Hobbies – Chris Kindred

2015 Goals

It is time to share my 2015 goals. I figure if I share them with you, then you will hold me to them.

Post Once a week

One of the things I loved about doing the Post a Day was that it forced me to do something different and out of my comfort zone. I think posting once a week will do the same thing. Each week I am going to release a post on Thursday. Hopefully there are others during the week but Thursday will be the main post each week.

I am also going to start focusing a little more on the images that I post. I have been slowly learning more about photography and want to be able to use this platform as a place to showoff some of that as well. I have joined a Facebook group that does a weekly photo challenge and will be posting to that each week as well.

Schedule Time with the Family

Last year I had a lot going on with work and trying to get to all of Isabel’s doctors appointments. This year I want to set time to spend with my family. I know it sounds silly to “Schedule Time” but what I really mean is to set time aside away from my phone and computer to spend quality time with the kids and Jen.

I want to set time aside to go visit family as well. It was great to see family during our move and it made me realize that it had been too long. One of the things going back and forward to doctors has made me realize is that my job allows me to travel and still get things done. We should take advantage of that more often. This year we are going to schedule trips to Oklahoma and Texas to see family.

Get Into Shape

I haven’t spent any time working out since football back in college. I am going to eat a little better and get back down to a weight that is easy to manage and allows me to spend more time running around with the kids. It was a little ridiculous to run the bases during softball last year and feel like I was going to die just getting from first to second. I am starting off the year at 216 lbs. When I was at NAPS I weighed 175 lbs. I would love to get back down to that but realistically I would be happy to be down to 185 lbs.

Be More Spiritual

Living in Crested Butte, I had trouble finding a church that I fit in well with. Now that we are in North Carolina I want to find a church that my family and I can go to and participate with consistently. I have always wanted to find a good Bible study group to join and just haven’t made the time or effort to do so. I have been trying to finish the Bible in a Year reading plan for two years now. This year I is the year that I am going to get through it.

Now that I have set my goals, How do I make sure to keep them? That is always the problem. Does anybody have any good suggestions for making sure I keep up with my goals this year and not let them slip out of site? Leave a comment below with your suggestions.

Still Missing A Major Goal

Since the beginning of May I have written a post a day. That’s 22 posts in 22 days including over 6,000 words. I have covered a lot about my newest daughters birth and all the tribulations of having a child born with Congenital Heart Disease. I have talked about things that have been going on in my life and even some things that I want to have go on in the future. I am pretty proud of my accomplishment so far since I have never tried anything like this before.

I had 3 goals when I started this Post a Day Challenge.

The first goal was to get as much information out as I could about Isabel’s birth. I believe I have done a good job with that so far and there is still more to come in the near future. I am only to the second week of January in Isabel’s Birth story and we didn’t get to leave Denver until February 3rd.

The second goal was to learn that things don’t have to be perfect all the time. When I first started this it was very hard for me to finish anything that was written. I would spend hours writing and proofing an email. It was a gross waste of my time and would keep me from spending as much time on doing what needed to be done in the first place. I have quickly learned that I can read over something once or twice and feel confident that it is written well. I am sure it could be better but it isn’t always worth the time to re-examine every sentence just to eliminate one or two extra words.

My third goal was to share my believes and not fear being criticized for them. I am a Conservative, Christian, White Male and based off my Facebook feed I am in the minority on the Internet. I think there is way to much ignorance on the Internet and want to be able to have a conversation with you without blindly following the pack, right or left, like so many do. I want to be able to hone my believes so that when the time comes I can share them or explain them intelligently.

I was reading through some of the old posts this morning and I realized that even though I have shared a lot about what is going on in my life, I haven’t shared much about my own thoughts. I have played it safe by not trying to make somebody mad or challenging myself. I have avoided topics that have been buzzing around specifically because I didn’t want cause somebody to not like me because of how I think or what I believe.

I am quickly learning that if you don’t stand for something you might not be standing at all.

New Toy!

I have always wanted a nice camera. Something that is easy enough to use as a beginner but yet advanced enough to take professional quality photos once I learn how to take advantage of all the features.

Crested Butte is a beautiful town. The winters are long and full of all the snow sports you can possibly think of but the reason we moved here was for the summers. They are amazing and my iPhone camera just doesn’t do the mountains and wildlife justice. I also have a few Kindred Web Consulting customers that need some good product images taken and an iPhone just doesn’t give enough detail. I finally pulled the trigger and got a Canon Rebel T5i. Jen and I took the new camera on our family walk yesterday evening. I haven’t even learned how to use it yet and it takes amazing photos. Needless to say the images are going to get a little more clear on here as well. I think I am going to start a little photo a day section just start teaching myself how to use the camera.

Photo credit for the header image goes to Jen. She had only been playing with the camera for a few minutes and the dog scared up 2 ducks. I wish she would have been duck hunting with me a few times based on how quickly she was able to get that shot off!

If you know any photography guru’s or are one yourself, I would love some tips and resources that might help me learn how to take advantage of my new toy. Thank You!

What to Expect

You should expect posts about everything from the different experiences being a father, to the different hobbies I tend to move through rapidly.

I am going to be using this platform to post all the different ideas I have that don’t have anything to do with technology. All the tech stuff is going to be posted over at Kindred Web Consulting.

You should expect posts about everything from the different experiences being a father, to the different hobbies I tend to move through rapidly.