At the beginning of November I made a list of 12 things I wanted to accomplish by 2012. The result is that I accomplished about half. Some of them turned out not to be practical and a couple just didn't happen at all. But it was still nice to have some direction for the last two months of the year, when it can be so tempting to lay around and be completely unproductive.
Here's the rundown:
1. Get registered for school. Check! Only thing left to do before classes start on the 18th is pick up my books and get my student I.D.
2. Finish organizing and decorating the house, specifically the office and master bedroom. Sort of done. Some of the projects I have left require some things to be bought and I was unable to make them a priority in our budget. But I did get a good direction started.
3. Start learning Spanish. Not even started. I really want to learn Spanish while we're here but this is just not something I'm looking forward to at all. =\
4. Establish a training schedule for the El Paso ½ marathon in February. Not done either. I am still having issues with breathing and have made the decision to put serious running goals on the back burner for now. I might do a run/walk combo for the marathon but I haven't totally decided if there's even any point to doing that.
5. Perfect the process of making lattes with my espresso machine, as well as my own flavoring syrups. I figured out that the problem I've been having with getting decent lattes in my machine is that my coffee grinder is crap. I have remedied this situation and things are a lot better. I also have made caramel and vanilla syrups and they are yummy!
6. Mercilessly pare down my book collection. Mostly done. I just haven't gotten around to actually getting them out of the house!
7. Read 25 new books. This wasn't quite a realistic goal, but that's okay. Total count ended up being 15, with 2 more started but not finished. You can go here to see what I've read in the past couple months. 8. Do more weeding of my closet and wardrobe, and also attempt to finally pinpoint what my style is so I am more purposeful when I shop. I think this is done, although I seem to be weeding things out regularly lately. I have finally come to terms with the fact that I am not a trendy dresser, a retro dresser, a punk rock dresser, a fashionista dresser, or any of the other styles I admire on other people but can't seem to pull off myself. I am a classic, jeans-and-cute-top dresser, with a few dresses and skirts and leggings thrown in. Will people see me in public and admire my unique style? Probably not, but I am okay with that. I am just going to be me. =)
9. Plan out a list of things I’d like to do for date nights. This ended up being a re-directed goal--instead of date nights (let's face it, for us date nights are always going to involve dinner out or a movie), we came up with a list of more weekend activities. We will try to pick only one a month to do, since most are day trips.
10. Get involved in our new church. Eh. This turned into "let's wait til after the holidays." And we also haven't decided if we're staying there. It's a good church but it doesn't feel like it is the best fit for us. We might visit another one I found, or we might try to get involved with the current one (such as joining a Sunday School class) and see if that helps. At any rate, this one got put off and requires more discussion.
11. Find more crockpot recipes I like in preparation for being busy again come January. Sort of done. I didn't actually try any but I do have some ideas to put on the menu. I kinda put off being serious about this one though once I realized I don't actually start classes til the 18th.
12. Get organized for Christmas early. Done! I got all my presents and Christmas cards mailed out by the 17th.
So, not too bad I guess!
Last year I made a goal to post in my blog at least once a week. That definitely didn't happen. But I'm back on track to try again this year. A few other goals for this year:
* Develop better study habits. I did pretty well in school last year but I definitely could've done even better (especially considering what easy classes they were) if I'd been more disciplined and focused with studying. The harder my classes get the more I want to be sure I have good habits.
* Watch less TV during the week. I need to save the majority of my shows for the weekend, even if I have time to watch them during the week. I need to get better at being more productive in the evenings--reading, doing dinner or lunch prep for the next day, blogging, etc.--rather than vegging for hours with Facebook and the TV remote.
* Get back to daily Bible-reading. I was doing pretty well on this but slacked off over the holidays. And this year is going to be a new challenge because i was doing it in the morning but that's not going to work anymore once I start school. So I need to figure out a new time and plan.
* Do Project 365 this year. I took a break from it for a few years but I think I'm ready to start it up again!
I think that's enough to work on for now! The key to goal-setting is to start small and specific. =) What are some specific goals you have for the New Year?
