Setting Up New Goals

see lemons set light green goals

So many potential goals

Random Observation/Comment #218: Rejection is a terrible thing, but it’s definitely part of life.  Any excuses I give for my role in the situation will never be enough to ease my mind.  I’m not sure if it’s the disappointment in myself for not being able to think quicker or act sooner (or later), or if it’s just self-pity and self-loathing, but it definitely sucks.  At the end of the day, it’s what you can learn from these situations, so over time I will rise from the lull and rebound.  Rejection builds character.

I wrote about a year ago about goals, aspirations, dreams, and fantasies.  I think it was about time to update this entry with my achievements in the past year.

Since last December, I’ve: finished my Master’s thesis, started a company, went on a small roadtrip to Ohio with close friends, studied abroad in Germany for 6 months, traveled all over Europe (at least 15 major cities), sledged on the Swiss Alps, cooked almost every day in Germany, collected about a hundred more beer caps, started a collection of beer labels, tried every flavor of Rittersport, uploaded about 150 albums to facebook, listened to the full Harry Potter series audiobooks, climbed 3 mountains in Germany, fell in love again, wrote about 100 entries, (almost) wrote a book, got to second round interviews to all the companies I applied to, wrote my first chapter to a comic, wrote a study guide for learning languages (key vocabulary words that are used in everyday conversations for Mandarin, German, Japanese, and Spanish), basically reorganized my life, read a book for leisure, bought my first manual camera, and started at least 5 other side projects.  I’ve been keeping busy…

To quote my previous entry:

“Many of the goals are very short term and involve completing tasks at hand to make myself feel productive for the day.  Long term goals exist as well, but they are much more reasonable and can probably be achieved in the next few years.  The aspirations are for my long term career outlooks and accomplishments that occur in the next decade or so.  My dreams are what I deem as possible, but will require a lifetime of hardship or a whole lot of luck to come true.   My fantasies are things that will probably never happen, but their existence makes me happy and keeps me wishing.”

Goals:

  1. Stop procrastinating
  2. Narrow down primetime TV shows because they take up too much time in my life (House, The Office, Heroes, Dexter, Colbert Report, 24, Californiacation, 30 Rock).  Better yet: try not to add more to this list.
  3. Learn to write more in Chinese
  4. Learn to speak fluently in Japanese, Mandarin, German, and Spanish by 25.
  5. Get better at cooking
  6. Review more restaurants
  7. Try more wine
  8. Finish the comic book
  9. Finish the manga
  10. Finish writing book – maybe publish it or just share with close friends
  11. Go sky diving
  12. Write more poems
  13. Add more to my bottle cap and labels collection of beers
  14. Finish my side projects list (top secret for now)
  15. Take more photographs and improve with manual settings
  16. Travel to Japan and Hong Kong before I start working
  17. See Natasha again
  18. Continue to collect memorable quotes from amazing nights

Aspirations:

  1. Get married (hopefully after the love thing)
  2. Find a career with flexible hours, low stress, and high pay (maybe this should be a fantasy or at least a dream)
  3. Live in NYC
  4. Publish a book (autobiography, memoirs, novel, etc)
  5. See the Northern Lights
  6. Make money from photography
  7. Write about drinking expensive wines
  8. Get an MBA
  9. Save someone’s life – change it for the better forever
  10. Own a dog and play in the little dog park with them – yay!
  11. Conquer my fears
  12. Go restaurant reviewing with my brother – he drives the nice car and I pay for the meals

Dreams:

  1. Visit all 7 continents
  2. See all 7 wonders of the world (all of them listed on Wikipedia which makes them like 50 based on different organizations)
  3. Travel to at least 50 countries (currently at 15)
  4. Make my first million by the time I’m 27
  5. Eat at almost 80% of all restaurants in The City
  6. Early retirement
  7. Make a living traveling and writing
  8. Learn to fly a plane
  9. Own a house that I’ve designed (I would build it, but I’m afraid it would fall down while I sleep)
  10. Become as influential as a professor – possibly become a professor
  11. Change the world with something
  12. Get on the Colbert Report
  13. Travel to space – weightlessness would be cool too

Fantasies: (All new sorts of ridiculousness: see last year’s entry for other funny ones)

  1. Time travel
  2. Obtain Jedi powers – most notably mind tricks
  3. Be a part of a heist without any consequence.  I don’t mind getting caught as long as I can say “I want full immunity signed by the President.”
  4. Help build Skynet, but go back in time to try and protect a younger version of myself from the governator
  5. Chainsaw a zombie in half
  6. Sleep with the only hot girl that remains after the zombie apocalypse
  7. Carve a turkey with a light saber
  8. Extend claws and have regeneration. I would also have ridiculous chops.
  9. Swing from a chandelier while having an epic sword fight
  10. Curve a bullet around Angelina Jolie
  11. Play ping pong against Christopher Walking
  12. Lift an entire aircraft carrier from a door while saving a girl
  13. Fly around the world so fast that I turn back time
  14. Play an Australian guy pretending to be a black guy pretending to be a soldier in the Vietnam war
  15. Make a play about a secret relationship that foreshadows the movie
  16. Chant “We Are Spartans” after defeating thousands of Persians on the side of a mountain
  17. Have a split personality disorder that makes me invent Brad Pitt as my alter ego. Not Tyler Durden; just Brad Pitt
  18. Run across the US and back for no reason except “I just felt like running”
  19. Attend Hogwarts for 4 years while fighting the dark lord and then become an outcast for an entire movie to defeat death eaters (which will be so much better than the last one)
  20. When I get mad (or excited), I turn green and huge
  21. Search for a treasure in an ancient temple filled with awesome traps.  Unchartered meets Tomb Raider
  22. Go to Vegas and count cards to win lots of money
  23. Be able to speak like Mickey in Snatch.  WTF does he say? I hate Pikers.
  24. Continuously be chased by the government because I’m a trained assassin trying to figure out my past
  25. Sweet Key Lime.

As always, health and continual strives towards learning is what matters most.

~See Lemons Aim, Exhale slowly, and Squeeze