Travel one lap around the sun. It doesn’t matter what you do, it will take you a year. But what you do with that time matters. Some people will be content with just completing the trip, but I want to make it a real trip – making sure that I have the time of my life during my life time, if you will. 

And so I will set out goals, much like last year, to ensure that my time is well spent. My credo hasn’t changed: I want to  travel, have new experiences, go on adventures, challenge myself and develop as a person.

One new experience/trip/adventure per month worked well 2016, so I will endeavour to do the same this year. 

In terms of travels I’ve already got trips to Malaga and Zanzibar and the French alps planned, and I’ve got my eyes on Prague, Basel and possibly Belize or Honduras as well. More will no doubt materialise. 

As for new experiences, I really want to go hiking/kayaking and combine it with camping out in a tent – something which I haven’t done since I was a kid, and certainly never on my own. Kayaking on interconnected lakes in Sweden. Or hiking the Pyrenees, the Czech Republic, Romania… if this turns into a year of wanders I wouldn’t be sorry. 

Diving with whale sharks and other megafauna is another experience high on my list: we’ll see what Zanzibar can deliver. Cave diving the cenotes in Mexico is another ambition.

And then there’s delta wings. I really want to learn how to fly one of those. And kite surfing – on water or snow, it really looks stupefyingly awesome. Parachuting is in there, too. So I’ve got quite a few potential new experiences lined up. 

What about challenges? First of all, I want to run a marathon every week. That’s not as mad as it sounds, as it means an average of six kilometres per day, and I did manage to average four daily in 2016. Still, sounds impressive when you put it like that, eh?

I improved my marathon record by 40 minutes last year. I don’t see myself repeating that particular feat, but maybe I can chip away another 5-10 minutes off my PB; we’ll make that a goal as well. First attempt: Genk marathon in January. Then Stockholm in June, perhaps. And I’ve signed up for the Courchevel X-trail ultra marathon in August, too. Maybe I can combine that with hiking in the alps?

In order to have a fitness goal that encourages more than just running, however, I have signed up for an Ironman 70.3 in July – I figure this will encourage me to bike and swim more than would otherwise happen. A bike marathon per week sounds about right. How much swimming? I don’t know. An hour per week might be a minimum. Scary? You bet. 

I still want to do more yoga – finding the right teacher is the main challenge here, but yoga at least I know enough to do a bit on my own. A daily routine would be ideal.

So much for developing and challenging myself physically. Intellectually, I hope to continue to take on new tasks at work, but that’s not something I am in control of. Apart from that, my goals have essentially remained unchanged from last year: I want to read more non fiction, become a better piano player and improve my French. 

Since I didn’t achieve as much as I would have wanted in any of those fields last year, I figure a different approach is called for. Excellence is a habit. Ergo, I need habits that will allow me to reach my goals. Saying I want to learn a piece of music or read so many books or incorporate so many words in my vocabulary isn’t enough – I must set out how much time will be devoted to these activities daily, and what time, and then log it so as to ensure it gets done.

For instance, travelling to and from work by train could be time that is always devoted to reading non fiction – that would be three hours every work week. Days when I’m not working could be scheduled like classes: 30 minutes of reading, studying French and piano playing each day, for example. 

So a typical day off work with the kids at school would have me doing three classes of 30 minutes each, plus on average 1.5 hours working out, and say another 30 minutes of stretching/yoga. That’s 3.5 hours every day taken up by challenges/daily improvement, which is a lot. 

Work days would commence with a daily yoga routine and then I would read when travelling to town and back every day of the week but one, when I would bike. I still have to run 6k per day on average, so would have to squeeze in runs before or after work, plus use the odd lunch hour. I doubt I will be able to muster the energy to do “classes” after work, not all three of them in any event, but maybe one daily at least?

When travelling, some flexibility would be necessary, but I figure I should be able to do at least as much as on work days. 

If it does work, it would mean 52 marathons on foot, as many again on bike, 50 hours of swimming, 150 hours of stretching/yoga, 180 hours or so of reading, say half as many hours practicing piano and French. I’m getting tired just listing it…!

I will try out this approach, and report back. It will be a wonder if I succeed at it all, but then again: Wonders don’t just happen; they generelly take a LOT of hard work. 

We will see how it goes. Here’s to making 2017 a Year of Wonders!