What’s up everyone? I hope everybody had a warm and restorative holiday break. This article is somewhat of a follow up to my 2019 Year in Review. I honestly had a great 2019 and I hope to build on my successes from last year. In this piece, I lay out my overall thoughts for moving forward in the new year, as well as my specific goals for 2020. Let’s talk about that word, goal, a little, shall we?
First of all, I believe that goals are just signposts along your journey. As many do, I often set goals for myself around this time of year. However, I recognize that these goals are just a means to an end, a way to gauge progress, and something to strive for. They are “events” as MJ DeMarco would say. They are most effective when used as a way to strengthen your process(es). When you reach them, they won’t necessarily make you happy or fulfilled, but rather they necessitate that you set a new goal. This iterative process of making goals, improving until you reach them, and then setting a new, higher goal is what leads a person to become better and move forward in life. Just understand that although goals can be great, we can’t forget to enjoy the journey and the process. That being said, here are my overall areas of interest and their associated goals for 2020….
2020 Areas of Interest
Website
Fitness
Learn a New Skill
Maintain Positive Habits
Finances
Dragon Lab
2020 Goals
Website
– Increase website viewership to 500 page views per month by April 1st
– Create high quality content, 1 article per week min to start
– Increase Instagram engagement to 1K+ by end of year, post daily
One of my primary goals in 2020 is to devote more time and energy to this website and turn it into something I can be proud of that can actually serve and inspire people. In order to do this I’ve set some tangible goals that should move the site in the right direction. I recently watched a Youtube video from the guys at Income School. They stated that new bloggers should be constantly publishing new material for their blog and recommended aiming for 50 posts within 3 months. Ho-ly. Crap!
I am so thankful for this reality check. I’ve had my standards set pretty low and it is very motivating to have a high bar to aim for. That being said, I want to ramp up to that kind of pace and start by proving to myself that I can handle something smaller first (while also having a job). I’m still being conservative here aiming for 1 article a week, but that’s the minimum I’m going for. That would give me a total of 12 articles published by April 1st, including this one. I will strive to put out articles at a faster rate than that but will adjust down the road if needed.
Primarily, my main goal here is to put out a TON of great content, and my page view goal is there to assess how many are reading the content. I’m assuming here that the page views per month will go up as I add content, but if that turns out to not be the case I will re-evaluate in April.
Other than Google search, the only other way I’ve been letting those out there know that this site exists is through Instagram. If you found your way here from IG, then welcome! I hope you like the content you find here. Please feel free to leave a comment on an article to let me know how I’m doing, or send me an email at upgradedragon@gmail.com.
All of the articles in the world are not going to make any kind of impact if no one is reading them, so I aim to increase the Upgrade Dragon account presence on IG to about 1K followers by year’s end. I may look back at the end of the year and laugh at this number, but only time will tell. So here goes! My plan here is to simply post quality content EVERY SINGLE DAY, either through traditional posting or the stories feature.
At the same time, I am really trying to improve the quality of my photos, videos, and captions. Improving photography and videography could be a whole goal in itself, so I think my challenge here is to not get too swept up in trying to be perfect at those things just yet, lest it take away time from other pursuits that are of a higher priority.
Fitness
– Gain weight (hypertrophy) through January, maintenance through February
– Beginning in March, cut to 10% bodyfat while maintaining strength gains
– Hit new PRs in Squat, Bench, Deadlift by the end of the year
– Experiment w/ new exercises/techniques, rings work, Olympic lifting, metcons
Last year, was all about rebuilding myself and getting back to previous strength levels, while also improving weak points and prioritizing injury prevention. This year, I feel like I’m in a good place to improve on where I’m at, set some new PRs and achieve my strongest physique yet!
Right now, I am still in the middle of a hypertrophy block (guidance from Juggernaut Systems), using higher volume to put on some muscle. I started in October at about 152 lbs and currently I am sitting at about 163 or 164 lbs. I plan to ease into a March cutting phase by doing a month of maintenance in February. I’ve never had a six pack in all my life although I’ve come close. Will this be the year? I don’t know but I feel like I’ve been building some good muscle and have raised my caloric maintenance level to higher than it’s ever been. On the other hand, I think I’ve gained weight a little faster than I should’ve, about 1 lb a week. That’s okay though. I’ve learned that I need to dial it back and next time I bulk I will aim for ½ lb per week which should slow the fat gain.
I’m already very close to my all-time PR numbers on the three main powerlifts, which are as follows-
Squat – 315 lbs
Bench – 240 lbs
Deadlift – 365 lbs
I may pass those in the beginning part of this year (fingers crossed). If not, I’ll keep trying for them and should hopefully increase them by the end of the year.
This last goal is an important one for me, which is experimenting with new exercises and tools to better diversify my fitness and become more well-rounded as an athlete. We recently acquired some Rogue Monster bands as well as a set of Olympic rings and I’m already incorporating these into my workouts. We also put together an Olympic platform in the garage gym, and I hope to eventually start training the Olympic lifts again too. Finally, I basically haven’t done any cardiovascular training or metabolic conditioning in about three months. I very badly want (need!) to reintroduce those methods into my training and expand on them by trying out different workouts that I find online. Should help with the winter fat gain as well, lol.
Learn a New Skill
– 2020 will be the year I finally “learn” Spanish (by being able to converse with my mother)
– Remain open to practicing other skills as time allows, but focus is on language learning
Long have I yearned for the ability to speak a second language! I always think of Jason Bourne when I think of someone who speaks multiple languages fluently. The scenes of him in the Bourne movies effortlessly slipping into another language are super cool and inspiring. I love the idea of becoming a polyglot and being able to access the words and phrases needed to communicate almost anywhere in the world.
Let me be a little more realistic for a second though. I haven’t even learned a second language (yet). If I ever hope to be able to speak multiple languages, I have to start with learning a second one, so my major skill focused goal of 2020 is going to be learning Spanish. Not only is Spanish one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, but it is also my mother’s native tongue. I’ve felt somewhat embarrassed throughout my life to be half Hispanic and not be able to speak the language. This year I am committing to working towards fixing that.
One of the best ways to learn to speak a second language is to completely immerse yourself in it, which is what top language learning institutes practice. I don’t exactly have that option, but I do plan to speak to my tutor (my mother, lol) as often as I can. In addition to that, I will be using the following resources to aid me in this endeavor.
Resources
– Pimsleur Spanish audio discs
– The Mango language learning app
– The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Learning Spanish
– Other online resources I can find
I plan to use the Pimsleur discs on my work commute every day, which is about a 40 min drive one way. I got my feet wet at the end of last year with the first set of Pimsleur discs, which I checked out from the local library. I like them because one, they teach you through listening and speaking, and two they ask questions and you give responses in real time (mostly).
I’ll use the Mango app daily to strengthen my retention at home. I’ll converse with my tutor several times per week and use the other resources as needed. I don’t expect to be fluent by the end of the year or anything crazy like that, but my goal is to be able to have short conversations comfortably in the target language by year’s end.
Maintain Habits
– In addition to working out regularly, I’ll continue to read daily and meditate
– Keep playing music
This section is kind of a catch-all for all those habits and behaviors that I’ve already been doing for the past year or longer. I want to keep these habits going as I feel they add value to my life and keep me moving forward. However, I’m not too concerned with trying to do more or expand these habits in any way.
I read very consistently last year (pretty much every day) and that is at the top of my list of habits I wish to maintain. There’s something so incredible about reading that I can’t imagine dropping off and not making it a priority anymore! Nearly every time I sit down to read, even if it’s just for a few minutes, I experience a new idea, an old favorite, or I get inspired in some way. It fuels my drive to continually improve myself as a person. To say it’s been a lot of FUN would be an understatement! Last year, I read 23 books. Technically some of these I listened to, but most were read. I probably would have reached a higher number completed, but some of these were pretty long at 600+ pages or so. I am going to set a number to aim for here at 35 books by the end of the year, but more so because I think it’s just likely what will happen. I’m not putting any pressure on myself to reach this number.
I also began meditating last year. I purchased a subscription to the Headspace app after I saw a deal they had going and I’ve been pretty happy with it. They have tons of courses available and I’ve completed a handful of them. I don’t feel that I’m great at meditation/mindfulness yet, but I am getting better and I do generally feel better when I do it. If you’ve read my Keystone Habits article, you’ll see that I aim to do this daily. That hasn’t really worked out and I’ve been using the app more like 4 times a week or so. I need to update that article, but in the meantime, I’ll try and meditate as often as I can. Currently, I’m happy with just ~4 times a week for now.
Lastly, I aim to continue to play saxophone and piano, but since I want to be realistic about what I’ll have time for, I’d be happy to play each instrument once a week or so. Other than that, I’ll aim just to focus on the basics and enjoy playing music without any goal of improving a specific area. The last thing I’ll say about this though, is that since I’ve been a professional musician for most of my adult life, I kind of naturally hone in on things to tweak and fix as I’m playing anyway. I’ll probably naturally do this each time I play, just focusing in the moment, but without any pressure to improve from session to session.
Finances
– Investigate moving accounts away from a financial planner
– Create and implement an Annual Budget
– Save $1K and start a Roth IRA with Vanguard
– Come up with monthly and end of year target goals for large emergency fund, retirement savings, and education accounts
Oh my, we’ve got some work to do on this finances section, lol. Actually, none of this is too complicated, it’s just a matter of making time to map these things out. I’ve almost already decided on moving our accounts and managing them ourselves as I want to understand our investments better and have more control over them.
We’ve been doing a monthly budget for a long time and obviously that is essential to staying on track with financial goals. However, I read this past year that it is a good idea to come up with an annual budget as well. This makes sense to me, and my wife has already created one which we’ll just need to review together and tweak as needed. I am looking forward to reviewing it as it should give us some good targets to shoot for and the thought of seeing big numbers accumulated by the end of the year is very motivating!
I’ve had a retirement account set up at work since I began, but I’m ready to take it to the next level here and set up an outside Roth IRA as well. I love that the number in a Roth account is what you’ll actually have, rather than knowing a large chunk will disappear due to taxes.
Dragon Lab
– Outfit the garage gym with stall mats, bumper plates, a high-quality flat bench, and a high-quality all-around barbell
– Save up for a Rogue Echo Bike by the end of the year
– Continue to add extra equipment to give the gym more options and enhance the training space and atmosphere
– Spruce up the aesthetics of the garage
– Outfit the lab space by mounting a small monitor, purchasing a stool, and improving storage and organization
In our garage we’ve started a garage gym, and in addition to this there is an adjacent area with work benches and shelves. This section is all about bringing to life the vision I have for this “Dragon Lab” space-
A creative thinker/maker/athlete’s dreamspace, with room and equipment for training as well as exploring other hobbies and skills such as woodworking, and combining it with an atmosphere conducive to creative work and relaxed focus.
The above goals are pretty self-explanatory. I plan to add the initial line of items first as they are more of a priority. Then I’ll focus on implementing the rest. This will happen little by little over the course of the year, and I will definitely get whatever I can from the used market.
I don’t want to say too much about improving the aesthetics, but I am really excited about what I have planned and how it will look and feel when it’s all completed. Stay tuned for some quality pics and nice, crispy video footage!
Conclusion
If you have not taken the time to sit down and work out your goals or intentions for 2020, I HIGHLY recommend you do! Go ahead and actually write it all out! Something about the thought process and having to work out the minutiae while putting it all down will make your goals and plans feel more tangible, more exciting, and more motivating. It may even feel a little bit scary writing it out, but it’s also more empowering and may just give you the fire you need to ACT on your goals now! Thanks for reading and here’s to a truly happy and productive New Year!!!
