2018 is the year that…

I’ve never been into having New Year’s Resolutions. Mostly because they basically stand for something you want to change about yourself but inevitably are broken before February 1st. I love the spirit of it, but they’re the Lucy moving the football of improving yourself.

I am, however, a big goal-setting person, and each year I like to think about the things that I most want to accomplish.

2018 is the year that…

…I will work hard to be a better husband and father. Time…no, focused time, is what I most need to work on. Being present and not distracted. Showing my family that they’re always the most important thing in my life. Phone down, eyes up.

…I will read one book a week. 52 books by December 31st, that’s my goal. I read 33 books in 2015, 36 books in 2016, and 40 books in 2017. I’d like to see if I can average a book a week ala Bill Gates.

…I will blog 5 days a week. Blogging makes me think. It makes me a better entrepreneur and a better leader. It’s also akin to keeping a journal or diary, at least for me. I’ve gone through streaks where I’ve blogged every day for several months, so I should be able to keep this pace.

Dragon Army doubles, again. My main non-family time is spent working with my team at Dragon Army. We’re a mobile and innovation company, and I think 2018 will be a BIG year for us. We ended 2016 with about 12 people, and we ended 2017 with 32. Our goal is to double again in 2018. Onward and upward, folks.

48in48 goes global. That’s right, in 2018 48in48 will hold its first international event…in London! Oh, if you’re new here, 48in48 is a nonprofit I co-founded with Adam Walker in 2015 that puts on hackathon-style events in cities, bringing together several hundred volunteers to build 48 nonprofit websites in 48 hours. Over the last three years we’ve held 7 events across the US. The big goal is to hold 48 events across the globe, on the same weekend, by 2025.

…I will publish my first book. It turns out that writing a book requires a lot more than…well, writing a book. If you decide to work with a publisher, like I have, then you most likely need an agent. I spent a good bulk of 2017 working to find the right agent, which I did, and now together we’re reaching out to publishers to find the right fit. Once we lock in a publisher, it’ll be heads-down writing time. I cannot wait.

Those are the things that I will spend the majority of my focus on in 2018. In order to pull this off, I’ll continue to be very conscious of where I spend my time, the things I’m involved with, and how efficient I can be.

10 Comments

  1. mickmel on January 1, 2018 at 3:27 pm

    Please share your book list as you get into it. I’m aiming for a book per week as well.



  2. Jeff Hilimire on January 1, 2018 at 4:28 pm

    You bet, I’ll be blogging about each book as I finish them. How will you be sharing yours?



  3. mickmel on January 1, 2018 at 9:38 pm

    I plan to blog, but I need to get a solid plan in place, particularly for carving out time to read.



  4. […] contributor to my success going forward will be how well I manage my own time. And to achieve the six big things I want to accomplish in 2018, I’ll need to be very efficient with what I do, and how I do […]



  5. adamalbrecht on January 3, 2018 at 10:11 am

    I am aiming to read a book in 2018. I’m giving myself 52 weeks to do it. So looky there, we both have a 52 in our goals! #twinsies



  6. Jeff Hilimire on January 3, 2018 at 12:18 pm

    At the rate you’re pumping out blog posts, I might have to slim down my book reading in order to keep up ;)



  7. adamalbrecht on January 3, 2018 at 1:21 pm

    Oh Snap! Or you could just read smaller books. With lots of pictures, like the ones I color in.



  8. […] all others or that have made the biggest impact on my life. And as I work to read more – one book a week in 2018! – I want to make sure I keep reading impactful books. Below is a list of the 5 books that […]



  9. […] asked “how do you do all of that?” more than anything else, and particularly after my Things I Want to Accomplish in 2018 post. Truth be told, I don’t “do” any more than anyone else, I just focus hard on […]



  10. […] January 1st I shared that one of my goals in 2018 would be to read a book a week (52 in total.) I read 33, 36, and 40 books over the last three […]



Leave a Comment