Last year around this time, I already looked at 2010 as that year. Unlike prior years, I came into this year willing to exert as much of my will into my goals as humanly possible. In 2008, I didn’t set any resolutions or goals whatsoever, burnt by my failure to achieve any major ones all through that year. In 2009, I switched up the strategy: I told myself to set goals on December 5th, 2009 for the coming year. That way, I’d have no pressure. If I didn’t get any of them done, I could just reassess sometime the following December, aligned with my own timeline, not the way others perceive I should align my goals.
With a little help from my friends, I successfully completed 3 major goals:
- I got my driver’s license.
- I got my own apartment.
- I got published in a non-self-published book.
A couple of these seem small in the speck of what others perceive my major accomplishments were this year, but I’ve held these three goals in my back pocket since I graduated from undergrad. The difference is that I saw these goals as opportunities towards independence, and the more I’m freed from dependence, the more I can do things I’d actually like to do. Some of these accomplishments have brought me a new set of problems, but they’re what we call “good problems.”
2010 wasn’t about resolutions, but resolve. The urgency of now just couldn’t wait any longer.
While I won’t reveal the goals I’ve set for 2011, I will say they’ll probably reform my own identity. Here’s hoping you can come along for the ride.
Jose, who loves an evolution so long as we get to evolve …
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My name is Jose Luis Vilson, teacher, writer, public speaker, activist, Syracuse University and City College grad, poet, hip-hop enthusiast, and (certainly not least) father. I've been featured at CNN, Huffington Post, Education Week, Scholastic, TEDx, and GOOD Magazine. For more,
Some know me as Jose. Others as Mr. V. Educator, writer, activist, and father. Here I'll be posting thoughts in all those voices. 
Jose Vilson