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:

1. I got my driver’s license.
2. I got my own apartment.
3. 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 …