My goal year ended last Wednesday. I didn’t finish strong. Let’s review how I did compared to what I set out to do:
Goal #1: I weigh no more than 150 pounds and feel fit, strong, and healthy.
Ha! On Wednesday morning, I weighed 167. That’s up 6 and a half from last month and 18 and a half from last year. I’m not even in the neighborhood of 150. If there’s any good news here at all, it’s that I’m still twenty pounds less than my all-time high weight. As far as the fit and strong part goes, I’m not doing well there, either. Other than skiing, I did no exercise in March. That’s right; none. The good news there is that I have plenty of room for improvement. I’m not even doing well with the healthy part, since I’ve had a cold all week, the first one I’ve gotten in a long time. I blame stress, with work and all the traveling I’ve done lately contributing, but recent conditions really haven’t been all that different from other times when I’ve managed to stay healthy, so that excuse really doesn’t wash. I’m choosing to view this past month’s poor performance as a temporary setback rather than a complete failure. I’m not going to give up. I know I can get back to 150, and I still think that’s an appropriate weight for me, so I’m carrying this goal over to this year.
Goal #2: I have read at least two books (or 500 pages) each month.
I didn’t manage to make this goal in March, either. I only read one book, not even a long one, and didn’t even finish that until the 31st. Still, for the year, I made this goal more months than I missed it, even overachieving once or twice (I could look it up, but then I’d probably get distracted by something shiny and never finish this entry so I won’t). I’m going to carry this goal over, too. I know other people read a lot more than this, but two books a month (plus whatever I can listen to) feels right for me right now.
Goal #3: I have completed at least 8 quilts in the past year.
Now this I did. I finished eight quilts: Pinwheel Baby, Delphine’s, Giant Novelty Potholder, Memory Quilt, ElleBee’s, Soccer Baby 2, Rail Fence Baby, and Plane Baby. I also contributed to one group baby quilt. That was a productive quilting year. It could have been even better if I hadn’t stalled this past month on my current project, the second commissioned baby quilt. I just can’t seem to muster up the enthusiasm to finish it, but I will. It will be the first of nine quilts I finish this coming year. Maybe the year after I’ll focus on something other than quantity with my quilting goal, but for now I want to work down my list a little more.
Goal #4: I live in a clean, organized, and harmoniously decorated home.
Well, sort of. It’s cleaner than last year, though I had to hire help to get it that way. I achieved my major organizational goal of dealing with the boxes of clippings, so that’s good news. Decorating, though, not so much. I bought four new pillows, two each for each of the sofas. I think that’s about the extent of the improvements we made this year. It’s just not a priority, and I’m not going to worry about it. If we get the bedrooms painted, great. If we don’t, well, they’re still perfectly functional.
Overall, the year was not quite the success I’d hoped for. Still, I think I got more accomplished than I would have if I hadn’t set goals at all. I like the process, I just need to do better on the product side this coming year, starting tomorrow (I like to start things on Mondays). By March 31, 2005, I intend to be able to say the following without lying:
1. I weigh no more than 150 pounds and feel fit, strong, and healthy.
2. I have read at least two books (or 500 pages) each month on average.
3. I have completed at least 9 quilts in the past year.
4. I live in a clean and organized home.
Just pronouncing these goals isn’t going to make them happen. Small steps in the right direction will, though, if there are enough of them. So here are the specifics, subject to change if I find they’re not getting me where I want to go:
I’ll walk at least 60,000 steps a week. To get ready, I’ve unearthed my unused Pokemon Pikachu 2 I bought back when they first came out. This Pikachu is in color. This Pikachu and I are just playmates right now, which I take to be the equivalent of the Pikachu 1 being O.K. with me, but I know our relationship will deepen and grow over the next weeks as we walk together. I can trade doing Firm workouts for walking at the rate of 20,000 steps per tape (i.e. do three Firms and I don’t have to walk at all).
I’ll track my WW points and stay under my maximum at least 5 days a week. Yes, I know one’s supposed to do this every day, but 5 days will be such a big improvement over what I’ve been doing that I think it will lead to good things happening on the weight front without getting me in a mental state where I feel I’ll never be able to indulge ever again and therefore want to do nothing but.
Reading and quilting will pretty much take care of themselves. There’s a whole library full of books; I picked out two to bring home yesterday. As far as quilting, I’ve always got a list of projects. This year, I want to do at least one quilt for Safe House as part of my guild’s commitment to that community service project. Before I do anything else, though, I need to finish the quilt that’s been hanging around partially quilted for weeks now.
On the home front, I need to keep up with the magazines so I don’t develop another backlog of clippings. To that end, I will recycle at least one month’s worth of magazines each month, whether I’ve had a chance to go through and clip them or not. (Two months would be better, because there are stacks of back issues downstairs, but let’s not get crazy; as long as the stacks aren’t getting higher, I’m okay with them not getting any lower for now.) I’ll continue the “one in, one out” rule I’ve instituted for clippings, too, so the files won’t be growing. Now that the clippings backlog has been cleared, I need to work on the photo albums. I hate to admit this, but I’m two years behind. Starting with those January, 2002 shots, I’ll put at least two months into albums each month until I’m caught up.
Okay, no time like the present. I’m off to crop pictures.
A year ago, we had an ice storm just before it was time to spring forward. It’s much nicer this year; it did snow last night for a little while, but it didn’t stick.
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