April 2017 Goals

I have been thinking about my goals for the past few days.

My problem is that I seldom write them down.

I admire people who have goals and who are able to answer the question Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I sit back in awe of people who have a 3 year plan.

I rarely do these things. I don't know why.  It isn't that I don't have faith in myself. And I keep daily to-do lists, and if I go back and look at those, I accomplish a WHOLE lot. But I rarely write down what I want to do. I think that is because life changes on a dime. Life never goes as perfectly as we envision.

Or maybe I am just afraid to list goals. Who knows.

Anyway, I want to post all month, and tonight my mind is on goals. I have a few.

1. Make a budget for the month. This is something I rarely do. But I think I can shave a couple hundred dollars or so off of my discretionary spending. I need to at least write things down. I want to do that in order to create some new savings goals. I have been saving at the same rate for the past three or four years. I can at least be more aggressive.

2. Pay off a bunch of stuff. I got my tax refund back and I am paying off a couple of credit cards. Part of me wants to squirrel that money away, but nope. Just do it. Interest sho nuff know it adds up. Time for that to stop. Debt free minus the house. Amen.

3. Eat better this month. My eating habits have been a bit shady. I am planning to do better about that. I am in the subconscious habit of eating lots of fruits and vegetables during the day, but I am crazy at night. I need to transfer my daytime habits to my nighttime. And I want this to become subconscious like driving a car. But right now, I have to work at it and plan.

4. Journal every day. I do so much better when I have a journalling habit. I rarely talk to people about what is going on with me. That comes from being slapped down for having an opinion during childhood. So I rarely speak my feeling, and I pray and write. I get a WHOLE lot of stuff done that way. And no one ever knows what was going on. Problems pop up and they get solved quickly. I tend to like it that way.

5. Read more Bible. This is a tough one for me. Why? Well the answer to the question isn't that obvious. But for some odd reason, I will have a reading habit, then I will stop. Why? Because I will ponder a piece of scripture for MONTHS. I will think about one verse for a very long time, chewing on it like a chicken bone, trying to squeeze as much understanding out of it as I possibly can. And I need to chill with that. Think about it for a day, and keep it moving. So I think I will just read a chapter a day and take good notes as usual. If I see something that moves me, then I will spend the day with it, i.e., looking up different versions, etc. Easy enough. Hmm.

6. Blog every day this month. I have tons of material to blog about. And I need to do this for me, as it is highly therapeutic. I have done well, right? 2 days in a row. Whoo-hoo!

The key to that is keeping notes on what I want to blog about. I will think about something during the day, then I will forget. I just need to write it down, and I will do just fine.

Those are some of my goals. Five is enough to work on and to keep me from being idle.

6 goals is enough for the month. All these things are doable.

At least I hope they are.

I am willing to try.

And that's all that matters.

December is in Full Effect

It is December.

And that is hard to believe.

The year is basically 92% over.

And I ask myself: have I dealt wisely in my 92%?

Yes and No.

And what will I do with the remaining 8% of the year?

I ponder.

And I continue to wonder.

I think I have all these grandiose goals and dreams, and I just don't reach them all. I think that means that I have to do two things: be more realistic about my goals and to make sure I write them down. Period.

In support of that, I learned of a bible verse some 15 years ago that relates to goal setting, albeit indirectly.

Habakkuk 2:2 (AMP) Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.

In other words, for my ownself and in the context of goal setting, this means for me to very clearly write the goals down with pen ande paper and put it somewhere where I can see it. This has worked real well for me if I tape up said goals on the bathroom mirror where I can peruse it while I brush my teeth. In the past, I have had goals taped to the wall of my hallway, where I would would iron my clothes for the day. That way I can always see it, and think on where I am with it and what I need to do concerning it. I would even put a check mark and date next to an accomplished goal and write "I don't need the faith for this anymore, I can put that faith towards another goal."

I was getting things done back in those days.

Where oh where has the old LadyLee wandered off to?

I need to get back to those special skills.

Right now I have a large poster board up on the wall in the hallway right outside my bedroom. It is labled "Work in Progress" and has little index cards with all the chapters of my current writing project in progress.

I pause at it at least 3 times a day, and rearrage cards, write something on them, snatch cards off, etc...

The point is, I was actively thinking about it all.

My personal goals technologist, Aretha (Aretha looks at the screen and hollers "What the heck is she talking about?") does an excellent job of this. She posts her goals every month and gives a status of what goals she reached or failed to reach the prior month.

I am learning much from that: have a set of written goals. If I reach them, that's great. If I don't, that is okay too. I need to just make sure I examine why I didn't reach the goal, if it is formidable, and what to do next concerning it.

I did okay this year.

I had several big goals: One of the most glaring was to go vegetarian. Another was to pay off some debt, and to possibly become debt free.

Both of those are still works in progress.

I have learned so much about myself in the process.

I STILL have to write my loooonnnng drawn out post on the vegetarianism thing. I really don't know where to start, though. It will be quite convoluted I suppose. But my overall goal was to test things out, and to decide whether to go fully online on January first. The decision is easy enough. I will definitely be fully online with the vegetarianism such on the first of the year.

One of my biggest goals of the year was to travel. I definitely did that. Boy oh boy it felt good. I have never been on a planned vacation as an adult. I went on a cruise, and I even did an extra trip, to the Mayan Riviera. Loved them both. I took a financial hit, but shoot man, it was worth it. As a result, the Oldgirl is NOT debt free.

But I did do 2 things financially: I paid off two really old debts.

My goal is to travel twice a year. In 2010, I'm going to the Dominican Republic for my birthday. And I hope to hit up an American city in the late summer/early fall. My goal is to hit up Chicago. We will see how that works out.

One thing that I did accomplish last month is completing the NaBloPoMo activitiy, posting every day last month. I've done this twice this year. So this has been a good year for posting overall.

So, I'ma go out on a limb and post up goals for the month of December.

1. Financial: Pay off my new laptop. I was under the 6 month same as cash system. I owe 95 bucks before December 11, before all the interest accrues. Uh, we'll pay that off by Friday, so place a call to them peeps to make sure I am squared away.

2. Financial: Pay off a credit card that has a low balance, before December 31. I have a couple of dinky credit card balances lingering. I think I got a letter in the mail saying one of them sucker's interest is jumping to 25%. That's a crock, because I have paid my stuff on time and whatnot. But I think the total on those cards is 200 bucks or less. Not sure. All I know is that we'll be paying those OFF. No time for THAT.

3. Vegetarian: I am in heavy expand mode right now. That is, I am busting out hard on finding new recipes. I've gotten caught up on eating things I like, and I need to keep expanding it. So it looks like I'm on a roll to try 2 new recipes a month. Easy enough. I am also going to keep a better journal of what I am eating, so I can spot and get rid of any potential problems.

4. Writing: I did what I wanted to do during NaNoWriMo: get a good habit reestablished. I am happy about that. I didn't finish up, but am moving full steam ahead in the right direction.

I will get into all that later. This is just me rambling along.

I was sick as a DOG yesterday. I feel sooooo much better today. I find that I have dehydration issues, and I think that's all it was, because I know I had to have drank a good couple gallons of water yesterday. The more I drank, the better I felt. I think I slacked out on my water consumption this weekend, and if I don't get my gallon a day, I tend to feel bad. I think I just dropped the ball over the holiday. SHAME ON ME.

I will go to work this morning. Sigh. I hope I'm not hasseled.

I'm going to vote this morning. I'm voting for Mary Norwood, but I think Kasim Reed got this one. He has all the endorsements and what not. So we will see.

So, your year is 92% over...

I'ma need you to do what you can with the remaining 8%... you hear me?

Make it count...

That's what I aim to do: To make this little bit left count.