For the rest of this week, I’m going to discuss the goals I’m setting for 2012 and the plans I have for achieving them.

When I think back to some of the people in my life that have passed away that I greatly miss, one of the things that really bothers me is that I don’t have some memento of their life that lets me have at least a sense of the person that they were. All I have are memories, a few old home movies, and lots of photographs.

The one exception to this is my great grandmother, who spent a significant amount of time during the last few years of her life writing something of an autobiography. I had the opportunity to read most of it once and, in the near future, I’m hoping to be able to have a copy of it of my own and read it again. It’s just a way to touch the thoughts of a person that I loved very much that I’ll not be able to see again in this life.

This, of course, brings me to thoughts of the people I love the most: my wife and my children. What will they have to know me by if something were to happen to me?

I’m not foolish enough to think that I’m infallible. I’ve protected their financial future with a sensible life insurance policy and an estate plan.

What I’d like to do is, in some way, protect their emotional future as well. What would I want to leave for them as people if something were to happen to me?

For my children, there’s simply a lot of life advice that I want to impart on them as they grow older, become adults, and face their careers and lives. I’d like them to know about their ancestry and I’d also like for them to be able to know something of the person that I was, what I held dear, and what I felt about them.

For my wife, the mission is a bit different. She already knows most of the things that I would leave for my children. What I would want to leave for her is a different gift: the knowledge that I loved her very much and that I want her to move on and have new experiences and a new life after I leave, whatever those may be. I think a lot about the scrapbook that Ellie created for Walt in the movie Up that recollects their lives shared together and ends with an admonition that Walt creates his own adventures.

This is challenging work, but it’s also valuable work. It’s something I can give to my children when they become adults even if I’m completely fine. It’s something I can continue to update throughout our marital life and leave for Sarah.

My goal in 2012 is simple: I want to create a journal/scrapbook for each of my children and for my wife that collects together the things mentioned above. I want them to have these items if something were to happen to me in the near future, and I want to give them to my children as they reach adulthood. As for my wife’s book, I’ll leave it for her to find it when the time is right.

For the most part, these will take the form of handwritten journals. I communicate so much through the written word that this seems natural to me. Although the material covered in the journals for my children will be similar, I’m going to write them each individually and I hope that they do vary some.

As for my wife’s memento, I hope to just recollect everything that’s happened in our lives together to this point and add to it regularly, with a note on the last page reminding her that I love her and that I want her to have a beautiful life, whatever that may be.

If a time comes in their life where they yearn to reach out and touch me in some way after I’m gone, perhaps I will have left behind something that can fulfill them at that moment when they need it.

For the rest of this week, I’m going to discuss the goals I’m setting for 2012 and the plans I have for achieving them.

Every single time I engage in some form of community service, I feel extremely happy about what I’ve done. I feel like I’ve caused some sort of positive change in my community and made someone else’s life better.

The problem is that it’s incredibly easy for me to put aside some of the things I could do related to community service and instead do other things. I could head over to the food pantry… or I could make chop all of the vegetables for a great ratatouille. I could pack up the children and help remove snow for elderly people… or I could go inside, make some hot chocolate, and watch The Incredibles with my kids.

Although the “right” choice here is very fulfilling, it’s often hard to do in the face of temptation.

This year, I’m simply striving to make the “right” choice more of a routine.

What areas am I focusing on?

I hope to spend some time helping a couple local food pantries with odds and ends that need done, such as restocking shelves and preparing bags.

In the winter, I’m going to pack up a shovel and do some volunteer snow removal where it’s needed.

In the spring and summer and fall, I’m going to do some volunteer work for the local parks and recreation department.

There are also a couple local charity groups that have some computer needs that I can help fulfill, so that their normal workflow can go much more smoothly.

What I’m essentially committing to is about four hours per week – on average – of such volunteer work, with a couple weeks for travel and the like.

I’ll be keeping track of this time in a spreadsheet, just so that I know I’m keeping pace with this goal. If our winter turns snowy, it’s likely that I’ll get significantly ahead earlier in the year. This does provide some breathing room for periods in the summer when there are reduced opportunities and different time constraints.

Why do this? Volunteer work makes a better community, and a better community makes a better life for those who live in it. It also leaves me feeling better about myself every time I do it. That’s reason enough for me.

For the rest of this week, I’m going to discuss the goals I’m setting for 2012 and the plans I have for achieving them.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had made some changes to how The Simple Dollar is managed in an effort to free up time for other writing projects that I’ve wanted to take on. For me, first and foremost among these projects is the fantasy novel I’ve long talked about writing here on The Simple Dollar.

Why haven’t I written it yet? Time, mostly. The ideas behind the novel float around in my head all the time, but turning those ideas into actual written prose is a time-consuming process.

Right now, the novel exists as a fairly detailed plot outline that I keep tinkering with, several character sketches, and one chapter that I’m not even sure will be in the final novel. It might actually be a prelude. Although the novel is self-contained, it could easily develop into a series.

I also have several ideas for a second novel that I’d love to write, one with a more modern setting.

2012 is the year that I’m going to write them both.

Obviously, the first step is to simply get first drafts finished of both of the novels. That in itself will take some time, particularly for the second one.

I intend to first draft the first one, then move on to making character sketches and a plot outline for the second, then moving back to the first for later drafts. This way, I give them both some time to breathe.

I have several test readers and a freelance editor lined up. This will help me polish these things up a bit beyond what I could do myself.

After that, I’m going to publish them. I’ve decided already to go the self-publishing route regarding these novels, and I’m going to be discussing them and promoting them at TrentHamm.com and on my personal Twitter, though neither is really up and going quite yet.

The exact plans for publishing are still up in the air at this point, but I will likely publish a Kindle version first and eventually do a print version. I am considering a Kickstarter campaign for it as well.

Such issues are secondary, however, to the primary goal. I intend to write two novels this year. That’s pretty clear cut. I’ll worry about selling them when that bridge comes.

For the rest of this week, I’m going to discuss the goals I’m setting for 2012 and the plans I have for achieving them.

A few months ago, when I was feeling particularly frustrated about the failings of my fitness goals, I scheduled an appointment with a personal trainer.

I really do not like the idea of a “coach” to motivate my workouts or anything like that. I’ve had such coaches in the past, and I usually find myself getting angry at the coach in the middle of a workout and quitting. I do far better on my own, as I can always push myself to go a little bit farther or do one more rep. With a coach demanding it, I get irritated because I feel like they have no idea how I’m feeling and they’re just making things up, so I quit on them. I’m motivated internally, not externally, in other words.

My challenge really is coming up with a plan that works for me. Once I have that, I feel confident I can follow it.

When I met with this personal trainer, I was pretty clear that I wanted to set up a plan for myself to follow, which he understood. He then asked me point blank what my goal with all of this was.

I thought about it and I realized that the biggest thing I wanted was to be a good parent and eventually be a good grandparent. I wanted to be able to be fit enough to engage in lots of activities with both my children and with my eventual grandchildren, and I wanted to live as long as possible.

From there, he offered up a lot of recommendations.

First, he said my primary goal should be losing some of my excess weight.

As for my diet, he said that my current diet (vegetarian with occasional fish) was pretty solid but that I should work on portion control. He mostly suggested that I never take seconds during meals and a few other similar tactics.

Where he got down to business was with the exercise. He suggested that simply doing cardio – which was my main method of exercise – wouldn’t lead to long term weight loss and my avoidance of other forms of exercise was responsible for my back injury due to weak back muscles. Larger muscles lead to a higher metabolism and would then lead to weight loss if I didn’t give into eating large portions.

He gave me several books to read and offered up a simple suggestion. He said that I should spend fifteen minutes to half an hour each day exercising, but that each day of the week should focus on a different type of exercise. I should spend only a couple days a week doing cardiovascular exercise and the rest of the days should focus on different muscle groups. If I get injured, then I just avoid using those muscle groups.

The best part is that virtually all of the exercises are ones that I can do at home, with only a few weights required.

Since I have a plan, the key step is to codify a goal.

I want to lose 52 pounds in 2012. That’s a pound a week, or a calorie deficit of 500 per day. My trainer says that’s a very reasonable goal if I stick to a schedule of fifteen minutes of fairly intense exercise a day and portion control with my diet. If I get injured, I just avoid that muscle group for a while.

Will it work? Stay tuned to find out!

At the end of each year, I try to set a few goals for the coming year, with varying degrees of success. Let’s look at the three goals I set for 2011 and see if there are any lessons learned that I can apply to my goals for the coming year.

Get Fit
My biggest opponent in this regard was two unexpected injuries that were unrelated to my fitness.

For the first month of the year, everything was quite successful.

In February, I slipped and fell on a patch of ice and caused some severe internal bruising and tearing. I was in pain doing much of anything for about three weeks, during which my fitness schedule completely fell apart.

I started from scratch again at this point and by early summer I felt good about the state of things. Then, in July, I went on a trip to Seattle with my family. On the last few days of the trip, we stayed in a cabin with a really low ceiling where the only way I could get around inside the cabin was to severely stoop. On the last morning of our cabin stay, my back popped, leaving me in almost constant pain for about a month. The worst part was that while I was recovering, walking for more than a minute or so left my right leg numb.

After that, I never really got my fitness plan back on track.

What went wrong? I don’t think my fitness plan accounted for the possibility of such things going wrong. When I was unable to do certain types of exercise, I would simply give up on the idea entirely.

What can I improve on? Flexibility. When I set a goal, it needs to have a path leading to that goal that’s as flexible as possible.

Play Music
For the first few months of this year, this goal went really well. I took weekly piano lessons and practiced when I could.

My biggest challenge was that I couldn’t practice at home. We did not have a conducive keyboard setup for practicing. My wife largely felt that this was a frivolous endeavor and we constantly struggled with discussions about whether we should invest the money into a piano or a good keyboard setup.

Later in the year, this problem was made worse by a string of childhood illnesses that required me to miss a series of lessons, leaving me feeling lost and not making much progress on my playing.

Eventually, these two issues came to a head and I chose to end my piano lessons.

What went wrong? Lack of a proper environment. I didn’t have a place to practice that didn’t involve going somewhere else. On top of that, I began to realize that my children took priority over my piano playing.

What can I improve on? I shouldn’t choose a goal that’s significantly incompatible with my home environment or requires a significant purchase to make possible.

Read 100 Unread Books
This is the goal I hit out of the park. I read 100 new books this year – 103 at last count, to be exact. My list didn’t quite match the list from this post, but I read a little more than half of the books listed in that post.

What went right? I simply attacked this goal with relish. One of the big advantages was getting a Kindle as a gift, to which I was able to add electronic versions of about twenty books on the list for free that were very convenient to take with me anywhere.

Final Thoughts
Life is unpredictable. The goals that you think have a clear path to success sometimes have obstacles that you don’t see at first glance, and sometimes those obstacles prove insurmountable.

The best thing you can do with any goal is to give it some careful thought in advance. Think about your plan carefully and look for potential problems – and solutions to those problems. The more care you put in up front, the more likely you are to see success as things unfold.

I hope that principle is reflected as I discuss my 2012 goals throughout this week.

I got a great email recently from Marjorie:

My husband’s father just gave him a huge speech about how he doesn’t dress appropriately for work and how he will never get promoted or “become a manager” dressing the way he does. My husband is a computer programmer who works with a bunch of engineers. He wears dress slacks and polos or button-up shirts everyday to work, while most of his co-workers wear jeans and t-shirts. This confused me, but my husband exaplined to me that what his father is saying that since he doesn’t wear designer clothes and because he doesn’t wear a tie everyday that he will never be promoted. We buy his clothes at JC Penney, but the cheaper brands. I can’t tell the difference between them and the nicer dept. store brands, other than the price. Do you agree with my father-in-laws assessment? What about if my husband wants to advance his career, but has no interest in managing people? I realize he would make more money if he eventually became a manager, but he enjoys his computer programming work, and probably wouldn’t enjoy managing people, and I would never want him to work a job he didn’t enjoy if he didn’t have to.

I think what’s happening here is that your father-in-law is substituting his own goals for his son’s goals and he’s trying to guide his son towards those goals.

Your husband seems to have his own set of career goals. He’d like to advance his career as a programmer, but he has no interest in being in management. Your husband also has familiarity with the culture of the career path that he’s chosen.

I think it’s absolutely vital that people have a set of career goals. They need to have a sense of where they want to go and what they need to do to get there. For those reading this, ask yourself those questions. Where do you want to be with your career in five years? In ten years? In twenty? What do you need to be doing to get there?

Yes, attire can be a part of those goals. The usual advice is to dress in the attire of the position you want to eventually attain. If you want to be in management, dress like management. If you want to be just part of the senior staff, dress like part of the senior staff. I consider that to be pretty good advice.

It sounds like your husband is dressing for the position he wants to attain eventually, which is a senior programmer. He should note what people in his desired position wear and emulate it.

Your father-in-law has his own goals and he probably envisions certain outcomes for his son, for various reasons. For those goals and outcomes, the advice your father-in-law is giving his son is probably good advice. He likely envisions his son eventually moving into management and wants to prepare him to do so.

The challenge here, as it often is, is communication. For this type of disagreement to occur, both people aren’t articulating what their goals are and the paths they see toward those goals.

Your husband can fulfill his part by simply making it clear that his goals do not involve moving into management. He needs to make it clear that he’s dressing for the role he aspires to, and that something he values deeply is a job that he enjoys doing and he’s willing to accept non-executive pay for that position.

If your husband can’t clearly articulate his career goals and his plans for achieving them, he should spend some time thinking about his plan for the future. Can he clearly state where he wants to be in five or ten years? What exactly is he going to do to make sure that happens? The more thought he’s given to this and the more detail he can give, the better.

Your father-in-law should be able to accept that. If he’s not, then your next move is to simply disregard his advice with regards to a career path. If he’s still giving advice that seems to be guiding your husband toward a management role, your husband needs to just nod his head and then follow his own path.

I actually sympathize with your husband. I have little interest or desire to be involved with personnel management, and knowing that about myself has driven many of my choices, both in the past and even today. I don’t want to manage people and it sounds like your husband doesn’t either.

However, it’s important to remember that (likely) your father-in-law cares deeply and desires a successful life without want for his son. Keep that in mind as you address this situation and handle everything with care and without anger or aggression.

Someday, I’d like to finish my fantasy novel, and then follow that up by self-publishing it and promoting it myself starting with an electronic version and perhaps moving to a paper version.

Someday, I’d like to move forward on a long-planned series of video reviews of board games and card games that my friend and I have long discussed making and posting to YouTube.

Someday, I’d like to spend some time doing volunteer work for the two charities I care about, Jump for Joel and L’Arche Tahoma Hope, using what skills I have to increase their community presence and maximize the donations they receive.

Someday, I’d like to travel internationally with my family and show my children that the world is a beautiful and varied place.

Someday.

Pretty much every one of us has a “someday” or two on our list of things we’d love to do. They’re big things that would require a lot of time and planning. They’re things that seem incredibly exciting and compelling to us, but present some tremendous obstacles along the way.

Because those obstacles seem so daunting in our day-to-day lives right now, we simply think about these things as “someday” things. They enter into our daydreams, but we don’t take any real forward action toward them.

My Experience Reaching a “Someday”
Several years ago, my “someday” thing was being able to write full time for a living which would allow me to be at home for my children without travel and with extreme schedule flexibility.

At that time, I had a full time job in a field that was largely completely separate from writing. I had a very technical desk job that required some travel and also required my attention outside of office hours on a very regular basis. I also had a wife and a young child at home.

How did I make that “someday” dream a reality? Simply put, I started sacrificing my evenings and (quite often) my weekends to making that “someday” a reality. Instead of coming home and vegetating in front of a television show or a video game or just curling up with a book, I would spend several hours setting up, writing articles for, and promoting The Simple Dollar.

Simply put, I made that “someday” dream a priority of my free and leisure time and of my free and leisure money.

The amazing part was that once I got the project moving forward and got used to the routine of working on it, the project itself became really rewarding. Because it was something I had wanted to do for so long and it was so intrinsically tied to something I deeply enjoyed as a person (writing), the day-to-day work was incredibly fun even when I had very few readers and was making very little money with it.

The finanical rewards weren’t the real rewards. The process itself and the enjoyment I got from it was the real reward.

Reaching Your “Someday”
This brings us back to your “somedays” and mine. If you want to make these things come true, you have to start looking at your day-to-day time decisions with a discerning eye.

What’s more important to you? That “someday” dream or a new episode of The Big Bang Theory? Getting started on that big project you dream of or napping on the couch? Your big project or yet another shopping trip to the same old stores?

At the start of this month, I made a commitment to start on one of my “someday” projects and carry it forward to a conclusion. This means, for me, giving up some of the things I’d been filling my spare time with lately. It’s been challenging, but it’s been deeply rewarding at the same time.

What “someday” could you get started on starting today? Choose one that’s tied deeply to something you already enjoy doing, something that just channels it into a new direction. Let that “someday” fill your spare time.

Eventually, you may just find yourself on a new path, living your dreams.

A few days ago, a friend of mine made a comment that stuck with me. He said that his life felt like it was stuck in an endless rut and that everything he could think of to put it on a better path was so big that it seemed insurmountable.

I started off writing him an email about it, but I realized that much of what I was going to write to him would make a powerful article for The Simple Dollar.

My goal was to simply list nine things that he could do today that would improve his situation and leave him, at the end of the day, as though the day that has passed has been a valuable one and has put his life on the right track.

The Reflection
Spend half an hour and reflect on your life. Do it with nothing to distract you except a pencil and a piece of paper in front of you. Just spend that time walking mentally through every part of your life, thinking about where it’s at, what you’d like to be different about it, and what you actually like about it. Hit on what brings you joy and also what you can do to improve. Think about your dreams. Think about your biggest challenges. Look it in the face. Go through all of it.

If you come up with something – anything – that you feel like you should follow up on later, write it down. That’s why you have a pencil and paper in front of you.

Why do this? When you finish this, you’ll feel invigorated. You’ll feel far more in control of your life. You’ll have a much better sense of where things rank in your life in terms of what’s important and what really isn’t.

The List
This can follow the first one quite effectively. Make a list of ten things you want to accomplish, big or small. The best way to do this is to simply go through your mind and write down the first ten things you can think of that you want to do but just haven’t gotten around to doing.

Once you have that list, make another one. For each item on the first list, write down one single action that you can take – fifteen minutes or less – to move that item forward in some way. Then, use that second list as your to-do list for the rest of the day. Get through as many of them as you possibly can before the end of the day.

Why do this? You’ll feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment as you go to bed that night. You’ve taken forward action on a lot of things going on in your life – and forward progress on the things bothering you feels good, like that moment you’re scratching an itch that’s been bothering you for a while.

The Raise
Stop in and have a chat with your boss. Tell him or her that you’re not asking for a raise now, but that you’d like to ask for a raise in six months. Ask your boss what you can do to earn that raise over the next six months.

Take notes. Make a checklist out of what your boss tells you, then strive to go beyond each item on that checklist. Create a situation where you’re so valuable and useful to the company that they need you around.

Why do this? This is a very straightforward thing you can do to improve your own income and secure a stronger place at work. It tells you, in no uncertain terms, what you need to do to excel in the workplace.

The Book
Go to the library or to the bookstore and pick up a well-respected nonfiction book on a topic you’ve always been curious about. Start reading it today and get a significant amount of the way through the book.

The topic can be truly anything you’ve consistently wondered about over the years. All of us with even a bit of curiosity have something that we’ve regularly thought about. Now’s the time for you to sate that curiosity.

Why do this? The act of reading itself improves your language skills. Reading a challenging book improves your thinking skills. Following up on an area that you’re curious about is a great way to improve your knowledge on a topic that matters to you.

The Walk
Go for a one hour walk in your neighborhood. As you’re walking, be observant. Don’t just withdraw into your own shell or your iPod. Notice what’s going on around you with your eyes and your ears. Look for things that are interesting to you.

Along the way, say hello to everyone you see (if that’s reasonable, meaning you’re not walking in a particularly crowded area). Genuinely compliment anyone that you have a real reason to compliment. Also, make an effort to remember anything interesting that you come across, like a flyer for an interesting community activity.

Why do this? The walk itself provides exercise. The constant observation improves your observation skills and your understanding of what’s going on around you. The positive social interaction with others is a great way to practice social skills and perhaps start building connections to the people who live near you.

The Giving
Go to a charitable organization in your neighborhood that you believe in, knock on the door, and ask how you can help. It could be a church, a food pantry, a soup kitchen – anything. The key is that you believe in what they’re doing.

Most charities are happy to find something for an interested set of idle hands to do. It might be anything, from cleaning to serving food to organizing things to setting up or fixing a computer. It depends entirely on what that organization needs, and if you’re meeting that need with whatever skills and energy and time you can offer, you’re helping that charity achieve its goal of helping others who need it.

Why do this? Few things improve your outlook on life quite like investing some of your time, energy, and talent toward helping others. It gives you a strong sense of social accomplishment and pride in how you’ve spent your time, particularly when you can directly see the connection and improvement in your community.

The Cleansing
Go through your house. Gather up everything that you rarely use. Load it in your car. Drive it down to your local Goodwill. Donate it.

Yes, of course, you could have a yard sale or something like that, but the relative earnings for a lot of the things you’d donate wouldn’t earn you a lot at a yard sale and a lot of it would go unsold. Not only that, the stuff would have to sit around your house until the next time you can have a yard sale. If you want a fresh start, you’re better off just getting it out of there.

Why do this? You’re reducing the number of items you own, which means more space in your home and less time invested in upkeep and maintenance of your stuff. You’re giving those items to a charity, and you’re also ensuring that they wind up in the home of someone who wants them.

The Thanks
Call the person that has meant the most to you over the course of your entire life and tell that person that you love them and appreciate what they’ve done for you.

That person might be a parent, but it might also be a mentor or an old friend or an older sibling, depending on how the course of your life has gone.

Why do this? You’re able to let that one important person in your life really know how much they meant to you, which is an emotional gain both for you and for that person. Sometimes, this type of call can cut through a period of poor contact between the two of you, which can be a great improvement to a valuable relationship for both of you.

The Goal
Set yourself a single overarching goal – financial or otherwise – that you want to achieve in the next five years. Come up with a detailed plan for doing it. Do everything you can do for that plan on the first day, such as setting up accounts, setting up an automatic installment plan, doing some research, and so on.

For many people, the singular goal is an obvious one. It’s one that’s been dominating our thoughts for a while but has seemed so big that we’ve been afraid to take action on it. Today’s the day to start taking action.

Why do this? A big goal like this is something that can completely change your life. Taking the first steps toward that transformation can feel incredibly empowering – and they also do start you on your way to the change you dream about.