It's My Empire

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It is officially 2012 now (okay for the past four days it has been, but who’s counting) and with that comes the topic of new year’s resolutions. We all have them, and we all end up breaking most of them, but I do think it is important. A lot of people might say, why wait until the new years to make a change in your life for the better? I partly agree with this, but at the same time, if the new year gives people extra motivation to becoming a better person, then why not use it? So, this post deal with my new year’s resolutions as well as resolutions that I have for Bhangra Empire. In other words, what are my goals for the new year individually, and what are Bhangra Empire’s goals as whole? Since the majority of you read this blog for more insight into the team, I’ll start with those and then move on to my personal resolutions (for those that have the patience to read them).

Bhangra Empire’s New Years Resolutions

1. Perform well at The Bhangra Showdown in London – As many of you might have heard, we will be heading to London for the first time ever for a special performance at The Bhangra Showdown. I will talk in more detail about this in a future post, but the importance of this performance is huge for us. We are going to practice hard, just as we would for any competition, and definitely will try our best to meet the expectations all of our fans in the UK have of us.

2. Return to Jashan Bhangra in Calgary – Though this isn’t an official team decision yet, after our experience last year, we definitely are trying our best to come back to Calgary. We had a great performance last year and, if we do return to Calgary, our goal is to perform at a similar, if not better, level.

3. Make our return to Bruin Bhangra – Our last time competing at Bruin (or the Socal area at all) was back in 2009. Again, this is dependent on a lot of things, but our plan is to return to Bruin Bhangra this year and hopefully put on as memorable of a performance as we did in 2009.

4. Bring all New Dancers to the Same Empire Level – This should actually be number 1, since resolutions, 1, 2, and 3 are not possible without this happening. As I stated before, we added 6 new dancers to the team before Boston, and they did a great job at their first competition, but there is always room for improvement. The goal is to have them feel comfortable and perform at a level that is on par with the more experienced dancers.

5. Expand Bhangra Classes over the Summer – Last year we had 6 classes with almost 150 students over the summer. The goal is to expand that to 10 classes in various locations throughout the Bay Area.

6. Reach 50,000 Fans on Facebook – We’re currently at almost 33,000 fans (thank you to all of you) and with some good old fashioned hard work in the marketing department, hopefully we can reach this.

7. Reach 10,000 Twitter Followers – We’re currently at a little over 1,000 twitter followers (thank you). I feel like this will take a little more work than the Facebook goal, but at the same time, feel like if we invest the time, it is something we can reach.

8. Re-Design of the Official Bhangra Empire Website – I think this will be something we work on more towards the end of the year. I am happy with the way the site is right now, but do feel like it needs a little bit of a refresh mainly to make it more social media friendly. I use different platforms for the Empire site and this blog, and feel like this blog is a lot more manageable, so hopefully we can migrate the site to a single platform.

9. Resurrect the Empire Minis – This team started up last year and performed 3 times. They are an extremely talented group of young children and both I, and the coaches, had a great time working with them last year. Currently we are on a little hiatus with them, due to time constraints, but hopefully we can start them back up.

10. Perform at 1 other International Event – This might be stretch, but later in the year, I definitely want to go international one more time. As long as we work hard and do well over the next few months, the opportunities will be there. We just have to work hard to make them more realistic and attainable. A short list of places we have been contacted to perform at that we would love to be able to go: India, Australia, Dubai, Spain, and France.

My Personal New Years Resolutions

1. Go to the gym regularly – I usually go in spurts at around a month or so at a time (this usually coincides with my school breaks since I have more time). However, when school resumes again, I normally tend not to have the extra time. I’d like to stay more regular throughout the year.

2. Sleep early and wake up early – I don’t think there was a single day in all of last year where I slept before 1 or 2 AM. Sometimes it was because of work/school/Empire, but other times it was not. Hopefully I can move to a more normal sleeping schedule.

3. Eat healthier – I tend to not eat much throughout the day and eat more at night. Yes, I know, very unhealthy. I’m going to focus on trying to eat a good breakfast (as opposed to just grabbing something on the way out the door as I normally do).

4. Show up more to Saturday Morning Football and Basketball – A few years ago, I used to go regularly to play football/basketball on Saturday morning in Danville. Last year I think I went a total of 4 times. I’d make excuses because I work late on Friday nights, or have practice, or school, but it’s something I definitely want to make time for in the upcoming year.

5. Finish my MBA – Finally, if all goes well, I should be done with my MBA by June. 3 years of busting my butt and having no social life for 3 letters. Lets hope one day it feels like its worth it (not that I’m trying to deter anybody from getting an MBA).

6. Get Married – For people that know me, I’m sure you are thinking, it’s about time. For people that don’t know me, I’m sure you are thinking, what kind of resolution is that? But it’s on my list and, I’d say, it’s kind of important. (I’m probably going to get in trouble that this wasn’t number 1. It’s okay, these aren’t in order of importance).

7. Spend more time at home – I try to go home once a week for at least a couple of hours to visit my family. I definitely want to increase that to maybe 3 or 4 hours (I mean come on, you don’t want to stay there too long).

8. No more soda, just water – I know, I know, soda is bad for you, and I drink way too much of it. So I’m going cold turkey and sticking to water. The good news is that it kind of makes you feel more fresh. The bad news is that you need to spend like half your day in the bathroom.

9. Read more books – I know what you guys are thinking. This guy doesn’t read. But the truth is, I used to read a lot. And now I don’t. I think it probably has to do with being back in school, so hopefully when I finish my MBA, I can go back to reading for pleasure.

10. Run a half marathon – I actually wanted to do this for my birthday last year, but since it was around Boston Bhangra time, couldn’t really put the time into it. Just to let you know, I hate running with a passion. But I do feel good after I do run. Plus, I’m old now and I kind of need to prove to myself that my body isn’t breaking down.

And that about sums it up. Thanks to everybody that made it all the way through to the end. I don’t know if I would have been able to. Let’s see how many of these I can actually keep up with. I think a lot of them are reasonable, but my prediction is that by the end of the year, more Bhangra Empire resolutions will be a success then my individual ones.