I haven’t made a New Year’s resolution in years. It just doesn’t make sense to me: despite our best intentions they usually fail to materialize because they’re too ambiguous, too general and lack deadlines.

With that said, I’m focusing on a few specific, achievable goals in the next 3 months:

1. Make the leap from freelance to full-time

Freelance work has been a great experience, and it’s time to move on. Feel free to contact me through any of the links I’ve provided on this blog if you know of any openings in Planning, Strategy, Consumer Insights or New Media. Commenting on this post would probably be the fastest and easiest way to get a hold of me.

Goal: Find a position in the U.S. before April 2010.

Strategy: I’ve been doing all the right things (networking online and off, informational interviews, etc). I just think it’s a matter of doing these kinds of things consistently so I can be in the right place at the right time.

2. Start learning Japanese

I’ve wanted to learn Japanese for a while now, so I’m taking the plunge. I’m dying to visit Japan, too, so I’m setting a tentative deadline for the end of 2011.

Goal: Japanese has four alphabets. My goal is to learn Hiragana and Katakana inside out (which will help me learn Romaji in the process). Once I have those under my belt, I’ll shift my focus to Kanji.

Strategy: I’m primarily going to be using TextFugu.com‘s guide, along with the following links. They’ve done a great job of laying down all the steps and explaining everything thoroughly. I’ve already been doing daily one hour study sessions for the past two weeks.

More links:

• Master Hiragana on Smart.fm
• Hiragana Trace Sheet (to learn proper stroke order)
• Hiragana Drag-N-Drop
• Hiragana on RealKana.com
• NihongoUp game

3. Become an early riser

I’ve always had a hard time getting up early, and I know that it’s mainly because I’m a night owl.

Goal: Start getting up daily at 7am.

Strategy: Follow Definitive Guide to Becoming an Early Riser from Stronglifts.com

4. Blog more consistently

I think there’s a direct correlation between information absorbed and information processed, so I’m going to try to cut down on my blog reading so I can shift my focus to blog writing.

Goal: Write at least one new post a week.

Strategy: Allocate 2-3 time blocks per week to focus on generating new posts.

5. Drop below 10% bodyfat

2009 was a good year for me fitness-wise. Among other things, I:

• increased my max squat by about 100 lbs (max 215lbs for 5 reps)
• increased my max bench press by about 50 lbs (max 210lbs for 5 reps)
• went from zero chinups and pullups to weighted reps

I was able to do all this in less than 5 months.

Goal: My current goal is to get my bodyfat down to 8% (I’m around 10-10.5% right now). I figure it’ll take me about 4-8 weeks (cut .5% minimum each week), depending on my consistency. Once I achieve this, my next goal will probably be to get my max squat, deadlift and bench press over 250lbs for 5 reps.

Strategy: Full-body dumbbell/bodyweight circuit workout twice a week. Cardio 3-6x a week for 25-45 minutes.

6. Read at least one book every two weeks

I go through phases where I read a lot and then I don’t read at all. Last year I read about a dozen books total.

Goal: Read at least one book bi-weekly — that comes out to 26 books a year — more than double what I read in 2009.

Strategy: Set aside one hour a day for reading.

LINKS:

How To Easily Achieve Your Goals In 2010 via Stronglifts.com