New Year’s Resolution: Producing

I have one major resolution for twenty-ten and that’s to become more of a producer. For years I have been an avid consumer, learning the ins and outs of multiple technologies or hobbies, but this year I want to work hard at producing things instead of consuming. I believe my main reason for this lack of production is fear. Fear that I’m not good enough. Fear that I might fail. Fear of putting myself out there. Weak sauce, trust me, I know.

Here are a few areas that I feel capable of producing quality results from.

Web Design

I want to produce more sites and templates. I have one site in mind that is going to be my pet project for this year (and hopefully many years after). I want to get that site off the ground. I also want to produce some WordPress themes to be sold on a reseller site, such as Theme Forest. I did one last year, but after being rejected I lost the momentum to produce the others I had in mind.

I want to take a firmer stance on certain design issues and become a more valued opinion on them.

Photography

I purchased my first DSL last year, a Nikon D40. I took plenty of photos, but mostly the candid family-type stuff. This year I plan to get out and do some photo walks. Or when I see something that would make a good picture, I will go back and take said picture. My biggest excuse for not taking pictures is because I want better lens, but I will not let that lame excuse enter my being this year. A good photographer can produce a good picture with any equipment.

Social Networking

This one is probably going to be the hardest one for me. I’m not exactly introverted, but I’m no Gary V either. The main social network I want to work on is twitter. The goal will be to increase my twitter followers to a couple thousands, but, more importantly, to have quality followers. When my pet project website gets launched, it will need a facebook fan page as well.

Blogging

I want to produce more (and better) written word content this year. I want to post something on this blog about once a week. One big goal I want with my blogging this year is to do some guest posting. I have about 6 blogs in mind in various niches that I’d like to write a post for.

Drawing/Sketching/Digital Art

I started doing this last year, but did not give it the constant practice that it needed to really improve my skills. I have several books on how to draw, mainly fantasy/sci-fi books. I will go through the books, completing the exercises as described. I look at some of the fantastic art by people like Kerem Beyit and feel so inspired to want to create something like that, but get too frustrated at my feeble attempts. This goal is going to require the most time in order to see significant results.

Exercise

I’ve been lifting weights for a few years and do some basic running occasionally. I’d like to bump those up to whole new levels this year. I am going stick to a plan that has me lifting 3 days a week and doing cardio on the days between. Last year I ran one 5k. This year I’d want to run at least two 5ks and one 10k.

That’s my list of items that I plan to become a producer of this year.

If you have any comments about my goals or would like to share yours, I’d love to heard about them.