Danny Moran

My goals for 2021

Published January 01, 2021 by Danny Moran

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Introduction

I’ve never been one for setting yearly goals however this year I have decided to give it a go. I have identified a few areas of my life that could benefit from setting goals; my health, career, personal finance, and just life in general.

Health

The Gym

From 2014 to the end of 2019, I would visit my local powerlifting and strength gym 4 to 5 times per week. My main focus was powerlifting and a small amount of weightlifting mixed in for some variation. Mainly, I would focus on Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, and Overhead Press however I would also add in some accessory workouts such as Lunges, Bicep Curls, Push-ups, Pull-ups (they possibly could have been Chin-ups, I don’t know what the difference is), and anything else I decided to do that day.

Two of my favorites were Wrist Curls and Calf Raises. I have no idea why, but it could have been to do with seeing consistent improvement in the amount of weight used and reps completed, as well as noticeable muscle definition in the forearms and calves.

Periodically I would test my strength on the main compound movements to see what my best One Rep Max (1RM) were. The last time I tested these were in the middle of 2019 and below is what I achieved.

For someone who went to the gym for 5 years multiple times per week, these numbers are pretty low however I was never into competing as my main objective was to just gain some strength and keep fit. Often, I would work out with one or two of my friends. Both of these friends have both competed in local powerlifting competitions and have much higher lifting numbers than me having both lifted over 200kg in deadlift and squat which provided good encouragement to continue the grind.

In the entire of 2020, I didn’t go to the gym once. Mainly because of the global pandemic causing gyms to close and as well as not feeling comfortable being in close proximity to random strangers during these times especially after seeing people on social media who clearly have no idea about how to wear a mask correctly. Although the gym I go to is always cleaned regularly even before the pandemic hit, gyms are still not the cleanest of environments.

Hopefully, this year is better and gyms start to feel safer so this goal can pick up some traction.

Action Point: Go to the gym or do home workouts.

Eating Healthier Foods

Cooking and baking are activities that I really enjoy however most fast food just tastes so good. During 2020 I hardly ate fast food due to most places being closed or only available for delivery through apps that charge much higher prices plus additional delivery charges. While this substantially reduced my takeout food consumption I haven’t really improved my diet and still eat a lot of junk even though I’m cooking the food myself.

I need to look into healthy diet meals that I can make myself and add some colour and variety into my meals.

Action Point: Cook healthier meals.

Posture

For my work, I sit at a desk all day every day and my current desk is a fixed height desk and my chair is not very ergonomic. At my previous job, I had a height-adjustable desk which was amazing. Before using one myself I had just thought of them as some kind of novelty item which has more looks than function. I was wrong. It took a couple of days to be able to use my keyboard and mouse efficiently when standing due to the change in height and body position but once I got used to it I had no issues when changing between sitting and standing.

My current process is every 1.5 to 2 hours I get up and take a 10-minute break and have a quick walk around as I notice that I am starting to slouch.

Action Point: Figure out the best way to correct my posture and look into getting a standing desk and more ergonomic desk chair.

Career

Since 2014 I have worked in the Information Technology (IT) sector. I have worked for a handful of companies in both the United Kingdom as well as Australia. When I started in 2014 my first job was as an Apprentice for a Managed Service Provider. This provided great fundamental knowledge of an extremely large range of diversified companies. Over the past year or so I haven’t progressed to more senior roles in my career.

This year I have decided to update my certifications with some of the desirable ones that are looked for by employers in the IT sector.

Certifications

Since completing my apprenticeship, I have completed a few vendor certifications but there are more I want to complete. The main certification I have completed is the PRINCE2 Foundation in Project Management but I want to increase my knowledge in my current working sector. The main certifications I am looking to get this year are;

There are also a few fundamental certifications I may attempt just to try and extend my knowledge (plus they are free, who can say no to free?) I don’t intend on moving my area of specialty to any of these things but having a basic understanding won’t hurt as technology is so combined and have so many overlaps. The few fundamental certifications I am currently looking at are;

Action Point: Take exams and get valuable certificates.

Software Development

I have tried to learn several programming languages over the past 10 years however nothing has ever stuck. Having spent countless hours trying to learn various programming languages and I don’t have anything to show for it. I have recently identified the reason why nothing has ever stuck. Once I had learned the fundamentals of these programming languages I never tried to implement any of the new skills so the knowledge wasn’t reinforced.

So, a goal for this year is to learn Python and PowerShell basics and attempt to implement these skills into my work, and try to automate some of the repetitive tasks. I already have some ideas for this so hopefully, I manage to progress with this and it doesn’t turn out the same as previous attempts.

Something else to dabble in this year is web development but this blog likely is the most that come of this goal.

Action Point: Learn Python and PowerShell and attempt to implement this into my work.

Personal Finance

Investing in the Stock Market

Investing in the stock market is something I have found interesting for many years. During this time, I have made substantial returns on my investments but I think they can be higher. During this year I want to analyse and restructure my portfolio in an attempt to provide the most gains while also not having too much risk exposure.

Action Point: Continue investing in the stock markets and look into new companies and areas to invest in.

Investing in Start-ups

An area of investing I am looking at entering is the start-up scene. I haven’t looked into this very much but two of the ways I’m thinking about investing are; funds and experience.

Funds

This is pretty standard. You give a start-up some money in return for some % of the business.

Experience

This could potentially be a good opportunity if the right scenarios come along. Having spoken to start-up founders in the past, not all founders have the technical knowledge to get it off the ground. They might already have the idea and the funding but no one to implement these ideas. This could be something that I can assist with as I have set up business IT networks and systems for several businesses in the past.

Action Point: Find start-ups that I can invest in.

Property

I’ve started looking into buying properties that I can either buy then renovate and sell or buy then renovate and rent out. I know people who are currently doing this and have spoken with them about this previously I know it can be quite a lot of work.

Action Point: Look for a property that I could buy.

Hobbies

Golf

I have always been interested in both watching and playing golf however there is a big downfall with the latter. I’m not very good. I can pretty consistently make contact with the ball however the direction the ball goes in is not always the direction I desire. I have my own set of golf clubs and no matter how many balls I hit on the range my accuracy never seems to improve so I think the next stage is to get some lessons from a pro at one of my local golf clubs so they breakdown all aspects of my golf and provide ways for me to improve.

Action Point: Take golf lessons and hit the ball in the direction of my choosing.

Start a YouTube Channel

Starting a YouTube channel has been something I have wanted to do for a while now however not gotten around to doing it. The main purpose would be to provide some sort of technical guidance videos clearly and concisely. Since being in the IT industry I have used YouTube as a resource for investigating new technologies that I am looking to implement so I have an understanding of how it’s done as well as refreshing my knowledge if I need to do something that I haven’t done in a while and need a quick recap.

One of the reasons why I want to start my own is that in a lot of these videos wasted time is abundant throughout the video as they contain a lot of useless information. The videos I want to make will be short and to the point.

Action Point: Create a YouTube channel and write some good guides.

Read Some Books

I have no idea when the last time I read a book. I frequently read manuals for software but it’s not the same thing. I am still deciding on if I should buy physical books or get a kindle and go the route of eBooks. Either way, I need to read some books. Maybe one book each month this year to start?

Action Point: Buy some books or a Kindle and some eBooks and start reading.

Hanging Out With Friends

Due to all the lockdowns, it’s been difficult to hang with friends that don’t involve computers and the outside world. Once things clear up hopefully activities with friends will resume.

Action Point: Contact friends more and spend more time with them.

Maintain a Semi-active Blog

The last goal for this year will be to keep a semi-active blog, I’m not sure of the content yet but maybe something will just flow.

Action Point: Write some blog posts.

So that’s it for my first goals blog post. Who knows if this is something that continues…? I don’t think I will do monthly updates but maybe quarterly updates? Only time will tell.