This will be the second year where I share my goals with my readers.  The idea behind this is multi faceted: I need to understand my goals fully before I can articulate them and write them down.  I want to share with you my though process and some of my dreams, and I want the psychological pressure of making my goals public so that I can be held accountable for them.  I apreciate all of you who were part of my success in 2013. Let me set the stage for you for 2014.

This is going to be a big transition year for me.  I will finish with grad school, one way or another.  That will leave me without a steady paycheck, and I am not likely to continue with academia. My best option for long term motivation and success is probably self employment.  This will allow me to solve problems that need solving and quickly adapt to changing work environments. 2014 will be my first year of self directed projects. Mary and I deferred our honeymoon, and plan to travel the world extensively in 2014, living in another country for several months at a time to experience the culture. The early part of the year will be spent wrapping up grad school and real estate deals.

My 2014 Goals:

1. Finish Grad School. We have discovered a new virus in the Yellowstone hot springs and its host.  All it will take will be to get it to replicate and we can write a paper and I can write my thesis.

2. Sell the Boulder condo and invest the capital in a high yield investment that will provide a nice monthly cash flow of $500 or greater.  This will likely be a 2-4 family investment property in St. louis.

3. Grow my cycling coaching business and related coaching products business to $4500 per month.  I expect half of this income to come from personal monthly coaching, and the other parts will come from training plans and guides (to pro cycling, nutrition supplements, etc.)

4. Visit at least 5 new countries.  We plan to start our honeymoon in Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Ideally we will find a town that we like and settle there for a while.  It will certainly be easier to concentrate on our relative projects when we aren’t moving around so much. After being introduced to “travel hacking” this year, we have been acruing lots of airline miles and hope to spend them on big overseas trips.

5. Connect people and expand my network. I have been brainstorming the best ways I can help my network, and I thinking connecting people with unique commonalities will be a good place to start. I would like to attend some live events where I can connect with like minded adventureers and entrepreneurs.

6. Write 365,000 words.  That is 1,000 words per day, which I can bust out in as little as 12 minutes per day.  The more I write, the better I will get, the better chance I have of producing good work. I don’t know for sure, but I will likely start my first book project this year, which will probably take a look at how people and businesses in different cultures solve problems.

7. Get a paid modeling gig.  Kacie Q, our wedding photographer has helped me out by putting together a portfolio of photos for me to send to agencies.  From there, I hope it will be a matter of getting an agent or agency and booking some shoots.

8. Be a better Husband, Friend, and Family member. I love my friends and family to death, and I want to show them how much I care by filling my role in their life as best I can. This means I will try to see in person as many people as possible, prioritize important life events, and stay in touch electronically when it will only take a few moments to check in.

9. Increase charitable giving. Right now, I am a broke ass grad student.  Before any increase in income gets locked up by buying a fancy car or anything, I want to increase my giving to around 5% (currently at 3%).  I also want to unite my friends and network around an education project, as yet to be determined.

10. Get to 6% body fat at 180 lbs.  Since I won’t be racing my bike much in 2014, my fitness goals revolve largely around staying healthy and looking good (which will probably help with modeling). Since a low body fat percentage is the key to a toned appearance, I will plan to maintain my weight and reduce my body fat percentage (currently at 10.5%).

This is where I will start 2014 (the next step is to deconstruct each goal and figure out the steps needed to achieve each one).  I learned in 2013 that you can expect a certain amount of unexpected drift from your trajectory given natural disasters, the secrets of biology, etc. A big part of making next year a success will be knowing when to shift direction and focus.

What are your Big Hairy Audacious Goals for next year?