So here’s the score from what I set out to do in 2008 (and yes, the post date on that entry is off due to my blog migration):

Improve my health

• BMI of 24.9 or less  - fail. I’m around 28.2 right now (better than the 29.8 I started with). I started the year around the 250 pounds mark and now am at 230; need to drop another 30. Most folks can’t tell, though. I suppose it is because I’m a few inches over 72.
• Improve cardiovascular conditioning – fail. The idea to do C25K came and went.
• Build my core and improve my posture – fail.  Posture is minimally better, but that’s it.
• Get a minimum of six hours sleep every night – fail. I was pretty lucky to get four hours some nights.
• Lower my cholesterol to a healthy level – done! I’m under 200 and my LDL/HDL numbers are better, too.

Simplify

• Reduce my online presence – partial-fail. I deleted my MySpace account, but re-activated Twitter. The social interactions I have had via Twitter and the great people I have met in the community via Twitter outweigh the noise (and blocking and unfollowing help minimize noise, too).
• Reduce my home IT demands – um, fail. Still working on this and hope to have greater success in ‘09.
• Purge the house stuff we don’t use – not much, still working on this, albeit more aggressively this year as we’re planning on moving in the next twelve months.

Community Involvement

• Re-engage with the online mobile community – not as successful as I had planned. Still working on this. Work took over my life again, so this and the blogging got back-burnered.
• Make it to more CINNUG meetings - Yes, I did make it to more meetings in ‘08 than I did in ‘07. Although it was still a poor showing as one of the group directors.
• Regular blogging and writing – not so good here either.

Improved personal/professional balance – Fail. No other way to say it.
Given the crazy work schedule I have had this year (particularly April through October), achieving balance has been tough.  Unfortunately, the next release cycle for this project (now through May) is shaping up for more of the same. I’m certain that I have had some growth out of the experience, but I think I’m still too close to the project to ascertain what it was.  Funny (sad funny?),  the better part of the last 5 1/2 years I have had a crazy work schedule with lots of OT. Hmm.

That said, I’m still determined to work on the balance issue and get more life in my life.  Uncertain of what I need to do to do that; may need something ‘extreme’.

Going to get my 2009 goals up this weekend; again hoping that the public statement of them helps with my accountability.

Yes, it is the 21st of January and I'm posting a 'goals for the year post' which one might usually expect on the 1st; I'm at the tail end of my 'catching up on things', so, well, meh.   I only published 58 blog posts in 2007, 46 of those prior to July 2007.  In contrast, I published 92 blog posts in 2006.  What happened?  My son was born in July 2007. As you can see, that knocked me for a loop, community participation-wise. 

I think it's fair to say that my wife and I, even now, at the six month mark, are still adjusting to what I call "the new normal".  That said, I would like to think that I have a decent handle on things (home/work/community) and have a somewhat-workable balance in place (one that is ever-changing and seeking improvement).  Even though I have not been blogging much during the latter half of 2007, I've been working on some things that I'll be publishing soon-ish. 

Improve my health 
If there ever were reasons to maintain my overall health, being around to watch my son grow up and grow old with my wife are pretty good ones in my book.  Not your standard weight loss goal, this encompasses more in my book:

• Achieve a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 24.9 or less (I'm currently at 29.8, which puts me 0.2 away from "Obese"). Wow, Nino's a fat ***, isn't he? Well, those of you who know me know that that's not quite the case. To put things into perspective, I'm 6'4" (1.93m) and weight 245lbs (111kg).  I clearly (IMO) do not appear nearly obese, but it's not all muscle, either. To achieve my target BMI, I will need to finish the year near the 202lb (91.6kg) mark.   Lose 40+ pounds in the next 11 1/2 months, that's going to take some work and some discipline.
• Improve my cardiovascular conditioning.  This will mandate a minimum 30 minutes of walking every day (and I need to get anaerobic workouts in, too). But, that's not enough.  Nope. I've somehow got it in my head to complete a 5k race this year. Once I get past this respiratory infection that's been dogging me since before Christmas, I'm going to start the C25K program.
• Build my core and improve my posture.  One helps the other, 'nuff said.
• Get a minimum of six hours sleep every night, preferably eight hours.  Lack of sleep, alone, has contributed to more of my health problems than anything else. 
• Lower my cholesterol to a healthy level.  This one largely speaks to dietary changes (can't do much about the genetic contribution here).  On the topic of diet (not dieting, in the bastardized American way), I'm looking at some software for my Windows Mobile device (you knew WM was going to get a mention here, didn't you?) over at Handango to help track this.  Any suggestions?

Simplify
A fad?  Perhaps for some. This is essentially a continuation of the prioritization that began when my son was born last year. A great many things became incredibly less important once he arrived.  To that end:

• Reduce my online presence. I started this one last week when I deleted my Twitter account.  Next up is probably MySpace and Facebook, perhaps LinkedIn, too.  And then there are the six (6!) personal email addresses.  Oh, and then there is the three hundred forty-six (yes, 346!) items in my blogroll.  WTF?!? 
• Reduce my home IT demands.  Rather, become less of my own IT department. Seven servers (P+V) and two clients (my desktop and Shannon's new laptop [used my EB's for this]). This is just getting crazy to manage.  Steve had the same thought back in '06.  I'm not sure what my approach will be, but it will likely be a longer-term plan given that I just built a new desktop last year (not to mention my 2x20", 1x24" monitor setup on this machine), and I need to sit down and sort out what my goals are (i.e. what do I want/need here and what I do not need / can outsource).
• Purge the house of stuff we don't use.  This one is a bit of a given. Toss it, sell it, give it, recycle it.  However it's done, stuff's going to go.  (not to mention we're considering moving within the next year, so the less stuff to move, the better).  Although, this is going to be tough given all the baby stuff that seems to keep appearing.  I need to work on convincing family and friends not to buy stuff (other than clothes or giving money) for the baby.

Community Involvement

• Re-engage with the online mobile community.  Like blogging, my involvement with the online mobile community (primarily newsgroups and forums) declined quite in the latter half of last year, for similar reasons.    I've already started this one; need to keep it up, although I think that concentrating in one area will be key.
• Make it to more CINNUG meetings.  Despite being part of CINNUG leadership, it has been really difficult to get to meetings.  Either I was on the road or had baby issues.
• Regular blogging and writing.  Not only will this help me contribute to the community, but more 'practice' writing can only be helpful.  On that note, I would like to get published this year - hoping to start with a periodical.

Improve personal/professional balance.  This is a tough one.  I've often found these goals to be conflicting, and I'm stubborn enough that I don't want to sacrifice either one.  Last year, while I traveling five days (+, sometimes) a week to western Maryland, I was really enjoying the project because of its intense technical challenges, despite the constant (and often heavy) overtime; however, my home life suffered. (Similar story the year before when I was working in NJ/DC).  That's the challenge with consulting, though. In the late winter / early spring of 2007, I needed to find a local project where I could be home at night as my wife was have a rather difficult time with the pregnancy, and, of course, my son would be arriving not long in the future.  I found one (and many thanks to Tom, Doug, and Isaac for their help), but, to be honest, it is a less-than-optimal role.  But I knew that going in, so that's ok. 

The question now is, do I stay there for another year? Or, do I head back on the road?  Do I re-locate to a different geography (i.e. larger metro area outside of Heartland district) with my current employer, or do I find a new employer in a new geography?  I'm working with my manager to see if we can address some of this. Let's face it, Heartland district (which we define as OH, KY, MI) is a tough market, and there's not much going on in Cincinnati, particularly for what I want to do.  In sum, how do I reconcile achieving professional success and advancement and having a good family life?  Is that possible in the consulting world?  (I've spent most of my career in consulting, and I haven't seen it yet)

It's going to be a busy year, but one in which I hope to be healthier and happier, and have achieved a greater sense of balance in my life.

I thought I'd write up some goals that I have for this year:

• Continue using the Getting Things Done model.  I got into this about mid-year last year (and somewhat half-hearted, I might add), then picked it up with diligence in the fall and I'm going strong. 
  

   

• Continue working towards a healthier lifestyle.  When I had my 30-something birthday in November, I took the opportunity to reflect on how non-optimal my diet and amount of exercise were.  Since then, I've been eating healthier (more veggies, less meat, etc) and getting the concept of "portion control" into my wee little head. Now, that's not to say that I'm on a strict diet.  Not at all. It's about making smart choices the majority of the time.  I still enjoy food (oh, make no mistake).   The second component of this is getting out of my chair and getting some physical excercise.  I've been working from home for the last few months and I've gotten quite sedentary.  I wake up in the morning and walk ten feet to my office (yes, a shower happens in this timeline); I then spend the next twelve or so hours (sans trips to the bathroom or the kitchen) with my *** parked in my Aeron chair.  I need to stop that.  Of course, it's all been great that I've got a good thing started with my diet while at home; the hard part will be keeping this up when I go back on the road shortly.
  

   

• Demonstrate thought leadership.  How?
  • Get published. Be it MSDN, CodeProject, or some other venue, I would like get at least one article published this year.  My problem is that I don't think I have anything worthwhile to write. Some of my friends are correcting that perception (thanks, friends).  Of course, I will also be publishing articles on my blog (i.e. not long blog post, but real articles), which brings me to...
  • Continue participation in public forums.  I started getting involved in the microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.compactframework and microsoft.public.pocketpc.developer  newsgroups in the early fall last year.  I need to maintain (and quite possibly increase a bit) my level of involvement.
  • Speak. Enough said.
  • Better leverage this site and this weblog.  Part of that means making it a more presentable and useful place...
    

   

• Spend more time outside.  Some days, I go out to get the mail and I have a "whoa, this is what the outside is like" moment. Quite sad.  I think that this goal segues nicely with the second bullet point.  I miss the outside. Even when it's cold.
  

   

• Read some non-fiction. I used to be a voracious reader.  Now all I read is technical material.
  

   

• Have a life.  Creating (and maintaining) a more solid boundary between work and home is a must for my sanity and my marriage.  This gets real tough when you're on the road five (or more) days a week.  For most of 2004 and the beginning of 2005 I did a very poor job of creating said boundary (and there were repurcussions). Although, I can't say I did a great of job maintaining that boundary while I've been working from home on this DE project.  Overall, I think that this will be the hardest goal to achieve.  As a consultant, it is imperative to stay sharp with my skills and to "push the envelope".  Achieving such a high level of competency and meeting challenging customer demands can certainly conflict with "having a life".  It comes down to being an adroit individual in balancing the demands placed upon me by myself and by others.

It's going to be a good year - I can feel it.

-Nino