Goals

I failed at my one 2009 New Years Resolution. I think the reason why I fail (and I suspect why a lot of people fail) at New Years Resolutions is that they are so vague e.g. get fit, lose weight, pray more. How do you know whether you've achieved this? How do you know if you've made progress? I think also, once summer holidays end (which for me, is on Monday) and work and real life begins again, it gets harder and you give up. You would have thought with all this, I wouldn't bother with New Years Resolutions and I have....but I haven't.

I have come up with New Year goals. I think goals are better because I can see whether I've succeeded and I can just start again if I fall off the bandwagon. My goals for 2010 are:

1. Spend less time fussing and more time relaxing. Actually this is more a resolution and a habit I wish to develop. I get frustrated that Clem sits around relaxing and I just look around and see more work to be done and get upset inside. Yet as Clem points out, there is always going to be more stuff to be done, so unless its really urgent, don't keep working until there is no time for relaxing. As written above, I need a goal so my goal for this is one evening a week just watching TV & knitting or similar. (No ironing or sorting or otherwise while watching TV!)

2. Spend one night per week being organised. This would involve thinking about the things coming up in the next week and dealing with them, replying to emails, sending out birthday cards, thinking about birthday, wedding and other gifts etc.

3. Read 1 book per month of which at least 6 are novels over the course of the year. In November 2008, I read Lost Horizon by James Hilton. It occurred to me when I read it, that I had not read an adult fiction book (as opposed to reading a child a story book) as far as I could recall since I left high school in 2001. I haven't read a novel since (I think). I would like to change this. I'd like at least some of these novels to be older "classics".

4.a) Knit 6 pairs of socks this year. To this end, I would like to have a personal sock club. I know several others who had a personal sock club and found this difficult and an in some ways a burden, so I'm not going to be beating myself up if this doesn't happen. I'm still finishing my mum's Christmas socks (she got one pair out of yarn she'd paid for, and the leg of one sock of a second pair of yarn I'd bought - now I'm up to the gusset), so I'll start the sock club from 1 March with 5 packages.

4.b) Knit projects in the following order (this isn't so much a goal I guess as a resolution but I often feel I get swept up knitting for the urgent and miss out on what I think is important): Socks, a gift (even if one isn't due which is rare, there will always be a baby or something at some time in the future), a wrap with love square, a personal project. My aim is to fit this in with 4.a) so I guess that needs to repeat every 2 months.

5. Exercise twice a week.

6. Use our Wii Fit at least twice this year.

7. Read the 'family' part of M'Cheyne's Yearly Bible reading plan (so at half speed) and For the Love of God Part 1 by Don Carson. (Basically read two chapters of the Bible every day so that by the end of two years I would have read the New Testament and Psalms twice and the rest of the Bible once.)

8. Have one person/group of people over each month (not including our parents).

9. See each of our parents in a meaningful way each fortnight.

10. Encourage Clem to indulge his passions once each month.

11. Celebrate (or commemorate) the holidays well (Australia Day, birthdays, Chinese New Year, Anzac Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Mid-autumn (moon) festival, Christmas and Christmas tide, Boxing Day, New Years Eve and maybe others).

12. Blog at least one meaningful post each week.

13. 1 RAK per month.

I shared these with Clem and he felt I may be being a bit over ambitious which is most likely true but if I don't make them I have no chance of achieving them. I plan to check my progress on this blog each month and review these goals after 3, 6, 9 and 12 months if I feel they are unachievable. (Clem points out that while I'm studying, a lot of these may fall by the wayside.)

After I shared all these with Clem, he decided to do the same exercise. He came up with one goal.

1. Write 1 song and sing it at church this year.

Time will tell how we go.