New Years Goals

… because I think that resolutions end up being something that is too easy to break (and, once broke, it’s all over).

A goal, however, is something that you can keep working for if you fall off the wagon from time to time.

Anybody have any you’d not mind sharing this year?

12 comments

  1. For myself…

    (1) Write more. In my paper&pen journal anyway. Made it to (I think) 156 entries last year. I want to break that record.

    (2) Clean out Junk. Also known as “why have I moved this box for 3 moves and have yet to open it?”

    (3) Clean out Garage. Yes, this counts as a year-long goal and not a weekend goal. It’s that bad. (ps: anyone want a couch? I’ve got a spare…)

    (4) Pay off Credit Cards to Zero. Got there a while back, want to get back there again.

  2. The Biggie, as always….. lose weight, get in shape, etc.

    Self discipline. I used to more. I lost it. Problem is, much as i know i need it, i don’t really want it. I need to work on wanting it.

    Make another sweep thru the house and garage, getting rid of things. I have given away so much and yet there seems to be as much clutter as there ever was. I need to pare down enough that i can live comfortably in the space i have.

    Finish projects. At least work more consistently toward finishing projects. Some are endless, but some i could actually finish and be done.
    – Sewing
    – Photo album
    – Family Tree Documentation
    – Home improvement (specifically, paint)

  3. I have made myself a star chart. I am immoderately motivated by shiny stars. (I bought the shiny metallic ones) It is very immature of me. But I know it about myself, and every so often self-awareness gives me >useful< little tricks I can play on myself. So. My star chart has two weekly targets, and four daily targets. However, I'm not fully settled into it - some of these targets might have to be adjusted. It's not a good fit yet. Weekly: 1- get through the week without buying any chocolate or candy (any bad stuff) from the grocery store. Exceptions for special events (and "Tuesday" doesn't count), and minor chocolate/candy purchases at vending machines or such don't count. Just don't stock the stuff. 2 - Have put less than $100 on credit card. This needs tweaking. It was 'less then $50' for last week, but then there were vet bills, and I felt that it needed some wiggle room ... and really, the goal is to get to the end of each month with less than $500 on the card. What I'm trying to do is curtail expenses. I'm not sure what the final target will be. Daily: 1 - Drink 1 qt of water (other fluids do not count) each day. Am fairly good about this one. It is good to have something I can generally accomplish each day. 2 - Be in bed, fully in bed and lights out, before 10:00. Astonishingly, this is the one that is giving me fits. And I'm ~trying~ 3 - Go to the gym for 1 hour of cardio. Not sure how to tweak this one, but it's not really plausible as a daily goal 4 - Do 100 situps (along with other non-cardio workout moves). This isn't really a good daily goal either - should probably be either 3 or 4 for a combined daily goal, and add some other 4th target. And I'm not sure that I'll need to do all that many situps for all that long (right now it's a targeted area of concern). But I don't want to over-develop the middle .. am working on refining this target. So. Those are my Very Detailed targets. I know you don't actually care about all these details .. but, hey, it makes for a longer blog entry. Which may or may not be a good thing .... 😉 The weeks counted are full 7-day weeks, but I only have 5 slots on the chart. So it's not that I have to drink water Every Single Day .. just 5 days out of 7. If I've been very good about bedtime (hahahhaha) I can stay up late Saturday. There's some leeway. I have amazon bonus points, and christmas gift cards to two books shops. They enable my rewards. (with Kevin unemployed, and with 'control spending' one of my goals, I can't go spend ... unless I'm spending 'free' money). If I get to the end of a week and have accumulated 15 stars, I get to go buy a book (or cd or whatever). That's an almost impossible goal. I think I need to tweak things to make that possible. If I get to the end of a month and have accumulated 10 stars each week, I get to go buy a book (or cd or whatever). Those are my rewards. Kevin thinks this is rather odd. In an amusing way. I would welcome feedback or suggestions on how to best tweak the targets.

  4. ps. Kevin went all bug-eyed when I said I was doing 100 situps.

    So – in case you, too, have gone all bug-eyed – I am currently doing 10 sets of 10 situps. Then I stretch or do pushups or lay down and watch the TV. I just have to finish 10 sets (in a day) before I get a star.

    I can do 15 situps in one set, so sometimes I sneak them in that way. I am trying to increase the amount I can do in one set. Right now my max is 20. It is nowhere NEAR 100.

  5. Ramona, I like the way you make not only a goal, but a specific way to measure the success of reaching that goal and a plan for rewards. The flexibility of your specifics as you figure out exactly what is going to work is good too. I could learn from you.

    Star charts were always fun and effective for you. Endearing that they still are. I remember trying drawn stars one time on your star chart. Those do not work. It is not the just visual record of success that works, it is the bright shiny stars. 🙂

  7. 10:00 PM bedtime?

    Around here, I think we start thinking about bedtime around 11:00. As in, time to get showers, bed-time snacks, ect.

    We’ve tried to push it back.. and we do, for a while. But it keeps sliding backwards.

    Though we have gotten away from the old 2:00 AM bedtimes. 😀

    On Spending: Here at the CCAD household (.. hey, that acroynm kinda works… neat!) we are on a ‘spending freeze’.

    But spending on bills, vet visits, car expenses… well, that stuff may setback our ‘zero out CC balances’ goal, but we can’t really put it off either.

    So our spending freeze is just on personal stuff. Chris is not allowed to get any more flashlights, flashlight batteries, books, games, ect. Not until we get some of these CC’s paid down.

    Point being, for your weekly goal I’d say put a limit on your personal spending that’s a bit lower than you used to spend. But don’t worry so much about vet visits.

  8. Thank you!

    Yes, bedtime at 10 is impossible. Figuring out how to do the money thing is also impossible.

    Writing them down helped me think through them … have new targets.

    1 – Star each time I go to store, spend over $75 (that’s about average for the weekly trip) and buy no chocolate/candy/bad things. Not per week, but per trip (more accountability .. and more stars 🙂

    2 – Personal spending under $X. I don’t yet know what X is. I’m having trouble coming up with something that is a certain goal, gives me some flexibility, but is a meaningful target.

    3 – Drink that quart of water. Mmmm, attainable goal!

    4 – In bed, lights out, before >11< pm. 10's just not happening. Got to ease into these things. And yes, I'm missing that target again tonight. 5 - Either 1 hour of cardio at gym or 200 reps of anything downstairs (situps, pushups, tush crunches, leg lifts, any mix) 6 - Less than 1 hour spent wasting time on computer or TV. This is just mindless time - glazed viewing of TV, endless solitare. Less than 1 hour. Consolidated work out targets ... added a new target. Will make reaching those 10/15 weekly goals possible. Still figuring out how to get to that money goal ... I tend to flame out on spending freezes - freeze freeze freeze explode. And this has to be sustainable - and actually, looking at the paystub, it's going to have to be less that that $500 target. Much less. Sigh. So .. to reference the begnning of the post, those are my new years goals. Or targets. >Not< resolutions. And I did want to say - 156 journal entries is a very impressive goal to have reached last year. I am impressed. That is quite dedicated of you.

  9. Our Great Spending Freeze is mostly attainable because when I look at the ledgers… well, those big nasty CC’s are just sitting there laughing. “Heheheee! look how much you spent and how much you are losing! “.

    Now, the biggest, meanest one is getting transfered around to keep the rate low. I just started up another round of transfers to get the rate back down to something nice and low. (should end up at 0% till Nov this year, but with a 3% transfer fee… I consider the card @3% interest, which is much better than any other cards)

    Anyway.

    The Journal hitting 150+ entries… well, the first entries were sporatic. To get myself into the program, I started drawing a Tarot Card every day and writing it down along with a brief ‘how this card is relavent’ entry. Eventually, the card and the entry were totally divergent. I started just writing normal entries at that point; by now each entry took up a full page on their own.

    Journalling died down at the end of the year though. I could have made it to 165 entries if I’d kept it up. I’m hoping to at least hit 170 this year.

  10. Kevin also has a target he would like to share.

    He would like to get his BMI under 30, and thus be merely overweight.

    In order to get his BMI under 30, Kevin will need to lose 18 lbs or grow 3 inches. He has decided to lose the 18 pounds.

  11. Christina would like to know if those 3 inches to grow have to be verticle… could they go horizontal instead?

    Personally, I know which way is better and which way is much more fun…