I want to be better at setting myself monthly goals for self-development. These are things I keep saying I want to do but kept putting off. I hope to set myself just 3 goals a month and the will update this post with updates throughout the month.
- 異世界のんびり農家
- Get Back Into Running
- Shadow Japanese On Regular Basis
- (Bonus) Get a US Drivers License
異世界のんびり農家
This is a book I saw in Japan when I was there in November. It looked cute and interesting and about FARMING. So yes I wanted to read it right away.
I have a lot of books I want to read (I listed a few in my 2018 Goals and Challenges) so I want to get through this list asap.
I’ve already finished off my books from 2017 at the beginning of January and then read Back Stage!! in 2 weeks in the second half of January.
To help me with my goal of reading more I’ve teamed up with two other avid readers and translators and created the Aishoka Club 愛書家クラブ!
Get Back Into Running
In 2017 I got really good at running on a regular basis. I often ran for 20 minutes with a 5 minute cool down on a treadmill in the morning before I left for work. This was fairly regular for about 6 days a week for 3 months.
It started because I wanted to get fitter for an old cosplay I hadn’t worn in a while. Then I wanted to make a new cosplay and keep fit for that.
To stay motivated and to make me want to go back, I watched anime. 1 episode of a series every morning, which made running even more enjoyable!
But I stopped when I went to Japan for 2 weeks, then I got sick, then it was Christmas. I tried to get back into it a few times but to no avail.
However, there are some conventions coming up and I’d like to cosplay for them. I found these were great motivators last year so I’m going to try again in February and see how far I get.
Shadow Japanese on a Regular Basis
In January I tried to improve my reading by reading a news article everyday and studying 5-10 vocabulary from it. It somewhat worked but I realized I need to read in the morning or it won’t get done. So although I didn’t do as well as I had hoped I have learned about myself and hope to keep reading news on a semi-regular basis.
For February I want to improve my speaking and listening through shadowing Japanese. This is particularly for the sake of my interpreting classes, but also because I want to improve my speaking fluency.
I plan to do this by finding a short video (maybe 2 to 5 minutes long) shadow it, then repeat. I want to experiment with shadowing techniques and what could work for me and what won’t.
Issues I know I will struggle with include finding time. Often I aim to do something but forget to until the end of the day. So I need to find a good time during the day to work on this on a regular basis.
(Bonus) Get a US Drivers Licence
I can drive. I have a UK drivers licence but should really get my licence for the US. This means learning the theory for a provisional and then taking the test. It’s just one of those things I kept putting off but should get it over and done with.
