the same waiters who served me on my mission were working there that day.

21. Go home teaching every month - so far, so good. Since Alison and I have lived in our ward I have not been very consistent with my home teaching. This year I decided to be more consistent and so far I have reached my goal of going every month. 

22. Ride on a zip line 

23. Learn to play a new board game - completed 2/1/14, I didn't even realize that I completed this goal at the time. Alison and I went over to Kristin and Dan's house and learned to play Settlers of Catan. It was a lot of fun, and since then Alison loves Settlers of Catan. 
24. Hike to Delicate Arch

25.Find a cause I am excited about and volunteer - completed 4/10/14, I found two ways to volunteer. Project Youth and Literacy Action Center. Both were amazing experiences and I found a lot of joy in being involved with these programs. 

So far 2014 has been an amazing year so far. Alison and I have had tons of adventures and new experiences. I am looking forward to finishing off my goals.