Looking toward 2014

I've posted many things on this Blog in the past about resolutions, goals, plans, dreams, etc.  Many of them, if not most, I either did not follow through on, or let the momentum slip and reverted back.

Still, I'm naive enough at my age to already be looking toward what I consider my "offseason," which I loosely define as the time of year when I spend more time indoors.  Sure, I spend a lot of warm weather days filled with several hours of daylight indoors too, but my "offseason" is when I do better minding my weight, keeping my workout schedule, working toward goals, and such.

I'll try again to come up with some inspiring goals for the offseason and New Year as it approaches.  But one thing I am committed to is to try at least one thing, and hopefully more, well outside of my comfort zone. New, unique, exciting, and where failure is a very real and even scary possibility.

A few ideas:

1) Perform a set of stand-up comedy at an open stage.  I don't necessarily think I'm particularly funny, but I do find a lot of things funny every day, and the thought of putting a well-rehearsed act together to see if it resonates with others excites me.

2) Perform a musical set on an open stage.  I'm not a good enough guitarist to think that will impress anyone, but I pretty much perform for our two Westies at least every other night, and they don't seem to mind the singing.  Perhaps humans won't mind, either, and might even find it in their hearts to humor me with a nice golf clap at the end.

3) Bowl a major scratch tournament (or more).  I used to do this in my twenties, and failed miserably. Today, I have a different definition of failure, and thus should have no problem just doing it for my own joy of competing against others who are significantly better than I.  I've done this in golf tournaments and enjoyed it, so  bowling should really be no different.

4) Focus on a work project on my own, with no direction from upper management, on my own time, and not having anything to do with my day-to-day task management. My employer's annual Innovation challenge is too far underway to try that, but that doesn't mean I can't do my own personal challenge.

I'm not thinking too creatively right now, so I'll cut the list of possibilities at four.  But I want to get this documented, to put a little pressure on myself and not let my enthusiasm of the possibilities die.

I was in a management training course today, and one thing that stuck with me was a comment from another participant and former colleague of mine made a comment along the lines of, "My nature is to feel that if I'm not scared to death, I'm doing it wrong." I really want to pick her brain and see if I can develop that same trait.  I enjoy the nervous excitement of putting myself "out there," but not quite to the level of actually wanting to be scared.

Previous posts on my goals didn't seem to drive my motivation that much, but even at 47, I'm youthful enough to hope that this time will be different.