Goals for 2011

Last year, I posted my “Goals for 2010”. I’ve decided that New Year’s Resolutions are silly, nobody sticks to them anyway, but I like the idea of setting “GOALS” that can be achieved, or at the very least, worked on.

What follows is my list from last year, and my…um…progress if you will:

1. Finish that novel – WELL…let’s be honest here…I’m pretty sure I didn’t touch “that” novel ONCE all year…okay, maybe once, or twice…but yeah…Not so much with the finishing…

2. Stay Healthy – DONE and DONE! I’ve managed to maintain my weight all year, staying within a 3 pound difference every time I weighed in. I didn’t manage to lose the “last 5 lbs” I’m determined to shed, but in all honesty, I didn’t really try all that hard. My focus this year was on maintaining, and on eating better. I did really well with the eating better until the last few months of the year…but, even then, I maintained the weight because of working out. Speaking of working out, I think I surpassed all my expectations this year. Not only did I stick to a pretty regular 3 to 4 day a week work-out schedule, but I can safely say I officially became a “runner” this year. I ran my first 5k on Thanksgiving morning with a time of 31:33, and I have {{GULP}} signed up for a 5k on New Year’s Day…

3. Put God ahead of everything – I’m going to check this one off as a success. It’s a work in progress, my faith, but I feel that this year I grew by leaps and bounds, and found myself centered in God in all things. I have a long way to go, a lot to learn, plenty of changes still to make, but I believe this year God WAS ahead of everything, within everything, above everything and scattered throughout everything I said or did…

4. De-Clutter – I am also going to check this one off as a success. In fact, with the exception of the few items still sitting on my home office floor, waiting for a destination (donation center, friends who may want them, dumpster I can’t carry them too because they are too heavy), I’m done. I literally went through EVERY SINGLE thing I own, and de-cluttered my house. Of course, there’s still certain things I need to go through in stricter detail (my books, my paperwork, cd’s, etc.) but the big stuff is done.

5. Fall In Love – Well, this one was long shot. After all, it’s hard to set a goal that isn’t solely dependent on you. It takes two to fall in love, and I am only one. I could have fallen in love this year…I was open to it. I opened up my heart, let down my defenses, put myself out there. I mean, for goodness sake, I even asked someone out on a RUNNING date. But alas, it was not to be. There’s always next year…

Speaking of next year…it is time for my Goals for 2011…

Goals for 2011

1. WRITE. I’m not even going to attempt to fool myself into thinking I can “finish that novel”…but I’m going to set a goal for myself that I WRITE. That I spend some quality time with my novel, with my characters, with my brand new netbook purchased solely for that purpose. Included in this writing goal is also my blog, and a few other writing projects I have in the works…

2. Run a 10K. Yep, I did that…I put that out there. Because well…why not? After all, I thought running in general was an impossibility for me, and then, in 2010, I ran my first 5k. I’m starting off the year, quite literally, running a 5k on New Year’s Day…so a big goal for 2011 is to run, run, run…all year run, build up my stamina, increase my pace, and run a 10k. I’m shooting for the Turkey Trot I did as a 5k in 2010…there’s a 10k option, so…why not?

3. Continue to stay healthy. Going along with the 10K goal is my goal to keep working out regularly, and to work on my diet. By diet I don’t mean “lose weight crash diet”, I mean daily eating habits. I need to change my lazy habits of just grabbing whatever is handy, which leads me to poor choices sometimes. I need to plan meals, and educate myself better on what I should be eating, and what I should not…

4. Find a church. I have faith. I have an amazing faith family, friends, community. I have regular faith sharing meetings with friends, where we worship and we pray and we share. But I don’t have a church. I won’t get into all the details behind why I can’t go to the church that has been my church for decades…let’s just say that the priest and the services don’t give me the nutrition my faith requires and leave it at that. But this means I am without a place to worship on Sundays. Sometimes, during the week, I will attend lunch time services at a church within walking distance from my work. Once a month I attend a church service in Boston on Friday night geared toward young adults (20’s and 30’s) which I LOVE. But I have yet to find a place where I feel welcome and fulfilled on Sunday mornings. And I need to. I want to. I must.

5. Do something new every month. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, because I’ve been doing a little bit of this the last few months. Doing things I’ve never thought I could do. Doing things I just have never gotten around to doing. Trying new things, or experiencing things everyone seems to have done, but I for some reason, have not. This includes silly things such as watching movies that are “Classics” but I’ve never seen (A Charlie Brown Christmas, for example, which I watched for the first time ever the other night), to more serious tasks (such as that 10k), to everything in between…ice skating, skiing perhaps, flying a kite…the possibilities are endless.

6. Travel to Europe. Okay, so this one is a bit of a cheat, because I have a trip to Portugal pretty much planned in October. I have friends from here getting married there, and a group of us are planning on traveling together to their wedding. But my goal is to turn this trip into a lengthier stay, and hopping over to Spain, France, England, Italy…pretty much any other country I can make it to on the airfare across the ocean. Now I just need to find a willing travel companion, and…well…the funds.

7. Be more charitable. This doesn’t necessarily mean financially, although that too. But I’m thinking more along the lines of trying to live the talk…do more for others, give of my time, be more a part of this world we live in, in a giving, unselfish, charitable way.

8. Spend more time with my little sister. She turns 18 this coming year, and I feel that with our busy schedules, we don’t spend as much time together as we used to. It’s perfectly understandable, but I have to make more of an effort to be present in her world. I’m the constant she needs, the positive influence she has, and I have to remember that and make more of an effort.

9. Cook more. As I said in a post last week, I don't cook often, but I plan to do that more this year, in fact, I plan to attempt a new recipe once a week...

10. Fall In Love. What? Eventually this is going to happen. I’m going to add to this one this year…fall in love with someone who will love me back. Date more. Continue to be open, and trust that the right one will come along…and have fun in the process.

So there you go…what are your goals for 2011?