It’s that time of year again where we promise ourselves to eat better, get to the gym more, save more and spend less. And inevitably by January 27th, we’ve given up. It’s time for New Year’s resolutions.

In 2021, we’re challenging our team to make resolutions they actually care about, ones that promote learning, personal and professional growth, and ones that last longer than a month. Oodlers have some pretty lofty goals, but we think they can do it. Check out what we want to accomplish in the new year.

Ever since I was little I’ve been interested in electronics. I’ve always wanted to do something with microcontroller programming so this year for my birthday I bought some parts. I’m going to try to build a retro style Tetris game from some simple LED screens and a joystick module. The end result should look like what you see in this video.

Here’s a progress update. I made a robot that plays music when you wave at it.

- Terry Wooton | Senior Developer

I’m not nearly as cool as  Terry up here but I have two goals:

1. Read more: I still have unread books from when Borders closed. Time to start getting through some of those.

2. Create more: I’m probably hamstringing myself here by not being more specific. But if I’m honest with myself, I spend too much time zombie scrolling through Instagram, impressed at all the cool things I see people creating. It’s time to step back and do some creating for myself. I don’t want to limit it to "draw more" because there are a lot of creative pursuits: drawing, cooking, sculpting, writing.

Time to make some cool shit!

- Josh Thompson | VP of Creative and Marketing

In 2021 I want to pursue a baking side-hustle more seriously. I’m not quite sure yet which path I will ultimately pursue but I have some different ideas ruminating such as:

1. Converting my garage or building a backyard bakery so I can bake in larger quantities, and use an ecommerce platform such as Shopify to take bread pre-orders and deliver to individuals or businesses.

2. Offering baking classes. My dream would be to host them at a brewery or winery so that as we wait for the dough to rise my students can go get drinks and hang out as the classes take at least 3 hours.

3. Invest in a food truck, probably one that is more dilapidated and restore it. I’ve got a breakfast bagel concept idea, and another idea for Thanksgiving-style food. 

4. I’ve also recently invested in a green screen and some lighting equipment for a food YouTube channel I’m starting up.

- Brett Valls | Senior Designer

I really just want to go to a sports ball event again. Is that a goal? Also, in 2021, I want to pursue more seriously taste-testing Brett’s baking side-hustle.

- Andy Nolan | Digital Media Specialist

I want to become conversational in French so I can better communicate with my Wife’s family and friends. I’ve been practicing for a while - but dang is it tough!

- Tyler Ventrella | Digital Media Strategist

I’ve got a full list of parks around Cincy that I’ve never been to, so planning to hit them all this year and rate them on my own tracker so I can keep going back to my favorites.

- Hannah Brown | Senior Digital Media Strategist

I have three things I want to work on in 2021:

1. I want to spend more time outside. 2020 forced us to stay home, so we spent a lot of time in our backyard. I want to get out kayaking more (thinking about getting a year pass to a local river), take my dogs to explore more parks in Cincinnati, and go to the beach more often.

2. Socializing Griffin! I got a puppy right before the world shut down and he is not well socialized with people or dogs; a true quarantine puppy. He’s a sweet guy, but so nervous, so I want to work with him on being comfortable in social/public situations so we can have parties again, he can come to the office with me, to bars, etc.

3. Go to more concerts. That’s the thing I miss the absolute most since quarantine started. I want to experience music in different ways, see new bands I’ve never seen before, discover new music, and even travel for shows.

- Celie Harlan | Social Media Specialist

With the past year that we have had I know a lot of small businesses have been struggling while other large corporations have been doing fine. My resolution is to help the small guys out and visit as many microbreweries as I can (within reason) and track which ones I like best so then I can take home growlers or cans to help them even more!

- Hayley Phelps | Account Executive

2020 was a weird year and it’s tough to feel like you made any growth, professionally or personally. (But if you’re reading this, trust us, you grew.) We are pushing our team to think outside the box and define growth differently, and we challenge you to do the same.

Think of new ways you can grow that look different than past years. Take some inspiration from us or send us your own, we’d love to know your resolutions!