Fiddle's long-term log

[fiddle-on]

OK, I'm going to post a tracking thread for long term stuff, and because I've rethought the whole leveling up thing. I've never really liked it because I don't like trying to shoehorn real achievements like asking for a raise into fantasy-game categories like intelligence, wisdom, or charisma. But then I realized, if I don't like those categories, why not make my own?

I'm setting up a scale with Learning and Professional Development, Athletic Performance, General Health, and Life skills. I thought about an Appearance or a Social Life category, but I honestly don't care enough about appearance to bother, and social skills fit fairly easily under either learning and professional or life skills, and 5 categories is already kind of complex. If you're copying the idea, though, you might want to adjust the categories to your own priorities. For example, Athletic performance fits pretty well under general health.

 

Learning and Professional Development: Any academic knowledge, and doing things at work to promote my career. So this includes both learning to ask for a raise, and collecting plant specimens to identify when I hike for my own entertainment.

Athletic Performance: any sports and physical training related goals.

General Health: Currently about weight loss, but it could easily fit other health related things if I needed it. Injury recovery could fit here, or athletics, and this is probably a good spot for any chronic disease issues.

Life Skills: Everything else. Things like house keeping, budgeting, and a social life. I gave myself a point here for starting to negotiate on my Craigslist purchases, then used the same skills to ask for a raise at work for a LPD goal.

Personally, I like to earn points fast, but leveling up too easily kind of kills the point of it. So I'm going to start with 20 points per category per level, and adjust as needed.

I'll be posting my long term goals later. Short term and intermediate stuff may continue to reside primarily in the challenges.

[CyclingMimi]

Sounds good! You obviously took some time to think about this.

[fiddle-on]

Here are some very long term goals. And I do mean long term. Of the six, only 4 of them could conceivably be finished in the next year, and only two are likely (the weight loss and the small business, if I get motivated). But they've all got easier milestones along the way to may progress easily trackable. All goals are subject to change without notice or regret, as the situation warrants.

 

- Lose enough weight that I can fit into size 8 or 10 pants. I'm at a size 14 now, and short term, I'm focused on getting to the point where my favorite black pants fall down. (They were two tight in December, now they are a little loose.) I'll be happy if I can lose a pound a month all year on average. With that, I'll be out of the overweight category in a year. As opposed to 2015, where on average, I gained a pound a month and got back up to my lifetime high weight.

- Run a marathon. Due to plantar fasciitis, I'm not running at all right now. I had been up to about 2 minutes, but when my foot started hurting again, I stopped. So the earliest I'll be able to do this is next year, and for practical reasons, I'm hoping for next fall. I'll be looking for a race where there's a half and full marathon option.

- Do pull-ups. The small group training gym I'm at right now has everyone working towards doing pull-ups, which is cool. I'm currently doing TRX rows, but they are getting distinctly easier. I'll probably move to assisted pull-ups in the next few months.

- Start my own business. This is going on the back burner for a while. I asked for (and got) a good raise, so I'm enough happier at my job now that the extra work in starting my own business isn't worth the trouble. We'll see about the future.

- Bike 2,000 miles. I want to buy a small folding bike, because I live in a tiny apartment and have a small car. This would let me drive places and bike more easily. But I've already got a decent bike that I use around town and can fit in my car with 5-10 minutes labor, plus a nice road bike at my parents that I never use because I'd have to drive 20 minutes to get to it. The folding bikes I'd like are in the $1500-$2500 range, and fold small enough that I could have the folder and my road bike at home. So I'm going to keep riding the bike I have, but give myself a dollar towards an equipment fund for every mile I ride. Right now, I usually ride 10-20 miles a week except in winter, which will get me the new bike in 4-6 years. Since I'm impatient, I'm going to try riding more. If I can get that up to 100 miles a week, I can get the bike this year. Any random, un-needed equipment I buy gets paid for out of the bike fund, so it's starting at $-30, thanks to a new bike computer to track mileage and a few other purchases to qualify for free shipping.

- Be able to swing a 24 kg kettlebell. I can do an 8 kg now. I'd say 24 is years away. By the end of the year, I'd be happy to be using a 16 kg bell.

I want to update this thread at least once a month.

 

A level tracking sheet will be added whenever I get around to it. :-P