Around this time last year, I walking in downtown Calgary wearing only a dress suit in -30℃ weather, going from building to building, trying to find a service or program that could help me get employed. I had no idea what I was doing with my life.

Then, by sheer luck, someone offhandedly mentioned a program by the name EvolveU. That comment has changed the trajectory of my life.

Although I had originally gone to SAIT for information technology, I wasn’t able to finish the program. I had to take care of the financial burdens of my family and work instead. And I thought that I would never try to code again — it was a difficult field I did not have the luxury of time or money to dive into.

Being so grateful to earn a spot in the full-stack development program, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to squander it. I began to fully commit to self-improvement (https://www.beeminder.com/brennanbrown). I was going to make 2020 my year.

Of course, life had another idea. I was tested and pushed to my limits, like everyone else was. And although things didn’t go exactly how I thought they would, they still went surprisingly well.

I started learning French, playing chess, writing poetry again, taking care of my health, practising meditation, and most important to me — start creating open-source projects for others to use freely.

In 2021, I am aiming to become fluent in French, reach an ELO rating of 1700 in chess, publish a chapbook of my work, and officially start my own company!

Of course, there are so many other things that I wish I could have done, people I was hoping to meet, places I was wanting to go. But I hope that I made the most of what I could with the time I had. And I’m so grateful for everything I have in my life.

For 2021, I strive to do even more and accomplish many things that I’ve been yearning to get done for a long while:

Goals for 2021:

Work

  • /productivity: Spend five hours a day on my new business.
  • /distraction: Spend all my of leisure time on analogue activities.
  • /github: Create a new open source project that will benefit people.
  • /blogging and /writing: Start writing and publishing more, aiming for two posts per week.
  • Start writing by hand in my bullet journal once a day.
  • Start tracking my budget better, buy as little as possible, practice frugality.

Education

  • /learning: Earn 5 new certificates to help me with my career.
  • /courses: Complete 20 educational course in the year.
  • /books: Listen to 20 audiobooks in the year. Take notes on them.
  • /french and /clozemaster: Consume more French media, read and write in it more frequently, aim for fluency.
  • Reach an ELO rating of 1700 in chess, read more theory.

Creativity

  • /photos: Dedicate time to having a street photography session once a week. Start a new photography portfolio.
  • /poetry: Read and write more poetry, and publish a chapbook.
  • Learn new songs and fingerpicking on guitar, try my hand at songwriting again.

Fitness

  • /foodlog: Continue on my diet, practice veganism and sobriety.
  • /fitness: Continue going on daily walks to reach 10k steps.
  • /weight: Lose 40 lbs. and reach my goal weight of 140 lbs. Continue logging my weight daily to gain the most insight on the data.
  • /sleep: Start waking up and going to bed earlier.
  • /meditation and /prayer: Take meditation and prayer more seriously, study them.
  • /gratitude: Contemplate what I’m grateful for more deeply each day.

Meta

  • /journalbar: Write an eBook about this experiment using Beeminder.
  • /derail: Aim for zero non-legit derails this year.

Happy New Year!