2010 New Year's Resolutions

"The Universe won’t get you where you want to go unless you are heading in that direction on your own." – Alicia King

“Your life will be no better than the plans you make and the action you take. You are the architect and builder of your own life, fortune, destiny.” —Alfred A. Montapert

As I tried to draft this I realized that so many areas of my life are humming right along. I don’t have any bad habits I need to break, I have a few good habits I want to instill, but otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the direction I’m headed. Notice I don’t say I’m happy with where I am. I don’t think I need to say that we are always moving forward, always growing and changing.

I want this process to be intentional, but still fluid - a roadmap that not only permits but inspires and encourages detours.

The overall pattern I see emerging here is the desire to tune into my true needs.

My body wants to eat healthily, exercise and exist at a healthy weight. I just need to tune in to get there.

My spirit wants me to create and play, I just need to take the time and listen.

My long-term professional goals require me to build a solid financial foundation now. My financial goals require the same thing.

Because of this, I will be letting go of a lot of unnecessary “wants” and “oughts” and only dealing with “needs” for the year.

Health

• Record everything I eat to ensure proper nutrition
• Try to get all of my nutrients from whole foods instead of supplements
• Exercise 300 minutes per week
• Ride my first Century!

Creativity

• Daily morning pages and Weekly Artist Dates. Mandatory.
• Weekly ruminative activities – walks, gardening, solitude

Professional & Financial

• Publish 200 total articles on Suite 101 by end of 2010 (86 more to go!)
• Aggressively pay off Credit Card
• Continue to build portfolio

What I found was that most of my lengthy original list was really a to-do list rather than actual goals. I wrote a Suite 101 Article on my New Year's Resolution setting process, though, in case you're interested!

2009 in Review

Because I'm starting to work on my 2010 Resolutions, always a good idea to review the accomplishments of the year that's about to end. So, without further ado:

• Professional goals: use my personal strengths every day; and change my relationship with email. - The reason why my email was bothering me was because for as long as I've used email (since 1993 or so?) my inbox reflected "to do" items and items left incomplete. And so, if I had more than a dozen emails floating in my inbox, I was frantic to take care of them and remove them. It was this sense of near-panic that caused me to realize that the tool was harming me, and I wasn't using it as intended. So, in 2009, I let go of that way of thinking. I'm happy to report that there are now literally hundreds of messages in both my personal and work emails, and that doesn't mean a doggone thing.

• Financial goals: include savings for house projects like windows, and setting aside money for fun, adventures, vacations and hobbies - This goal was not met this year, but I doubt anyone in the economic climate of 2009 could imagine accomplishing these feats. Instead, I'm going to count as a roaring success the fact that I changed jobs in 2009, without a period of unemployment in between them. I paid all of my bills and made ends meet in 2009, again a feat worth mentioning.

• Physical goals: To lose weight 10 lbs at a time.... until I fit into the clothes I have stored in the attic; enjoy myself with the YMCA membership - this year was a big year for me in the "physical" realm. I learned of two new food sensitivities - soy and dairy in addition to gluten - I learned about insulin resistance, and how to eat and exercise to heal that condition. I lost over 30 lbs. and dropped 4 inches from my waist. I tried Zumba classes and Spin classes. I rode a few 50-mile bike rides and a total of 770 miles this year. I did over 200 hours of cardio in 2009!

• Spiritual goals: Take time to ground myself and breathe, be in the moment; weekly artist dates; monthly retreats into nature; walk Lingo at least weekly - I've done a little better at staying in the moment, but I need to schedule more regular walks and more regular writing sessions in 2010. I think that the moust resounding success in terms of artist dates had to be the ukelele....

• Social support - Family & Framily: Rely on my support system more; Take time to connect and feel close to the ones I love. This is the anti-party. Schedule specific 1-on-1 attentive time with the people who mean the most to me. - Well, I actually did throw a party in April celebrating the successful completion of Brett's very first triathlon. I definitely feel like my friends and I leaned on one another a lot this year. This was a "hard lessons to learn" year for almost everyone. The best way I learned to rely on support from others? I taught Brett to cook in the crockpot and he's been making dinner one night a week!

• Home / House: Garden more; hire someone to check something off a list; make my rug for the sitting room - Well, we all know the rug is a big "Check!", and I hired the Lawn Elephant earlier this year to handle the lawn mowing because our mower is broken. So that's also a HUGE Check! I did, however, fail rather miserably at the whole "garden more" goal...

• Play / Fun: Set up a Pizza Fusion reading challenge!! (like we had with Pizza Hut in the 6th grade.....) - Hehehehe. I said "set up" not "maintain", right? In fact, I did a lot of reading this year. My best calculations (yes, Excel is involved) indicate that I've read at least 85 books just for the fun of it in 2009, and that's over 28,000 pages!

• Creativity: 101 articles on suite 101; finish Maaneshin and get to see it in that pre-print proof format; Ask Sherean to read my integral 4-H article; find & take part in creative community - Two outta Four ain't bad? I did achieve my 101 articles on Suite 101 in October of this year. I also started attending the more regularly occuring Radiant Writer's group meetings this year.

Overall, I think I was quite successful at meeting the heart and intention of my goals for 2009 even if I didn't check every single item off the list. The 2010 goals are going to be tough. I've got a lot on my mind....

Lazy, Cheap and Tacky - the holiday Newsletter

Hi there, folks. I'm just putting the finishing touches on our now-annual holiday newsletter, "Lazy, Cheap and Tacky", and I thought I'd send a note here.

If you want a copy, comment here with your email address, and I'll be sure to wing one your way. (Comments are moderated, so I will get the address, but I will not post or publish your address.)

Ethan's busy preparing some of our gifts, and we are enjoying a quiet evening together after the holiday iron pour!

Best wishes for a happy holiday,
Alicia (aka "Lili")