New Year’s Goals

January is as good a time as any to put down a new set of goals. There is something about beginning a new year to put us in evaluation mode. From the newspapers listing the top 10 stories of the year to my favorite bloggers listing their best posts, everyone is evaluating the last year and making predictions for the next. Me too. I have been thinking about my goals for the year for the past two weeks. So, here I am on Janaury 1st at 10:30pm, when I promised myself to be in bed by 10:00, writing them down. There better be a goal about addressing procrastination in there somewhere.

Health. I have really been feeling age creeping up on me this year. I hurt in places I have never hurt before. I’m tired all the time and the doctor has started prescribing drugs to take care of things diet and exercise should do for me. 2009 is the year for me to finally start doing what I am supposed to be doing in regards to my health.

1. Lose 25 pounds. Today I weigh 225, having gained the “Holiday 5″. Earlier this year I weighed 215. Under the South Beach Diet, I made it down to 200. That was 4 years ago. The doctor tells me I need to get to 180. Rome wasn’t built in a day. My goal is 2 pounds / month.
2. Exercise 30 minutes each day minimum. My office has a terrific gym. I need to take advantage of it. It is also situated on the Boise River Greenbelt. There is no reason I shouldn’t be taking a few minutes break each day to go for a walk. In the warmer months, I do enjoy riding my bike home from the office. It only takes 10 minutes longer to bike it as opposed to driving.
3. Control the portion size I eat. This is my biggest downfall. I love food and I keep shoving it in until I regret it. I am not sure where the habit came from, but I eat like a starving man fighting for his last meal. I need to slow down, savor each bite and let my stomach catch up. I will also write down everything I eat to keep my caloric intake where it should be. A few months ago, we experimented with tracking the actual calories of everything we ate. I found during that few weeks, I found I could be full on fewer calories than I thought. It forced me to rethink what I ate. Example: I cut out muffins completely. They could destroy a breakfast with just one and leave me wanting so many more.

Intellectual. I know I do things to push me intellectually, but I couldn’t tell you what they are when asked. This year, I am going to track it better. A few years ago, I recorded and reviewed every book I read. It was amazing how much I read in that year. Yes, I was out of work and had more time on my hands, but when I start adding up hom many books I read in 2008, I am surprised. I carved out more time than I thought I did.

1. Read and review 25 books. I should be able to make this goal easy. I know I read more than 2 books per month. Look for my reviews here and the list on LibraryThing.
2. Become a writer. Wow, that is vague. I just don’t know how to measure this one. I have been kicking around several ideas for books for years. I also have a couple ideas for blogs. I feel before I become a good writer, I need to get in the habit of writing regularly, even if the quality is lousy. The measurement is 2 posts to the blog per week and write a short story each month.

Career. This blog was started to help me with this one. I want to define my career better, know what I want to do and make progress toward doing it.

1. Examine my passion and be able to give a 2 minute speech on it. This will require self analysis and examination. my goal is to use this blog for that analysis.
2. Build a strong and active network. I will measure it by having at least one networking contact each week. I will help my network freely during the troubled times in the economy.
3. Work with the Eagle-Star Technology Corridor group. I have struggled whether I have time to devote to this group or not. I probably don’t. But others don’t have time, either. I believe in their cause and I need to be involved in the community. I feel this group will assist me in my first two goals in the career area, so I am going to give it my best shot.

Skills. I have a lot of skills I want to pursue and improve. Writing is one of them and is covered above. I am also a woodturner, woodworker, musician, scriptorian and several other things. My wife says I concentrate on too many things, so this is a very dangerous goal area for me (see my mental goal section).

1. I want to get better at woodturning. I have turned over 330 pens. I do those very well. I want to get better at turning bowls. I will turn 30 bowls this year. I will turn 10 hollow forms. And to support my habit, I will turn and sell 50 pens. I will have my pens, bowls and hollow forms in at least gallery by the end of the year. I will also make 4 pieces of furniture.
2. I tell my son he needs to practice piano 20 minutes, 4 times each week. I will do the same on either the guitar or tin whistle.
3. There is reading scripture and then there is Reading Scriptures. This year I want to train myself to do more than read the scriptures. I want to develop the ability to understand them, build talks from them and know them well enough to link them together and find what the Lord has placed there for me. To do this, I am going to have to spend regular time studying and using them. Last year I started spending time in the morning on a specific topic with the goal of writing a talk for my files on that topic. I didn’t get very far. Later in the year, I begin reading with a pen in my hand to record thoughts on each verse as I read. That was very helpful, but I fell out of the habit. This year I will do better.

Financial. 2007 & 2008 were terrible years for me financially. I blew apart my plan to retire at 56. I invested in the real estate market right at the top and watched it go into freefall, taking me with it. I was able to get out finally just last week. I still owe over $75,000 and my savings are exhausted. At least the bleeding has stopped, though. Now I can get to work on recovery and this is the year to do it.

1. Pay off all loans other than my mortgage. This is a tall order, but there are ways to make it happen and I am pursuing them aggressively.
2. Get a three month emergency fund established.
3. Prepare financially for Jonathan’s mission. He turns 19 in November and may even leave before the end of this year.
4. Rebuild my credit. My credit score took a brutal beating. Time to rebuild. I used to be in the upper 700’s. Now I am at 600. I am not very familiar with rebuilding credit, but I would like to be back to 650 by the end of the year. That may be too aggressive. Time will tell.

Mental. There are some mental bad habits I need to get rid of this year. These will probablybe the hardest of all, but the most rewarding when I do make the change.

1. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I can’t count the number of times I haven’t started something only because I haven’t figured out how to make it perfect. These goals are an example. Instead of scribbing at them in my moleskine, I put it off because I didn’t want to “mess up the paper with half formed goals”. Looking back on it now, it seems ridiculous. It is a problem of mine.
2. Do not say negative things about myself. That includes weight, lack of hair, etc. I need to replace those thoughts with positive, uplifting observations.
3. Allow myself room to grow. I often beat myself up for not being as good as I think I should be and removing any possibility to improve. I need to replace it with “Hmm. That didn’t go so well, but I bet next time I’ll do better.”
4. Spend quality time building my children. Okay, everyone uses ‘quality’ as an excuse for little to no quantity. True and that is something I can improve on as well. However, I do spend time with my kids. My wife and I have started talking and recording specific things we want to do to help our kids. Those are the things I want to work on weekly.
5. Keep a success journal. Write daily about one thing I did better than the day before. My wife has been keeping a ‘Thankful’ journal for the last year, writing each day one thing she is thankful for, without duplicating a prior entry. Great idea!

Well, if that isn’t enough goals for a year, I don’t know what would be. I know I have a tendancy to try to work on too many things at one time. I wanted to get all these thoughts down, though, while I still had them. I don’t have to accomplish all of them by January 2 (which is now only 25 minutes away). I still have a whole year left!