I’ve been wanting to post this for a while but, as you may know, I’ve been out of the country and limited on bandwidth.
Tomorrow I’ll go back into the archives and see if I made resolutions last year, and if so, how well (or poorly) I succeeded.
Tonight I want to list some of my goals for the coming year. Goals, not resolutions. I’m going to work towards these, and see how I do, and continually re-evaluate whether or not they’re realistic, and be ready to change them if circumstances change. It’s the latest fashion in scientific thinking, for, oh, about the last couple thousand years. Just a blip on the geologic time scale, really.
Health
- I’m going to reach my goal weight of 165 lb this year, and work to maintain it. That corresponds to about a 25 BMI (Body Mass Index), which is still technically overweight, but would be healthy for me, I think. Thin, but healthy.
- I intend to cut at least 3 minutes from my best-ever 5K race time, and best-ever 10K race time. That would put me at about an 8:00/mile pace (5K) and about a 9:00/mile pace (10K) I think. Just off the top of my head, anyway.
- I’m going to learn how to say no to dessert. At least, that’s the goal.
Financial
- I’m going to continue to work towards being completely debt-free. I might be able to make it this year. I’ll have to run the numbers to see for sure. Expect a follow-up post on this.
- I’m going to publish at least three books in 2008: a novel, a book of short fiction, and a book of short non-fiction/essays. I may self-publish, or submit to publishers, or offer them for download, or some combination of all three options. Whatever. I’m going to put my writing out there and see how it does.
- I’m going to be happy with my work. This may mean finding a new job, or learning to love what I’m doing at the county, or supplementing what I’m doing with the county with other more fulfilling work (see above about publishing)… or something else. But I can’t keep hating 40+ hours of my week. That’s killing me.
Personal
- I’m going to set goals for learning how to talk to anyone at any time. I’m going to study how others do it and spend time with them, and I’m going to put myself out there on a regular basis. Right now that means a minimum of 3 times per week for at least 2 hours per each (or at least as often as I go running). Seems a reasonable goal to me.
- I’m going to learn something completely new to me. Take a class, self-study, who knows? Maybe I’ll try my “read a different magazine every month” thing I tried a few years ago. But I’m going to expand my brain.
That seems a good start. Now I have to get busy…