If you need a New Year’s resolution role model, check Facebook.
This week Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off his artificially intelligent assistant, Jarvis,which he spent 2016 building from scratch as one of his New Year’s resolutions.
But that’s hardly the first impressive accomplishment that has come from Zuckerberg, who is known for setting and tackling ambitious and unpredictable New Year’s resolutions.
While he hasn’t told us what’s in store for 2017 yet, -‘s a look back at the various resolutions the social media entrepreneur has completed:
Reading More Books
Last year, Zuckerberg committed to reading a new book every other week and announced each title on the “A Year of Books” Facebook page, where he encouraged other Facebook users to join him.
Writing One Thank You Note Per Day
The billionaire admitted the daily gratitude challenge in 2014 was surprisingly a tough one.
“There are people who see the beauty of things,” he said at a Facebook Town Hall meeting that year. “Then there are people who see things and want to make them better, and I tend to be the latter.”
Meet Someone New Every Day
Bad news: Your best odds for being Mark Zuckerberg’s new friend may have been in 2013. That year, Zuckerberg made it a resolution to meet someone new – who doesn’t work at Facebook – every day.
That meant having a conversation, not a simple passing “hello” or handshake.
“It’s going well—I’ve done a bunch of things in the community and just tried to get broader exposure,” he told Fortune that year.
A Return to His Coding Roots
Zuckerberg returned to coding in 2012 — something he hadn’t had a chance to do as Facebook exploded. The refresher clearly paid off again in 2016 as he showed off Jarvis.
Eat What You Kill
Zuckerberg mostly ate vegetarian in 2011, with exceptions for meat he killed himself. While it may sound macabre, the CEO said on his Facebook page that the resolution allowed him to “be more connected to the food I eat and the animals that give their lives so I can eat them.”
Learning Mandarin
Mandarin Chinese is a challenging language to learn, especially for a native English speaker, but Zuckerberg was determined to become proficient as part of his 2010 resolution.
Not only did this ultimately allow him to communicate with members of his wife’s family, but he also showed off his skills in 2014, when he casually participated in a 30-minute question and answer session in Mandarin at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Suited Up
Zuckerberg ditched his trademark t-shirts and hoodies in 2009 and wore a tie every day to work – a markedly different look for the laid-back CEO. While he gave it an admirable effort for the year, this resolution clearly didn’t stick, as Zuck went back to his classic uniform in the following years.
