2012 Goals

Last year was the first time that I officially made goals for the year.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I definitely worked out more consistently than I ever had before, my blogging became more consistent and didn't feel like as much of a burden, and I would say I got better about replying to friends' correspondence in a timely manner.

Random Photo to keep this post from being picture-less.

 
So now for this year's goals...

Fitness - Workout at least 3x per week (this is 1x/wk less than last year which I think I need in order to be able to go to Bible study and still have 1 free weeknight to do as I please)

Blog - Blog at least 1x/week (I think now that I've been here for 1 1/2 years there aren't quite as many "new" things to blog about.  And like the fitness, this will give me more time to do other things.)

Photo Journal - Take a picture every Saturday this year (I saw this idea on Toujours Dimanche which is a blog written by the owner of a bakery/cafe in Quebec); I think I might start a separate page on this blog to keep the journal--I'll let you know when I decide.

Style My Hair - Actually do my hair at least 2x/wk (I'm not very good with hair and mine is fairly straight, so I usually just let it air-dry or flip my head upside down for a 1min blow-dry each morning.  But then when I want to do something fun, I can't ever figure out how to do my hair.  Finally I realized that I'll never get good with it if I don't practice.  So here's to over 100 chances to practice doing something with my hair over the next year.  I plan to use a lot of the tutorials on The Small Things Blog--she's a really cute hairstylist, with great videos/advice, and she lives near where we did in the US!)

Posture - I have had bad posture for as long as I can remember.  And for as long as I can remember I've wanted to make it better.  But nothing has ever actually happened.  I still haven't figured out a great way to quantify if I'm reaching my goal, so I still need to figure that out.  One thing in the little bit of research I've done so far that keeps popping up is the Alexander Technique.  Taking the classes probably wouldn't fit in my budget, not to mention that they probably don't have anyone who offers that here in AD.  But there's a website that seems to post something about once per month with some good advice.

Brush My Teeth  - Brush my teeth 2x/day (Hopefully this doesn't gross you out, but I've never been very good at brushing my teeth multiple times per day.  To my defense, I do chew a lot of gum though :)  With all of the coffee & tea that I drink out here, I think my teeth are getting kinda yellow and should probably be brushed more to help prevent staining.

I have a couple of others that are more personal or I'm not sure if I'm fully committed to them, so I'm not sharing them on the blog.  I do think that writing my goals down and sharing them last year helped me to stick to them.  Also, the other thing that I found really helped was just actually keeping track.  When I didn't keep track, I think I would often assume that I didn't do what I was supposed to.  Once I started keeping track I got a confidence boost and was surprised at how well I was doing.  I keep track of my goals on my iTouch with the app called Simple Goals.  As it's name describes, it's very simple and easy to use.  It's not fancy and doesn't do anything more than let you keep track by entering what you've done a daily basis and letting you know what you did this week and this month.  No more, no less.  I like it.