Last year I set up 5 goals for myself for 2010, and while I missed the mark on a couple, I achieved others. Let’s review:

1. Run 500 miles over the course of the year. - Did NOT achieve this (I consciously gave up on this goal early on). Running requires a lot of time and dedication, and unfortunately while I have a lot of dedication it’s to other things I love, and I don’t have a lot of time because of that dedication. I have a tendency to over commit to too many things and not focus, and I needed to streamline my priorities and focus to do 2 or 3 things well instead of 5 or 6 only kinda well. Running simply fell down the list of priorities and as much as I would love to run a marathon someday, I don’t have the time to commit to it at this point. Someday.

2. Record my well overdue album, whether it’s by myself or with a band. - I took strides here, and I definitely made FAR more progress in this area than I have in the previous 5 or 6 years, but alas no album. HOWEVER, I did enjoy a brief stint in Thank You Forever and will be eternally grateful to those guys for giving me the motivation to get back at it. I also have written enough songs to fill two albums over the course of the year, have plans to actually put those songs to use in a new band (and album) in 2011, AND I did in fact release one song that seemed to go over pretty well. You can listen to it on my website (http://www.tomboates.com).

3. Play at least 1 live show with a band. - DONE. In fact I played around 6. Expect more from me in 2011.

4. At least 1 new remix per month. (www.facebook.com/djdirtywater) - I have actually accomplished this, but not all of them are public. I have around 10 unreleased (because they are slightly unfinished) tracks kicking around, on top of the 5 or 6 I did in fact put out this year. Again expect these out some time in 2011.

5. Clean up my finances. (I do have specific goals here but I didn’t want to divulge details about my finances!) - Done for the most part, but you could ALWAYS improve this. I look to improve even more in 2011.

So that’s not a bad progress report. Where I didn’t meet my goals there were valid reasons for not achieving them, and in some ways I learned a little bit more about myself and my priorities. All great things. So, what am I looking at in 2011?

1. Cut the Fat - 2010 taught me a lot about focus. I am a classic over-committer, committing myself to do 8493 things when I can only really do 3. Over the course of the year I have been slowly cutting things out of my life that while I really enjoy doing them, I simply don’t have the time for them if I really want to be successful with the ones that really matter. I still have some room for improvement here, so look for me to drop even more of what I’m doing in 2011 in favor of the more important things.

2. Put out an album - I had this on last year’s list, but didn’t achieve it (despite the amount of stuff I wrote!). This will be achieved this year, I promise. Hopefully for both my personal music, and a DJ album.

3. TomBoates.com/DJDirtyWater.com - Getting these sites up is crucial to phase 1 of my master plan. Those who know me know I am an aspiring musician and entrepreneur myself, and getting these sites up (TomBoates.com especially) are crucial to the evolution of those ambitions.

4. Do a better job of networking - I feel like I’ve improved upon this a lot, but I could be better. I’m a natural introvert so it’s always tough for me to get out there, but it is also fairly imperative to my success, and also hugely important for me to learn as much as possible. If you are in the Boston startup/design/music/tech community, I want to meet you this year! Let’s make that happen.

And the big one…

5. I’m giving up AMP and replacing it with Vitamin Water - Wipe the shocked look off your face. I have never NEEDED to have an AMP the way most people NEED a coffee in the morning, and in fact there have been plenty of mornings along the way where I didn’t actually have one and been fine with it. I simply like the taste of it, and it became habit to have it as a morning drink. Truth is though, for a long time my name has been synonymous with AMP and to be honest as much as I enjoy drinking it I hate that it is part of what defines me. I’m sure it will take a little bit to get the caffeine addiction out of my system so I won’t be going cold turkey, but by sometime next week I will be Amp free. (aside from maybe as the occasional mixer in an adult beverage, which most people know I don’t consume very often). Some time over the summer I started replacing my daily soda with lunch (on top of the AMP in the morning!) with vitamin water in an effort be a little more healthy, so I’m going to replace both with Vitamin water and see how it works (I also always have a problem with not drinking enough water… so hopefully this helps all of that).

So there you have it. I am publicly accountable for all of these things. What are YOUR new year’s resolutions?