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Fourteen months ago I set four goals for the year. Two involved music, and two involved business. About a month after that, I set another music goal. And about a month after that, I found out my wife and I were going to have a baby; I charitably considered this a sixth goal in light of the amount of time and attention it would take.

Goal #1 was to get back into music. This is what I wrote at the time:

I’m going to get my drums back onstage this year. I will find a band and start gigging again.

And that’s what I did: I found a band. I got my drums onstage three times. One was a headliner at a local outdoor concert series, and another was at a Kerry fundraiser. Both were highlights of last year.

When I set my goals, I didn’t account for the time it would take to be in a band. Rehearsals ate up a couple evenings a week for much of the year. I ended up punting one of the business goals in May, and the other last Fall, even though I’d made some progress toward both. The alternative would have been to quit the band, but that seemed counter-productive. I work enough already.

The second music goal was to learn to play the hammer dulcimer. I didn’t do this. But I did learn enough to write a song, which amazes me still. On balance, I’ll call this one a partial success.

Goal #5 was to get ready for the recording session I’d scheduled for Thanksgiving. I spent a month recording drum tracks, then two days engineering the tracking of guitar and vocals, and now I’m about a quarter of the way through mixdown. I’ve learned a thousand things about recording and mixing music, and in a month I’ll have learned a thousand more. This project is kicking off a total lifestyle change, which I guess is the point of setting big scary goals.

Goal #6, prepping for the munchkin, was an unqualified success. We got all the pre-delivery stuff done as planned, even though it meant installing a diaper-rinsing device on the toilet the night before the early-morning drive to the hospital, regardless of the fact that we wouldn’t actually need to rinse diapers for six-plus months. (Plan the work, work the plan, and don’t argue with extremely pregnant women.)

All in all I had set six goals, which considering their time requirements was too many by half. Even so, I achieved 3.5 of them. But as I think back, the score is irrelevant. 2004 brought some great events and spawned many wonderful memories. I achieved goals I’m ecstatic about. And I have a new hobby that is totally compelling, and a new baby who is all that and more. I’m not necessarily where I projected I’d be, but once again, that’s probably the point.