As is per normal for me, it's time again to reexamine myself and birth a new Matt Hackmann with the new year. It's funny how this has become a thing because I used to be vehemently against "New Year's Resolutions", taking that stance that a person should be able enact change at any time of the year. But, moreso than that, it's a barometer to measure how well those changes actually went. Anybody who knows a little bit about statistics knows that you need to monitor trends over time to get the most accurate data. All that said, let's see how I did against last year's list.

Health - To be fair, I actually started out the year pretty well. I all but ceased fast food and was even getting in my daily walking. However, the move to California but a big fat wrench into all that. I write this have just downed half of a Papa John's pizza. There were some upsides, though, such as the fact that work is within a bikeable distance. Negating anything gained from that, though, was the big uptick in alcohol consumption. It's amazing how easy it is to drink when there are other people to drink with.

Finances - Again, the job change had a unique impact on this category. The hard goals I had set out for myself were to reduce superfluous spending and eliminate my LASIK, credit card, and car debts. The middle two I actually accomplished and the car is within reach. However, if anything, the amount of money I dropped on a whim definitely increased, but because of the salary adjustment, I wasn't hurting as much for it.

Learn Japanese - I bought the stuff and made absolutely no progress on this at all.

Japan Trip - Mission accomplished with a repeat trip tentatively planned for 2015.

Drawing - Pfffffft!

The 2014 Version

I'm going to shoot for simplicity this year, so here's the plan (that I will not follow):

Eat Better - Again, fast food moratorium (as soon as my Taco Bell gift card is gone and the aforementioned pizza). It's easy enough to eat healthy at work (portion control being the most difficult part), but this needs to be carried over when I'm not there. Going to have to compile a list of not-terrible-for-me-but-good-for-my-tastebuds recipes.

Bike 150 miles every month - Once over the initial "three week to develop a habit" hump, this will actually be easy. My round trip work commute is twelve miles, so if I did that five days a week, that'd actually be 200+ miles per month. I'm giving a little bit of slack though. Start slow and all that.

The Girlfriend Factor - I've been single long enough. Time to push past my shyness and make that shit happen.

All in all, I'd say two of those three things is attainable. We'll see what things are looking like when I write this post again next year.