Goals

This ended up being a lot longer than I expected, so if you don't read it, it basically says I set some New Year's goals for myself and it's working.  Did my post need to be this long?  Probably not, but for whatever reason I just kept typing.

This year I set some New Year's goals.  I have only done it once before that I can remember, and I succeeded.  It was a worthy goal, let me tell you, and I was in middle school.  I wanted to have painted fingernails for a year.  I was obsessed with nail polish at that age.  I had every color before having every color was cool: red, pink, neon green, purple, turquoise, baby blue, black, neon orange, hunter green....you name it, I had it.  My nails were never boring.  Sometimes I would paint every finger a different color, but the worst was when it would start to chip and I would fill in the empty spots with a new color, and then when that started to chip I would fill it in with a thrid color.  They looked like camo finger nails, and even though I thought it was totally rad, I'm sure it totally wasn't. 

I don't know why I just went off on that, but I guess my point is, that I accomplished that goal.  There was one day in an entire year when my nails were not painted and that is when we went on our yearly youth temple trip.  Somehow having clown fingernails just didn't feel appropriate.  And this year I figured if I could set such a dumb goal for myself as a 12 year old, I should do it now.  Not dumb goals though.

I made just one yearly goal, but with some advice from a few other blogs I read, I decided to set monthly goals.  Things change throughout the year and so I sit down at the beginning of the month and decide what I want to accomplish for that month.  I've gone ahead a few months to things I know I want to do in the future, but I've allowed plenty of room to add goals and change them if needed.  I don't feel like I'm setting myself up for failure, which is one complaint a lot of people have when they make New Year's resolutions. 

So my point for this post is to offer encouragement to anyone who is lagging in their own resolutions or goals or whatever you want to call it, and to hold myself accountable.  I won't go into all of my goals, but I've become an obsessive list maker.  It's so satisfying to mark off what I have finished.  Writing everything down has helped me a lot.  I look at my February goals often so I don't forget them, and if at the end of the month they're not all done, that's ok with me.  It helps me to see if I've been unrealistic so that the next month I can be more realistic with myself.

My yearly goal is to read 20 books.  Last year I read 18, not including the 5 or maybe 8 (I don't know the exact number) that I started but didn't finish because I didn't like the content or it was a snoozer.  I've read 5 so far, so at this rate I might exceed that goal.  I've been able to read quite often lately, but I know it won't always be like this.  I like to read on the treadmill because the time passes faster for me than if I'm watching tv.  I've tried to enjoy running.  But I don't.  But that's ok with me, I'm not competing with anyone, and my fast walking, sometimes jogging, allows me to read and keep my mind off the fact that I am exercising.  I turn the tv on when I jog, but get so bored with the morning shows that are on, I go back to my book.  Maybe I should get on the treadmill when a better show is on.

Another goal I have is to Christmas shop throughout the year.  We have three birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas within two months of each other.  And the more kids we have, the more stressful that time of year has become with me trying to get all the shopping and everything done.  I used to get done with my shopping by October or November, but then had kids and all that went out the window.  So when I don't shop in advance, I'm dropping money left and right on birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, parties, etc. and I hate it.  And every year I say I need to shop all year, but the year flies by so fast, the next thing I know Jayden's birthday is here and there goes that.  So I have planned throughout the year who I'm going to shop for and when so when December arrives I can avoid the busy stores and crowds that make me want to go crazy.

My other big goal is to become a better photographer.  I read a lot, the hardest part is getting out and practicing during these cold winter months.  I love photography and there's so much to learn.  I wish I could just download all that knowledge into my brain.  It would make it a lot easier.

The rest of my goals are a lot more boring and personal, but it feels good to be setting specific goals and checking them off my list.