The Official Lifestyle Goals 2012 Thread

[TheBoss]

(04-10-2012 09:03 PM)TheBoss Wrote:  

(03-09-2012 06:37 PM)TheBoss Wrote:  GOALS

1. Get a new, better job (By April 6th)
2. Get in a better shape (arms: 13.5 inches to 15 inches; waist: 33 to 31.5) (By June 1st)
3. Learn basics of HTML, CSC, Java. I might go back to school in May or September to do Computer Programming. I already graduated with a degree in Economics and Finance, but having a hard time to find a good job.
4. Get involved in a hobby with social aspect

STRATEGIES


1. Create profiles with various job agencies. Call recruiters and try to meet them in person. Apply to at least 3 jobs a day.
2. I already go to the gym. Been slacking the past 2 weeks. Was doing a program called stronglift. Put up a lot of power in my legs, getting bored with the program. Going to switch to : http://oldschooltrainer.com/3-day-push-pull-legs/
Also my diet is shitty, I cheat a lot.
3. Learned a bit of HTML already, pretty basic stuff so far. Should spend at least 4 hours a week on this. Also, should apply to the program for May.
4. Not sure what to pick. I want to pick something that I'd enjoy, but what would also let me meet some babes.

1. So things have been going quite shitty for me lately. I recently quit my job. I could not take the bs I was getting anymore and they also had to lay off 30 people. The new goal is to find a job by May.

I have been applying like crazy since I quit my job. I got called in for an interview yesterday. The HR rep told me she would send me a confirmation email, which would have the address and the person interviewing me, but she never did. I've tried calling her back ever since, but kept getting her voicemail.

2. I am back to doing strong-lifts. I have been getting some compliment about muscle that I have put up. My diet still needs cleaning. It's hard to resist cravings at times.

Thinking of going swimming once to twice a week. I really enjoy swimming, I wasn't doing it before, because I was afraid I might lose muscle mass.

3. Learned a bit , but not much.

4. Nada.

The only goal I accomplished, was that I have not smoked in over three weeks. I did not want to put that goal here, because at the time I thought I would not be able to follow through with it.

I'm at a pretty confusing place in my life. I'm not sure what I want to do career wise. I'm thinking of going back to school, but don't want to waste more time and then not find a decent job again. Also, don't want to go further in debt. My student loans aren't as much as most people, but I hate having debt and I'm going to start paying them back shortly. I think I need to sit back and evaluate all areas of my life, then come up with an action plan on how to fix them.

1. Got the job

[Halo Effect]

Great job! Congrats.

[Pineapple]

1. Continue No Porn.
2. Go 60 days without smoking weed.
3. Have a summer job by May 1st
4. Study at least 2 hours a day no matter what.

These two have been accomplished (don't see porn ever being part of my life again, and got the 80% average).

Unfortunately, I failed to go 60 days without weed, so I'm starting from the beginning again. Waiting to hear back about jobs.

[Nick]

(04-18-2012 01:54 AM)MoussakaMan Wrote:  I'm one of those people that every now and then makes a todo list and never sticks to it so if I bitch out or change half my goals, I hope you guys call me out on it. I have no intentions of bitching out, and I removed the unrealistic goals so hopefully there will be no changes.

The Goals
1/ Get a job (by May 31st)
2/ Get a drivers license (by July 31st)
3/ Get down to 100kg (by September 1st)
4/ Dress well/Buy some good quality clothing that fits well (by June 30th)
5/ Go 60 days without masturbating (16/04 - 16/06)

Strategies
1/ Get a job:
I'm going for the typical low wage blue collar jobs like waiter, barman(doubt I could), shop keeper, etc...

• Write out a 1 page CV to start
• Start talking to people at businesses I frequent about vacancies/jobs/the job market/etc...
• Start approaching businesses about a job
• Work my way up to approaching 10 businesses per consecutive day until I find a job (I don't know if this is sustainable or even attainable but I'll just have to try)
  

2/ Get a Drivers License:
I'll have to renew my learners license if it's expired, start lessons again when I get some money (should be before month end but who knows), and book a driving test after the first lesson (my undoing previously).

3/ Get down to 100kg:
I used to weigh 100kg this time last year but in a space of 6 months I jumped to 113kg and I've stayed there since then. The below list is a work in progress, I'll add an extra workout once I've figured out something sustainable.

• Walk to the beach (3-4k there + 3-4k back) twice a week on consecutive days and swim my heart out.
• Don't eat any food when high.
  

4/ Dress well/buy some good quality clothing that fits well:
I'm going for the minimalism approach, save money and keep my life simple. I'll need to shorten a pair of jean I already have, buy shades, a cap, two pairs of woolen socks and boxers, go T-Shirt shopping with a friend who has already volunteered, and finally repair my current pair of shoes or completely replace them.

5/ Go 60 days without masturbating:

• No brainer - don't wank
• Use filte.reddit & K9 web filter to block off pornographic material (already done)
• If I find myself viewing risky material, I'll have to tighten my K9 web filter settings. Worst case scenario: I give my password to a friend who has already volunteered.
  

I'm going to add another item to this list because it is more important than most of the other items I listed and it should have been listed to begin with.

6/ Goal: Complete "that" programming project (by September 1st):
Strategy:

• Read 20pages (minimum) of Head First Design Patterns per day, I should be finished by 25th May
• Once the above is done, spend 4 hours a day (minimum) working on the project while I'm still unemployed, 2 hours if I find a job
• DO NOT START OR RESTART ANY OTHER PROJECTS until this project is completed.
  

----

Progress:

Quote:3/ Get down to 100kg (by September 1st)

So far so good. I've walked to the beach daily since Sunday, though I haven't been swimming yet. I'm down to 110kg though that is well within my typical weight fluctuations. I think I'm going to smash my goal date and reach 100kg around July some time.

Quote:5/ Go 60 days without masturbating (16/04 - 16/06)

This is incredibly easy. My energy levels have done a total 180° turn since starting this challenge (for the second time). I am taking control of my life for the first time in my life. If things keep on being half this great, I intend on never going back. I'm starting to have the perspective that masturbation crippled me to an extent.

[FirstAidKit]

Okay, I have some new goals:

1.) Book two holidays by the end of July. First one is pretty much planned (BERLIN!), the second I need to decide on as it looks like I'm going solo.

2.) Read a book every two weeks. Got kindle, no excuse for not doing this one anymore.

3.) Go to the gym 3 times a week for 3 months. I've hit a pilates class 3 times now and it's fun. Addendum: Do some hamstring stretches every morning and night because mine are just ridiculous right now.

[IdEngager]

(04-27-2012 06:33 PM)FirstAidKit Wrote:  3.) Go to the gym 3 times a week for 3 months. I've hit a pilates class 3 times now and it's fun. Addendum: Do some hamstring stretches every morning and night because mine are just ridiculous right now.

As someone who's been long plagued by tight hamstrings (apparently I play a lot of sports where I run fast forward, but not so much backwards), please yes do stretch those hamstrings, cause if you strain them it takes fucking forever to get them back right again. I swear I pulled a hamstring in the middle of winter and it hasn't felt right again til the last week or two.

May progress report, as it is now May 1:

1) Record that music - I'm coming to realize a lot of the anxieties I have with women and with people in general. A lot of times I would write songs and write what I think would sound cool or win approval, but I never had any conviction about it. Working on being more vulnerable, all around. Been dusting off gear and notepads that have been sadly neglected and losing those inhibitions. Here's one that I wrote about an hour ago that was sorta Postmasculine-vulnerability inspired to prove I haven't been completely sitting on my ass. (Also, here's one I wrote a long time ago that was a lot more hilarious and entertaining) Progress being made.

2) Gig that shit - only DJed once, turned down two gigs cause it was my damn birthday and I wanted to relax, but it was a great one. It was actually quite the adventure, managed to rock a room of 75 or so despite being down to iTunes, a couple of CDs, and an iPod, on a night we didn't really expect anyone. Don't let your buddy break up with his girlfriend (so that she takes back all of her gear) a week after he was bodyslammed by a lezzie (breaking his laptop) while you're loaning out your own gear to someone else. Uh, long story.

3) Running - I've been eating too much ice cream

4) Dating - I made it to three weeks with one before we cut it off! I realize how almost pathetic that sounds. Moving onto better things!

5) Saving - doing dandy here!

[Mark]

10 days in the US = Mark probably not reaching his six-pack by June 1st goal. Since June 1st is actually FIVE months into the year, I'm going to push it back to July 1st. I think that's more reasonable.

[FirstAidKit]

Aw crap, I thought the class tonight started an hour later than it did, not very clever of me. I'll hit it tomorrow and do some cardio instead.

[Edmond Dantès]

(04-27-2012 06:33 PM)FirstAidKit Wrote:  Okay, I have some new goals:

1.) Book two holidays by the end of July. First one is pretty much planned (BERLIN!), the second I need to decide on as it looks like I'm going solo.

Berlin is definitely a great city, but the other big cities of germany (Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt, are also worth a visit I've always have the impression that foreigners have the impression that if they saw Berlin that they saw Germany, which is definitely not the case...)

Anyway, let me know how you liked you trip.

[Mark]

Berlin is practically it's own country... I enjoyed Cologne and Hamburg quite a bit.

[TheBoss]

My fitness goals have stagnated. Skipping gym too much and eating like crap. Also, I've been staying overtime every day since I started working. SO much to do. I don't think I'm cut out for the office lifestyle. Need to evaluate goals again.

[machiavelli]

(02-04-2012 01:12 AM)machiavelli Wrote:  Ok, let's do this.

Goals
1. Below 10% body fat (by August 1).
2. Finish my Ph.D. dissertation (by June 1).

#2: done. bam.

#1: well on track. Down from 24.4%bf late January to 15.2% late April. Food and gym are going steady.

[Matt T]

Injured my left spinal erector in a deadlift accident (and only on 300x5 too...I did 320x5 the week before with no issue.). Well, I guess that's that goal down the tubes. I probably won't squat/deadlift/bench/row again for several months. At least 2 according to the physician.

At this rate I'll probably give up strength training altogether soon.

[Anakind]

1. Getting to certain body proportions: Waist 86cm, hips 95cm (already there), ribcage 120cm, shoulders 140cm, calves 41cm (already there), arms 41cm.
Doing heavy weightlifting concentrating on dead lift, squat, bench press, push press, power clean, pull up and row. No problems with body fat at 8% on average, always had six pack.

2. Completely reboot my brain from PMO forever by the end of the year. I'm currently at day 25 and will continue.

3. Break my trading record of 240% in a year trading futures and prepare for the trading world championship 2013.

4. Re-learn French and become proficient in it for a West Africa trip planned for early next year.

3. Move from Germany to Zurich by the end of this year.

[Zac]

6 month goals

1. Lose 15 pounds (6 pack?)

2. 15 more articles on my blog

3. Get comfortable Meditating for 30 minutes

4. Become highly conversational in Spanish

5. Minimal if any pornography.

[FirstAidKit]

(05-04-2012 12:22 AM)Edmond Dantès Wrote:  

(04-27-2012 06:33 PM)FirstAidKit Wrote:  Okay, I have some new goals:

1.) Book two holidays by the end of July. First one is pretty much planned (BERLIN!), the second I need to decide on as it looks like I'm going solo.

Berlin is definitely a great city, but the other big cities of germany (Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt, are also worth a visit I've always have the impression that foreigners have the impression that if they saw Berlin that they saw Germany, which is definitely not the case...)

Anyway, let me know how you liked you trip.

Well, Berlin is booked. It'll be the 3rd time I've visited now. I've also been to Konstanz before - most of my trips are booked on the basis of me knowing someone in the area to put me up. I was hoping to get time to go to Cologne this year but it never materialised.

2nd trip.... Will be going to Amsterdam for the weekend in early June if all goes to plan. Possible 3rd trip renting a tandem bike in france with my friend and cycling around for a bit. I really hope we do that one. Possible 4th trip going to a festival in Croatia but this one is looking unlikely as I've used up all my holiday til I finish at work.

2)Read a book every two weeks
This one I haven't done, unless I read a book in like 2 days. I've read a shit ton of articles though, can I count that?

3) Gym
Missed one session since I started almost a month ago. Pretty happy. Doing hamstring stretches most days. Gonna add in a couple of sessions of heavy lifting squats to work dat ass.

[Jacob]

I do things a little different in that I make my resolutions on my birthday rather than New Years.

My 4 Goals to Complete By My Next Birthday (March 30, 2013):

1) Pay Off All Debt ($34,000)
2) Build Online Passive Income to a least $1500 a month
3) Get Into the Best Shape of My Life (190 lbs or bigger with under 7% BF, 16" arms and flexible)
4) Cultivate Mindfulness (develop a solid and daily habit of journaling and meditating 20 minutes minimum - the measurable part)


1) Strategies to Pay Off All Debt ($34K)

I owe my parents $13K and am heading up to Alaska for the summer to help my Dad build my parent's new house as repayment. We will work 6 days a week for 8 hours a day. (I'm actually doing this because my Dad is 65 and I don't want him doing it by himself, Otherwise I would focus completely on building online income sources and repaying them through that).

I also have $21K in student loans. I'll pay this off with multiple streams of income...

First, I'm selling off everything I own except my 17" MacBook Pro, clothes, and a few other items (which isn't much... maybe $4k worth) to prep for world travel next year. All income generated from this will go towards debt.

Second, I'll also be staying with my parents past the summer, probably for an entire year, to save on rent money to pay towards debt. An extra advantage of this is I can do finishing touches on the new house over the winter/spring as needed which will go towards any debt to my parents that hasn't been fully repaid during the Summer.

Third, I have a couple web clients I do monthly web development work for that brings in around 1100-1500 a month.

Fourth, my brother has a young growing company he wants to expand online which we may work together to create. This will generate extra income to pay off debt.

With all that, I still need to come up with more income to fully pay off all the debt. Which I will accomplish by taking on more web design/development clients and building other online income sources (my next goal...)


2) Strategies to Build an Online Passive Income to at least $1500 a month

I currently make money doing web design and development. But if I ever take a break, I stop making money. It's active income. The smarter way to go would be building streams of passive income which I can continually develop so when I decide to take a break or vacation, the streams keep paying me.

I have several ideas for services and software programs (which I'm not going to reveal here lol) that could potentially grow huge and have an entire team behind, allowing me to make passive income from them. I will research the ideas fully to get a feel for which have a better need/market, then narrow my focus to developing them.

I also have a blog idea in the works (in the personal development area) that I plan to develop slowly with the end result being having products and courses of value for sale (like Mark).

Unofficially, I'm really aiming for $3000 a month passive income, but with my inexperience in this area, that's probably not realistic in a 10 month frame, so my official goal is $1500 a month by March 30th.

I'm also going to try polyphasic sleep (the Uberman method) after the summer of building to gain more time to develop my goals. I will be living in the middle of nowhere Alaska with no social life, places to be, etc, so it's the perfect time to take on this crazy schedule which requires napping 20 minutes on the dot every 4 hours (which wouldn't work with an active life outside the house). This will allow me to get an extra 4-6 waking hours a day to work on building my income streams. HUGE.


3) Strategies to Get Into the Best Shape of My Life

Before I get into the strategies, there are 4 criteria to my goal I'm going to define; body composition, strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular fitness.

Body Composition Goal - Build a Greek God like body with a muscular 190+ pounds sitting on my 5'11" frame, with under 8% bodyfat and 16" arms.

Strength Goal - Bench 315 lb. and Squat 405 lb. x 5 reps. Previous personal best was a 285 lb. bench and 335 lb. x 5 reps squat at 181 lb. bodyweight).

Flexibility Goal - Develop full range of motion in all major joint areas. Main measurement is being able to sit up completely straight or better on floor with legs stretched out in front of me. (I completely neglected flexibility for my entire life and as a result I can't even sit up straight on the floor!).

Cardiovascular Fitness Goal - Be able to maintain a quick-paced jump roping session for 20 minutes straight without pain or running out of breath.

The Background and Strategies:

I let myself go over the last two years (by my standards - which are high) and became disgustingly skinny-fat. To change that, I'm working out every day now.

I started 2 weeks ago at 168 pounds with 13.5" arms and am currently 176 pounds with 14" arms (these are cold, first-thing-in-the-morning measurements). I currently have around 10% bodyfat (just guessing based on how well I can see my abs and how much belly fat I can pinch, NOT a true bodyfat measurement). So I have around 5 pounds of fat to lose and 20 pounds of muscle to gain in 10 months (or 2 pounds of muscle to gain and 1/2 pound fat to lose per month average).

I'm a certified personal trainer and massage therapist, so I already have the knowledge to get to where I want in this field. It's just a matter of doing it (plus about half of the weight gain will be muscle memory).

For this goal, I'm dedicating 1 hour daily, 7 days a week to exercise. This will be a mix of weight lifting, yoga, stretching, foam rolling, core training, and jump roping. These will not all be done on the same day (although they may be some times). Some days will be completely yoga and others completely weight lifting. I'll be mixing it up to keep it interesting and my body progressing. I have a complete set of equipment at my parent's house (power rack, 500+ pounds of weights, bench, etc) to use to mold my body into the Greek God figure.

My diet of course will be geared towards optimal health. Lean meats, which will mostly be game meat my Dad, and probably myself this Fall, hunt and process ourselves - moose, caribou, dall sheep, maybe berry-eating bear (which seem to taste better than their meat eating counterparts), plus red, silver, and king salmon. I'll also be eating potatoes grown in my parent’s garden, plus fresh greens with most meals. I don't usually eat potatoes as they're not really optimal, but in the spirit of saving money to pay off all my debts, I'm going to make do with the free (and organic) potatoes (which are stored in the basement after harvest to last for an entire winter).

I'll probably enjoy ice cream as a treat from time to time too lol. Alaska has the highest consumption of ice cream per capital in the USA. Go figure.


4) Strategies to Cultivate Mindfulness

This was and still is a hard goal for me to define. I know I want to work on my self-discipline, reduce the mind chatter and anxiety (monkey brain), develop greater inner peace, awareness, love, and stillness, become more nonjudgmental and present in the moment, and become overall more stable, balanced, and centered in my mental and emotional processes.

After reading and doing more research in this area, I've concluded that cultivating mindfulness best describes what I want to accomplish. But I still have no idea how one can really measure mindfulness. So instead, I'm measuring the processes that lead to cultivating mindfulness. My base level goal is developing a daily habit of journaling (about my thoughts, feelings, emotions, and life) and meditating at least 20 minutes a day. My goal is to solidify this habit by September 30th.

I will also read The Power of Now, A New Earth, and Mindfulness in Plain English and meditate on what I learn from them to help bring this goal into fruition.

If anyone has a better way of defining mindfulness in a precise and measurable way, please let me know.

[Edmond Dantès]

Will have my aeroplane flight at Saturday, am so excited, really looking forward to it

[Edmond Dantès]

done...

...And it was absolutely incredible. We flew for about half an hour, we did a looping and I even flew the aeroplane a few seconds by myself.

Here some photos


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[SeXyBaCk]

Hey Dante, where is that? Ah i spotted a flag, so i guess it's southern germany? Landscape looks a lot like it does around here (north switzerland) that's why I was asking. Respect for getting into one of those things. I just couldn't get myself to trust sitting in something that I could break by jumping up and down on it.

[Edmond Dantès]

Nah, I live in west germany and I doubt you can break an aeroplane by jumping up and down on it. It's actually the same material most motorboats are built with.

[FirstAidKit]

Things going well this month. Read two books in about a week, started a third and ordered a 4th.

Been hitting pilates for a month and have only missed two sessions, one for my brother's birthday so pretty pleased with that. Have converted my commute into an ass exercise workout. Butt is noticeably better shaped and sized. Would like to get rid of a little stomach chub so I may replace one pilates sesh a week with some HIIT.

Sadly, the amsterdam trip looks like it's not going to happen due to other commitments. Or at least not happen then. Croatia has been replaced with a UK festival called Bloc with the most blistering electro line up I've seen in ages. Berlin is booked and sorted :]


New goals:
Book another trip by the end of August.

[Zac]

It's been about 3 weeks and I've made slight progress in some of my goals and not much in others.

In a way some of these goals have evolved.

1. Lose 15 pounds: I don't think I've lost much if any weight since I've gotten here. I have done some mental masturbation about how to eat healthy and stuff which in it's own right will be very useful but I've mainly eaten what I've wanted, when I've wanted, and been mostly sedentary if you don't count the walking we do here.

I've realized this goal entails a lot of goals so I will not break it down better.

1a. Learn how to count calories (buy a scale, measure meals, learn what's best for me)

1b. Join a gym which I will be doing tomorrow. I need to find a workout that works for me and stick with it as well.

1c. Find something physical outside the gym I enjoy doing. Sports and fun have always been my primary motivators in life. I actually am pretty sure I went to college halfway just to continue my lacrosse career and learn more. I don't play any more but I love rock climbing, swimming, and just goofing off playing football and stuff. If I found some fun in play that would be the most motivating thing for me.

2. 15 more articles on my blog

I'm doing pretty well on this. I think I have written 3 articles in 3 weeks. One was about getting here, one was about getting lost, and another was a simple copy paste of William Blake quotes with a brief introduction.
I have planned an article on the cost of living in Colombia for me so far that will include the conversion rates of the peso to USD and Euro. I also would like to do a post on the Tiger Paw hostel that we hang out at a lot. I have a few more rough ideas and drafts I've messed around with. I have to still do a report for each of the 5 books I read for the job, update my family and friends on just how things are going (probably do it once a month), and an article about what I've been learning so far here. I have plenty of time though and I'm not worried about it at all. This should be one of the easiest of my goals as I could type stuff online forever...


3. Get comfortable Meditating for 30 minutes

Since being here I've meditated 5 times. The first was for 10 minutes the other 4 were for 15. It is challenging but also very rewarding. I would really like to make it more of a habit and get up to 30 minutes. I think I'm off to a nice start here.

4. Become highly conversational in Spanish

I've been making slight moves towards this. Me and Halo have gone out 2 weeks in a row and tried to talk to people on saturday night as much as possible. We need to be more focused about it. We have all also hired a tutor and I've had 2 lessons. I need to be more focused doing my homework and studying though.

4b. Learn the Metric System and Celsius conversion rates


5. Minimal if any pornography.

We'll work on it...
______________________________________
I'd like to add a few more goals and they might branch out like the first one did as well.

6. Work on my time management

7. Improve my writing

8. Read 5-10 books in 6 months (aiming low I think)
8a. Atlas Shrugged
8b. Buddah's Brain


9. At least 2 cup of green tea with no sweetener every single day.

---

(05-20-2012 12:56 PM)Edmond Dantès Wrote:  done...

...And it was absolutely incredible. We flew for about half an hour, we did a looping and I even flew the aeroplane a few seconds by myself.

Here some photos

Edmond, those are awesome. Do you fly often?

[Nick]

Has anyone else found that many of your goals have changed a decent amount since originally posting here?

It's been like that for me. I am going to whittle down my goals for the remainder of the year and post them here some time in the future when things are more clear.

[FirstAidKit]

Quote:2) Get better at orgasms
Ah, this one has been pissing me off for years. It took me a really stupidly long time to work out how to make myself come - I was like 19? And that was with a vibrator and reading material. No one else has done it yet, though I've not had a regular practice partner for a while. So for the next couple of years I could do it with that (and time) and about 8 months ago working on either using one or the other. And for the past month or so - just fingers and nothing else, spurred into action by the porn thread. Action plan here: Keep wanking, I guess. Who has to practice wanking? I'm weird. But it's working well, it's getting much easier and quicker.

WELL. I've been at the point where I can pretty much 100% get myself off without much trouble and about 15 minutes for a few months now.

I've also had as of 10 hours ago, had my first orgasm with someone else in the room. Every time I've slept with this guy had me getting close but not quite several times, and as we were winding down last night I could tell it wouldn't take much. So I finished myself off as he assisted with lots of kissing and talking and touching.

AWESOME.