2016 Resolutions: January Update

It’s already February. Let’s take a look at the resolutions that I set for 2016, and see how I did in January.

• Learn to play the guitar
  Bought a nice guitar. And my fingers seem to finally be getting used to the steel strings. I try to practice for 5-10 minutes 4-5 times a day. I’ve finally gotten the E, A and D chords down, and my chord changes aren’t too lagged, and seem to slowly getting better. The first song that JustinGuitar.com tries to teach you is Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. When I try to play this song, my playing does not sound anything like a song. While I may have finally gotten some of the very basic chords, now I’m worried about the fact that I have no rhythm.
  Overall, good progress with learning the guitar.
• Write more
  Other than the posts that I’ve written for this blog, I haven’t written anything else of substance. So despite the easy goal, I haven’t made any progress yet.
• Better communication with distant family
  Well, we did Skype with one of my sisters, but it was because she reminded me that she hadn’t seen Grace in awhile. January is a busy month, since it’s the middle of the summer. I want to make sure I Skype more next month.
• Read at least 2 books a month
  I didn’t finish any books in January. So much for getting much reading done. I went to the flea market in Valparaiso on Sunday, and picked up a copy of Llampo de Sangre by Oscar Castro. This is the first book in Spanish that I plan on reading. It’s a fictional story about a mine that produces a lot of wealth, and all of the drama surrounding everybody at the mine. I also picked up a few thin books, also in Spanish, in a series about Chilean history.
• Watch less movies / TV
  Didn’t really keep track so I’m not sure how I did. I didn’t watch a lot. There were probably even a few times where I chose to do some genealogy research, instead of watching something — so progress?
• Develop blog about Chile
  Didn’t do anything with this, except for think about it a bunch. I might have shared my ideas with a few people too. The domain is LifeInChile.com, and it’s just sitting there undeveloped while I do nothing. This month, I need to get it hooked up to hosting, and figure out a good WordPress theme for it. I think my main focus on the site will be for tips for gringos in Chile.
• Exercise
  If eating is an exercise, then I exercised a ton in January. Otherwise this was a bad month for exercising.

I just happened to read this article about building great habits by making small changes, as opposed to making drastic changes that you can’t keep up with. Good read.