It’s been a while since I’ve posted here – over two years, in fact.  It doesn’t feel that long.  I’ve been busy, distracted, focused on other things.  I didn’t do a great job of making the time for this site.  In the time since I last posted, though, I’ve done a lot of other stuff:

  • Finished a master’s degree at Cambridge and moved back to the US
  • Spent five months in Missouri learning how to be an Army Engineer Officer
  • Moved to Fort Stewart, Georgia and joined the 92nd Engineer Battalion
  • Spent a year as a Horizontal Construction Platoon Leader
  • Explored Savannah and went on many other adventures
  • Deployed to Kuwait
  • Learned about myself, made and lost friends, and grew (I hope) a little wiser and more mature
  • Thought a lot, read a bit, and did some more

I’ve been inconsistent, but I’ll keep putting words down. For this first post back, I’d like to look forward, addressing the things I intend to do: the habits I’ve resolved to form and the things I’d like to accomplish. The list below is an edited and refined version of one I created in my personal journal on January 1st of this year.

Thinking

  • Personal and Emotional Reflection and Study
    • Finish The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and seek out similar works
    • Write and commit to a personal mission or purpose statement
    • Use exercises in that book and others to continue self-study and improvement
  • Professional and Intellectual Growth
    • Army – find ways to contribute and learn within the organization
      • Explore engineer doctrine
      • Engineer Captain’s Career Course – learn from both the course and my classmates
      • Gain Project Management Professional (PMP) certification
    • Engineering – continue learning the profession
      • Achieve Professional Engineer (PE) Licensure
      • Check up on Cambridge coursemates
    • Business and Finance
      • Learn accounting and financial modeling basics
      • Read through MBA cases – evaluate the benefits of a future MBA
      • Leverage study of budgeting/saving/investing materials into something more tangible
    • Computer Science
      • Refresh on key math topics and learn even more
      • Learn more logic
      • Gain a basic understanding in a language (Python?)
    • Continue learning outside of these, from everyone possible

Reading

  • Read 1 book per week
    • Try to mix genres (fantasy, history, contemporary fiction, etc.)
    • Ask for more recommendations instead of just seeking out what I know I enjoy
  • Post a monthly review and reflection online

Doing

  • Create More
    • Post at least once per month on website outside of book review, commit to finishing drafted posts
    • Writing (letters, stories, D&D, and other ways)
    • Drawing, photography, capturing beauty in the world
  • Physical Fitness
    • Plan and record workouts
    • 100 pushups, 200 situps, 11:30 2-mile
  • Cooking and Gardening
    • Learn concepts instead of algorithms – be a chef, not a cook
    • Create a new dish
    • Plant a garden, make a salad from it
  • Minimize Excess in Life
    • Get rid of unnecessary and “net-negative” things (physical, emotional)
    • Hone in on what’s important

I’ll set a reminder to revisit this list at the beginning of 2020, assessing whether I achieved these things and deciding where I want to be by the end of that year.  By then, I’ll have redeployed, finished the Engineer Captain’s Career Course, and be on my way to my next long-term assignment within the Army.  I may not accomplish everything, but – so it goes.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

Marcus Aurelius