Plans and Goals For 2013 (Who’s Excited?!?)

Happy New Year everyone! After recapping my travels for 2012, I thought I’d jot down some notes about some of my plans and goals for 2013. I decided not to make any New Year’s resolutions this year, instead focusing on a few of my longer term goals while still trying to knock off items from my bucket list.

Travel

First, and most importantly, I’ll start with my travel plans. As of right now, it seems that I’ll be doing quite a bit more domestic travel within the United States than usual, but I should be out of the country a few times as well.

One of my favorite events of the year is the North American International Auto Show and this year it will be taking place January 19-27. It’s a great chance to see all the cars that will be coming out in the next year or two, as well as a bunch a cool concepts that will probably never make it to production.

In February, I’ll be going out to Las Vegas for the first time with a big group of friends (#78). I don’t like to gamble much, but I’m excited to check out some of the best nightclubs and restaurants in the world. Not sure where I’m going to stay yet, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Since I won’t be able to able to make it to Ultra Music Festival in Miami this year, hopefully I can catch a couple big DJ’s in Vegas.

March should be an interesting month. Tentatively, I want to go down to Austin, TX for the South by Southwest music / film / interactive festival (#71) and then catch a flight out to one of the Caribbean Islands for some scuba diving (#35). Also, if Michigan stays on track in basketball, we should be in for some Madness in March during the NCAA tournament (GO BLUE!).

Throughout April and May, I tend to do a lot of weekend road trips as the weather is starting to get nicer in the northern half of the US. Who knows what this will entail, but I’m sure there will be at least one trip to Chicago, among others.

June will be the start of pretty busy summer for me, beginning with TBEX up in Toronto. If it’s anything like TBEX in Keystone was, it’ll be a whole week of travel blogger debauchery. After TBEX, I’m going to try to do a road trip up the west coast (#27), through California, Oregon, and possibly Washington, ending up in Portland for World Domination Summit (#73) in July. One of the highlights of my year will probably be going to Hawaii next summer. I’ve been invited out for a special program, and although some of the details are still being worked out, it should be a blast! I can continue trying to learn to surf (#33), because the last couple times have been a disaster.

While as of now I don’t have any firm plans for the Fall, it might be a good time for me to finally put my TEFL certification to use (#11) that I got a while ago. I haven’t been to Asia yet, so that’s a whole other area for me to explore.

Website

As this site continues to grow, there are some things I want to upgrade and / or add throughout this year.

• First, look for a complete site redesign later this year. The details of this plan are still in the works (in my head), so it might be a bit before you actually see it.
• I think I’ve been pretty good about posting twice a week, so I think I’ll continue to do that this year. It would be great if I could post more often than that, but I just don’t have the time right now.
• I’d like to start making some videos during my travels, especially as I start diving more. This is something I haven’t really done before, so we’ll see how it goes.
• Gear and product reviews are something I’ve been tossing around for a while. This would only include items that I personally use all the time and think would help you travel better.

Other Bucket List Items

Here are some other bucket list items I want to check off this year:

• Learn to snowboard (#17) this winter. I’m hoping that it will help me in my attempts to surf.
• Skydive (#22)
• Continue learning Spanish (#24) and possibly Portuguese before the FIFA World Cup next year in Brazil.
• Develop a workout routine I can stick to whether I’m at home or on the road (#25).
• Start messing around with some music production software (#34).
• Play tennis a lot more often than I have the last couple years (#49).
• Finally pay off my credit cards (#50).
• Complete a couple of courses I’ve signed up for on location independence (#51) (#52).
• Work on developing my photography skills (#54) (#55).
• Complete Warrior Dash over the summer (#70).
• Explore some micro-finance opportunities in developing countries (#77).

With all these activities planned, I’m pretty excited for the upcoming year! What are some of your plans and goals for 2013?