New Week’s and Month’s Resolutions
I read somewhere that most new year’s resolutions are broken by the 3rd week in January. I am probably a contributor to that statistic, but not this year. My blogging has gone well, and has actually been quite enjoyable. There’s something cathartic to writing on a regular basis, especially when i do it on the fly…no editing allowed…just whatever comes out is saved and posted.
But today, I am starting my resolutions for this year, but instead of trying to do anything too grand or far reaching, i’m starting with a weekly resolution, and a monthly resolution. Now, because today marks the end of January, and tomorrow marks the beginning of both a new week and a new month, it is the best time to kick things off.
My plan is to have achievable goals, both for the week, and by association, the month as well. I think it’s too easy to get caught up with goals that are too far off in the future, making them difficult to focus on, and difficult to see the forest for the trees, so-to-speak. I know i’ll have some constant goals that involve weight loss and exercise, but my plan is also to have another category of goals for random things, like house renovations, or learning something new online, or finishing (or starting) a new book. For the first week of the month, i will set monthly goals. Each week however, the monthly goals may be adjusted based on my success or failure of achieving the weekly goals.
One of the things i want to do, is to keep track of these things all in one place, so I can measure, check them off, and review at a later date. I am attempting to use a website i found called “43Things” to start off. But, i’ll be looking for other services if they make this process a little easier. It doesn’t appear that 43things has a public profile that i could link to, so that’s not good….which is why i’ll look for another service to see if there’s something better.
So, without further ado….
Goals for February 1st-February 7th, 2010
- Weigh myself, so i can record it as a starting point
- Do at least 20 push-ups each morning and 20 push-ups each night
- Go for a 1 mile jog on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.
- Lose 2.5 pounds this week (and keep it off)
- Find and try out websites or applications to manage these goals
- Start pulling together the pictures of the house renovation for before/after montages — at least get the upstairs guest bedrooms done
- Pay off half of the Lowes Credit Card that we used for the house renovation (we have that money set aside already)
- Research balance transfer credit cards with Melody to consolidate our debt from the house renovation
Goals for February, 2010
- Lose 10 pounds (and keep it off)
- Have all of the before/after pictures pulled together for the house renovations, ready for making into a montage/FlickR set.
- Be running at least 3 times per week, for at least 1 mile at running pace + 1 mile at jogging pace
- Have all, or as much as possible debt consolidated onto a balance transferred card, so we’re paying lower interest/lower monthly payments starting in March.
So that’s all…i want to start small, so i can actually achieve these things. My hope is that for some of the items, they become second nature, rather than a goal on a list. I feel like my blogging is like that now…where i don’t really consider it as a resolution anymore. It’s just something that i do now, that i enjoy.
If you have any suggestions, recommendations, compliments, criticisms for me about this venture…i’d love to hear them. I think the best part about writing these goals down and publicizing them, is that it may help me accountable for what i say. If i was to internalize all these goals (which i’ve done before), then i’ve only let myself down if i don’t check one of them off. If other people know about them, then i feel like i’m letting them down as well if i fail at one of the goals. I know that may sound wierd, but it’s how i feel. Maybe that’s why i reaaaaaalllly hate running by myself, and would much prefer to run with someone else, or play soccer with a team. I enjoy the social interaction of exercise, not the independent isolation of working out by yourself. I wonder if there’s a website/web application that lets you share goals…..guess i’ll look for that this week too.
