New Year

It's yet another year and for me it's time to try and level up. Instead of doing the usual "here are my resolutions for 2012" I'm going a different route: go meta and look at things from a different perspective. Instead of writing out specific things, I would go more conceptual and broader. I'll also go deeper and hold myself to a higher standard than I usually did when writing blog posts. So without further ado, here's my high level view of what I want to accomplish and expand for 2012.

Spirit and Meta

Before I go on I'd like to present my current notion of what my philosophy of "self consciousness" and "self awareness" are. Basically I believe that inside every one of us is a person detached from the physical manifestation and manifests itself as something I'd like to call our spirit. Every one has one and it defines who we really are.

In 2012 I would like to more clearly define and get to know this spirit. I'm going more "meta" on myself and be more critical of my actions and my views. I would also like to explore my philosophy on things more in this blog. In the past five or so years worth of content I for one have not been doing much sharing or introspection of myself and my understanding of my spirit. For a blog about me I don't say much about my spirit here and I intend for this to change.

I'm doing this for one simple reason: so that I can get to share more about me and the way I think so that it might inspire others to do the same. I know a lot of people who don't do much introspection or reflection of themselves and by doing this in the public I hope to just be able to inspire more people to do so. I'm not looking to start an enlightenment movement but I would just like people to at least try and enlighten themselves about themselves before they try transcending who they are.

I believe that for someone to change himself he must first know who he is and then visualize and see who he wants to become. Knowing your spirit gives you a better chance of doing this.

Health and Wellness

Notice that it's not just about hitting my weight targets and being able to do physical things. I for one would like to be well this year. Instead of saying "I would like to be a sexy beast by the end of 2012" I would rather be well and performing at my peak. I'm turning 29 this year, one year closer to the end of my third decade of existence -- I should be firing on all cylinders right now and reaching and maximizing my peak performance.

This goes not only for my weight but also for my endurance, my physical capabilities, and certain milestones and achievements. Here are some hard numbers that I would like to reach within the year:

• Weigh less than 80kg. As I write this I'm currently at 90kg and working on losing the 10kg in a holistic manner. This includes a weight management program and an exercise regimen that's designed to increase my metabolism and optimize my body's performance.
• Run 10km per session three times a week for at least four weeks. Right now I'm doing at most 5km per session at the most twice a week. There's a lot more running and training that I need to do to reach this goal so that I can prepare for the next item...
• Compete in at least one half marathon and potentially a full marathon. No ifs, buts, or excuses -- I'm setting myself up so that I can do these things within the year.
• Consistent <100 blood glucose. The last time I checked right after Christmas 2011, I was at 111 fasting blood glucose. That's a very good number but I'm looking forward to having it normalize to a lower than 100 level. It's no secret I'm a diabetic and I look to be able to reach this goal this year.

Also this year I aim to normalize my sleep patterns. The lot of traveling I've done in 2011 will most likely not change this year but I am looking forward to hacking my sleep patterns to be able to manage this better. I've struggled a lot in my life with sleeping regularly and I'm hoping to get that fixed and looked at in case I can't hack it myself.

Hopefully I can hack it on my own and not have to get professional help with it, but this is the year that I do fully intend to crack this sleep thing for myself.

Optimize and Focus

2011 brought me a lot of projects and progress in a lot of areas in my life: career, financial, in terms of C++ work, and of course joining Google. I'm fast approaching the 1 year mark of being a Googler (wow, it's just three months away!) and now I intend on focusing and optimizing my being. Here are a few areas that I intend to prioritize this year as far as my public-facing projects are concerned:

• cpp-netlib version 1.0, reviewed for inclusion in Boost. I will not be contributing to other open source projects in the meantime (including the greater Boost C++ Library project) to get cpp-netlib to a point where it is review-ready. Most of my 20% time will be going to this and the next item.
• ISO C++ Committee membership. This year is the year where I officially contribute to the ISO C++ Committee as part of Google's delegation. This is a major level-up for me but this also means I'm going to have to bring it and be on my A-game to help in the evolution and maintenance of the C++ programming language.

I'm cutting down on my involvement in all other projects that I may have had in the past (Ryppl, Boost, Clang) unless anything urgent or important comes up.

Just like in programming, there's a phase where you've done most of the functional work (I'm now relatively stable as far as my career is concerned) you can then move into the optimization work. Now for me it's going to have to be an efficiency and effectiveness concern more than "getting there".

Celebration

One of the things I definitely want to do more this year is to celebrate life. In the past I had been too focused on getting things done and accomplishing things and moving from one place to another. This year I want to celebrate more what I have (my family, my health, my career) and those things that have yet to come. I want to celebrate with people that I share a common bond with and build new relationships with more people that I share the world with.

This year I intend to celebrate my being Filipino by contributing to more efforts to help my fellow Filipinos in need.

I also intend to celebrate my Christianity more by being more active in the church I attend.

I pledge to celebrate my family by being present when we are together -- and even if we're not together like in cases where I'm traveling.

I will celebrate my being too and hopefully become an inspiration to younger and not so young people who have a dream and want to be able to get there.

Preamble

This is just the beginning of the year and I definitely hope you'll join me in this exciting journey.

Cheers