Goals as an Artist and a Human 2016

I got my wisdom teeth taken out this morning and being the stubborn kind of dude that I am, I feel 100% fine. That might just be the Percocet talking, though. If this post turns out to be just a big ol bowl of word salad, I'm choosing to blame it on the painkillers giving me confidence, but not ability.

Back in late January I wrote up some goals for the year but looking back I found that they're not really very quantifiable. Lots of "do better" and "try harder" and things of that nature. While it's nice to have that vague encouragement/scolding guiding me towards being better, results come from concrete goals.

Here is my #1 goal for the year: Don't run out of money and end up homeless.

That probably seems like a joke, but it's an actual thing that I am very afraid of. I've had too many times where a bunch of things exploded at once and my finances melted away. This year I will be cautious and I will pour money into my savings account to shake off my fears.

#2. Write and Film Three Sketches.

I've always wanted to write sketch and I know how to do it now. Let's say that vines count for 1/4 of a sketch. It's a low bar, but I've literally never written and filmed a sketch of my own before.

#3. Spend at least an hour every day off reading, writing, or learning a new skill.

I have a tendency to sit around and not take advantage of the time I have to myself. An hour on an off day is not a huge commitment to ask, but it is a big step in the right direction for me. I also know that productivity begets productivity, so I'm banking on that hour turning into more time pretty regularly.

Some ideas of skills that I'm working on: writing sketch, writing jokes, playing guitar, juggling, dialects, and celebrity impressions.

#4. End the year with 125 total posts on the blog. 

Made the goal I didn't succeed at last year harder. YOLO. Gotta commit harder to writing regularly!

#5. Spend 20 hours a week doing something related to the business of art. Teaching, improv, writing, performing, etc.

I am probably sitting at around 13 hours a week right now, but I need to expand or dive in deeper to something in order to eek those last 7-8 hours in.

#6. Do something nice for somebody every day without expecting to be repaid.

You get out what you put in and I want to make people feel happy when I'm around. I already kind of make it a point to be kind to people when I have the opportunity and ability, but I think it will be helpful if I look at it as a thing I'm setting out to do every single morning. At the very least, it'll keep me from starting the day off being salty to anybody.

#7. Read 15 books in 2016, watch 15 New Movies, watch 5 shows I haven't seen before.

Improv requires that my pop culture knowledge be up to date and living a full and happy life means that I need to be expanding my brain and finding new things to enjoy. Books and movies are most important to me as they are more often referenced than TV shows that I don't already watch, but all three categories are valuable. Video games should probably be included at the same level as TV shows.

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All right, these goals feel better. I'm stickin to them! Do you have any big ideas of things you want to do this year?