2022 New Year’s Resolutions Check In

Like most people, I occasionally make New Year’s resolutions. In 2022, rather than resolutions per se, I set myself quite an ambitious list of things to achieve. Here’s how I got on.

Race a Triathlon

I really wanted to get back into triathlon so I resolved to get one done in the year. So, I did the Pasadena Triathlon and was very pleased with my result (at least compared to the amount of training I did!). Here’s my recap.

After the Pasadena Triathlon 2022.

Do some adulting things

I had three things on the list and managed to do two – the last one I left a bit late and then couldn’t get the attention of anyone I wanted to pay to help me. It’s on the list for 2023. Being a grown-up can be so boring!

Read 12 must-read books

I’m not getting any younger so I thought it was about time to read some proper books. I started with this list from Brittanica. I’d already read some, so I supplemented the list with a few of others. My main revelation was that even though these books were classics, they were very enjoyable to read — the opposite experience I had with classic novels in high school! Here’s what I read:

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
4. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
5. Don Quixote (part 1) by Miguel de Cervantes
6. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
7. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
8. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
9. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
10. Slouching Towards Bethlehem
11. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
12. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

My absolute favorite from this list was The Grapes of Wrath: brilliant writing, and a beautiful, heartbreaking story.

Get the cat a social media presence

Ah, the cat. The cat has rather dominated our lives this past year. Even though she has our attention 24-7 and the whole house and garden as her territory, she gets bored easily. I decided she needed a social media presence. So, in September while my Dad was cat-sitting, he set up an Instagram account for her. I try to post 2-3 times a week but it turns out Peppa doesn’t like having the camera in her face! Find her at @lazypeppa.

Peppa …

Write 12 Blog Posts

I produce content for a living but I wanted to see if I could bring the same discipline to my personal work. I really enjoyed this challenge because it allowed me to revisit some of the fun trips I did with my late mother and late grandmother, and to record some of this year’s adventures. It was a daily effort and most of the work was done only between 6:00am and 6:30am as I passed the time before work (after the cat got me up at 5:00am). I didn’t promote any of the posts, so most of them weren’t read by anyone!

Here are the twelve:

1. January 2022 in Pasadena, California
2. Peppa the Lockdown Cat
3. 2022 Pasadena Triathlon Race Recap
4. Splashing out in Waikiki
5. Ten Years in the US
6. New England in the Fall
7. How to get around in Korea
8. Things to do in Seoul and Haeundae, Korea
9. Day trip to Mount Wilson Observatory
10. Australian road trip – Canberra to Echuca and back
11. Chinese New Year in Hong Kong: January 2009
12. This recap post 🙂

One of our fun trips in 2022: Waikiki, Hawai’i.

Next year’s plan

Many things are in flux for next year so I will likely keep my ambitions small. However, having used my diary extensively to write my 12 blog posts, I was reminded of its value: so in 2023 I will aim to write my diary every day.

I found my 2022 resolutions/goals to be very valuable this year, and I’m pleased to get 99% of them done. Happy New Year!