I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I know that I look forward to getting back to the business as usual and that starts today. For us anyway, school starts again tomorrow and my wife is back at work.

There is a lot said about New Years and resolutions. It seems like a thing that people kind of do half-heartedly. I remember reading a newspaper story one time that said something like 50 percent of smokers set quitting as a New Year’s resolution. Of those, ten percent succeed.

This is not a commentary on the validity of peoples desires but I go back to my short series in November with the comment “You have to Want It”. Setting meaningful goals requires effort. It also requires a methodology to succeed. We can call them resolutions if you like, but for the last five years I have set yearly goals in January.

Here is a tip, set goals that you think you can achieve. Also, look for activities that will make you feel good at the same time. For instance, I like to set (rifle) range goals and then I plan out each month. Last year was an abysmal on my success rate because I only got to the range three times instead of the twelve that I would have liked.

My strategy is to pick one personal item, one business item and one hobby item. If the particular item can be done in less than a year, I set more until the year is filled up. Here are some examples of goal that I set in in the past.

  • Learn to reload cartridges
    • Month 1, pick a recipe, watch YouTube videos, read the manual
    • Month 2a, shop and buy components
    • Month 2b, clean and prep brass
    • Month 3, make first cartridges
    • Month 4, test fire at the range

All of that could have probably been done in one week. But by spreading the work out it sort of extends the fun and makes it less likely that it will get dropped by interruption in the one week sprint to do something. For instance, when I started building the reloading bench, I spent a heavy week in the shop only to have the cat have kittens in the shop and it took two years for me to get restarted on that project. When I got back into the work, it probably took me another heavy week to complete. Meanwhile I was moving wood out of the way for years.

Since I was off all of last week, I really didn’t spend the time to formalize my goals yet this year. That is part of what I am doing now. I would have to say that this is a go-no go year for AltF4.co. As much as I enjoy doing this, it takes up to three hours a day to write. That is time that I may or may not have when I have inevitable re-employment. It is sad to say, that I wanted this to be my job but as of now, it makes no money. As much as I like writing, I also like working in the yard and the shop, my son has a car that he would like help with, I like to hunt and fish and all that takes time.

Here are my goals for 2021

  • Q1 – Solidify branding and develop a marketing plan for AltF4.co
  • Q2 – Develop and implement a membership program
  • Q3 – Replace at least one blog post with a podcast a week
  • Q4 – Generate positive revenue

My goals for 2020 were a little less structured.

  • Practice posting routinely, determine if I wanted or liked that sort of commitment.
  • Move from free WordPress to my own domain
  • Don’t get stuck in the Toolbox fallacy

Accountability is part of being successful at goal-setting as well. You guys will be able to see my progress as well as I can throughout this year and then you will be able to judge whether I am going to make it or not. In the end, I may just decide to throw it all out and keep doing things the way I do them because I like it. But then of course, I won’t make this my profession.

A real forward looking and self-aware person knows that failure is part of success. Failure allows us to reassess our skills and desires into the most productive and happy person that we can be. I have to admit, that I thought that I would get traction quicker than I have, that was more about naivete than anything. One of these days I am going to figure it out.