I don’t usually make new year’s resolutions. But around new year’s eve I was regularly attending Toastmasters and the topic of new year’s resolutions was dominating the speeches. I spent an hour, or so, creating a mind map of resolutions that I thought were achievable. I ended up with a lot. Most, however, were simple and required building better habits rather than doing anything off the wall.

Now five months on I think it’s time to re-visit them and make sure I am on track to actually achieving something.

“Continue going to Toastmasters and improve my public speaking”

Toastmasters is an international public speaking club. I started attending a club in Holborn in December as a guest. Unfortunately this was about the time when a whole load of other people decided to start going as well. Just as I decided to join I was told the club was full. After a couple of months on the waiting list they emailed me to say they would not take on any new members and I was removed from the waiting list.

Oh well. I’m on the look out for another club as I thought the few times I went were very worthwhile.

In the meantime I have been improving my public speaking at work by teaching a course, that I have now presented in five countries. I’ve also presented a seminar to my team and am presenting another later this week.

15% achieved. Fail!

“Read at least two hundred pages a week”

I borrowed this resolution from Tyler of Real Social Dynamics.

TV really pisses me off. I rarely sit down and watch a broadcasted program all the way through. I’ve caught snippets here and there when I’ve happened to be in the same room as a TV, but I’ve generally managed to avoid broadcasted programming almost entirely. Saying that I do watch a fair bit downloaded TV and films, but somehow I think on-demand is less mindless.

Instead I’ve been kicking it old school and reading books. I try to alternate fiction and non-fiction, as well as reading some of my unread books that have been gathering dust for years. Recent highlights have included Vernon God Little, Fight Club and Brave New World.

On average I think I’m hitting the page quota, although I’ve barely touched some of the classic texts that I listed on my mind map.

80% achieved - I think I’ll start maintaining a proper reading list to motivate me to read more.

“Run twice a week, and try running at least once before work”

An extremely common resolution is “do more exercise”, which I don’t think this is very easy to keep as it has no measurable progress or indication of how it will be achieved. My resolution was to build an excercise habit. I chose an exercise which could be performed solo without the need for gym membership or special equipment. I chose a frequency that I thought I could maintain.

Running twice a week isn’t amazing, but it’s not bad either. And I’ve stuck to it pretty well. I’ve introduced some interval training and pullups in Kennington park’s fitness trail. I’ve also entered into this year’s JP Morgan Chase around Battersea Park. I always let it slide if it’s raining, but if it’s sunny I find myself looking forward to spending some time outside and getting some exercise.

The “running before work” part was an experiment to see if I could build a habit at a time that would consistently be free of commitments. I have been out running at 7am twice, but I find it very difficult to drag myself out of bed.

75% achieved - Keep at it, it will be easier now it’s summer.

“Make maximum cash ISA contributions”

It’s all automatic so I don’t have to do much. I remembered to raise the standing order to £300 a month in April. I’m actually on the lookout for a good equity ISA at the moment as my HSBC ISA is pretty lame (I think it’s 4.75%).

90% achieved - I could find a better account.

“Buy a digital SLR and find a good photography blog”

I used to do a lot of photography back during my GCSE years. It was my “skill” for bronze and silver Duke of Edinburgh awards. Unfortunately I let it slide when I changed school and never got back into it.

Well now I have a Canon 400D which I got just before flying out to Bangalore. It’s pretty sweet, but I need to find more opportunities to use it. Sometimes I’m loathed to use it as I’ve started to associate DSLRs with the mass of tourists next to where I work.

Digital Photography School is the best photography blog I’ve found so far. Stumble upon is great for interesting pictures. I’ve also discovered that The Camera Club is about ten minutes walk from my flat.

49% achieved - Got the camera, now use it.

“Keep in better contact with friends”

I am particularity bad at keeping in touch with people. Throughout university I would never plan my social life in advance as people were always in the same places I was. I’m beginning to realise I need to make much more of an effort to maintain friendships with people. So far this year I haven’t done so well at this and my social life seems to revolve around an elite group.

20% achieved. Try harder. Again, now that it’s summer this should be easier. Pimms in the park any one?

“Program in my spare time”

There’s nothing like a degree in computing and a job doing C++ all day to put you off doing any programming in your spare time. However a frequent trait of successful technology startup founders, as pointed out in the Y Combinator Library, is that they are programmers themselves (not MBAs) productising a tool they’ve created for their own personal use. I’ve had a couple of ideas for tools I would like to write, and I would also like to experiment with interesting programming languages like Python or Processing. Unfortunately I haven’t done anything this year.

0% achieved.