The prospect of poor health, a milestone birthday of sorts and all round malaise kicked off what was a great plan (in my opinion at least) to deliver change over the course of a year, which as I am wont to do, I tagged with the lofty title ‘ The Year of Living Dangerously’. It started off well – at least with regards to chasing up 52 small changes but the initial enthusiasm seeped out, prompting an attempt to gee myself up for a restart.

Life is in a bleh-ish, ok state just now - the life plan is pretty much bottomed out, with the critical success definitions in place and clear. What is clear though is that a step change is required to go from where I am to what I have spelled out in the plan. For 2014, the big idea is to identify one change in each main category, which if implemented diligently over the course of the year will leave me in a much better place to achieve those long-term goals than I am now.

In detailing these goals, two main resources have framed the direction and strategy - Andy Stanley’s One Thing message (thanks to Ore for hooking me up with Andy) Matt Cutts’30 day challenge TED Talk from 2011 (thanks to Miss.Fab) for that.

The plan, if I can call it one, is to follow up the actions in backlog - 2011, 2012 and 2013 and then to focus on delivering one improvement in each of the three dimensions of life I am focused on. These are:

  • Communication and engagement with regards to my core connections (Life Goal #1)
  • Improve professionally by chasing a couple more professional certifications for my Materials and Corrosion specialty (Life Goal #2)
  • Follow up on my commitments in my local church tech team/ volunteer my skills for any value adding opportunities as they come up (Life Goal #3)

On a personal development front, books like Quiet and Networking for those who hate networking highlighted the advantages being an introverted, nerd type bring to my various connections. The 2014 focus will be looking to understand my specific manifestations of introversion and leveraging them in the various roles I fill in my life.

As much as is possible, the 2014 goals will be implemented as 30 day challenges to improve the probability of them sticking.

To wrap up then - here’s the 2014 plan; in 12 things.

  1. Learn to drive, buy a car - target March 2014
  2. Buy a house - target June 2014
  3. Improve professionally
    • API 571 ICP
    • API 580 ICP
    • NACE Senior Corrosion Technologist
  4. Find and engage two personal mentors; schedule regular monthly meetings
    • K and O for personal life,
    • Pastor G for spiritual accountability
  5. Travel
    • UK City Breaks (x3)
    • The Great North American Road Trip
  6. Develop a daily practice of prayer, bible study and journaling
  7. Complete National Blogging Month - utilise 30 days to a better man
  8. Save minimum of 30% of net earnings through YE
  9. Communicate and engage the key people in my life
    • Build a list of the critical 10 connections
    • Develop a schedule - daily, weekly, monthly as appropriate
    • Write to sponsored children once a quarter
  10. Deliver on the 30 book reading plan - post a monthly wrap up of books read in the month.
  11. Engage the wider Church and Aberdeen community
    • Write for the church magazine - deliver four articles minimum
    • Maintain Broadcasting Team engagement
    • Engage the Young Adults group more - focus on delivering an improved social media engagement strategy for the group
  12. Get fit and lean
    • Weigh 79kg (lose 3 more kg)
    • Drop to 15% body fat
    • Develop defined abs - six pack and toned arms/ general fitness

Here’s to a year of small changes… :)