2012: New resolutions, goals, and adventures

This year are you making resolutions or making change? In her New Year’s post, Gail Vaz-Oxlade wrote:

I don’t make resolutions. I find them distracting. Instead I make changes.

First I make a plan. I set downs the steps I’m going to take, put some timelines in place, and decide things will be different. I don’t resolve to make them different, I MAKE them different.

Gail has been a real inspiration to me in learning how to set and maintain goals – including budgets – properly. I think the problem most people have when it comes to making New Year’s resolutions is that we decide we are  just going to change, dammit. We drill down what we want to a matter of simple will-power. “I just need to stop eating junk food, or force myself to the gym, or just stop smoking, or stop spending…”  Truth is, the decisions we make are not just a matter of simple will-power or rational thinking. Habits are hard to break.

One of the reasons I like Gail’s approach in Till Debt and Princess is that it engages you in the reflective practice of asking, “What do you want?” but also turns it into something practical by breaking down the goal into small steps and also consider how other people can help you in achieving that goal.

As for me, I have several new year’s resolutions, but also several goals and some hopeful adventures:

Resolutions

• Get up earlier to enjoy my mornings more. Specifically, early enough that I can enjoy a cup of coffee and some breakfast while looking out the window. I’d like to start my day in a more peaceful frame of mind, rather than rushing out the door.
• Gossip less. I don’t feel good about myself when I do it, yet I do it. It’s hard not to get drawn into it, and it becomes a real habit.

Goals

• Begin learning Italian. I’d like to learn some conversational Italian and basic sentence structure and grammar.
• Increase the amount of exercise I’m getting – but I want to do it in a fun way. This may entail bouldering classes, dance lessons, or winter running/hiking.
• Investigate my credit rating and cancel any sources of credit that may be lingering on my account and not officially canceled.
• Find a way to back-up my blog so that I can upgrade WordPress. Everytime I try to install a back-up plug-in I run into problems. I’ve literally been trying to solve this puzzle for years. It means I can’t get the latest version of WordPress and I’m also at risk of losing everything I’ve ever written.

It goes without saying that I need to break these down into some smaller, more manageable steps, to figure out how to actually break the bad habits that get in the way of achieving these goals and resolutions. Several of these have been on my to-do list for quite some time. I need to employ Gail’s method of goal-setting to figure out what is needed to make things things happen.

Adventures

New adventures I’m hoping for in 2012? There are lots!

• Begin new program at work in April (contingent upon government funding; my contract expires March 31.)
• Move in to new place with my boyfriend
• Attend (and possibly speak at) the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washinton DC in July
• Visit Italy with my boyfriend and two other friends in spring or summer
• Continue Intermediate yoga classes in the spring

 You may recall the “fun goals” I wrote out in September ’10. I never gave an update on that list, so now is a good time to do it!

What I did do

Visit Hawaii
Investigate at least 5 bands that are new to me and see them perform live. (Well, not quite 5, but close enough).
Explore a city that I’ve never been to before (Actually, I explored two new cities – NYC and Chicago).

What I didn’t do (but would still like to do)
Go dog sledding
Go rockclimbing outdoors
Go snow-shoeing
Create a scavenger hunt with friends
Build a miniature wunderkammer 
Go cross-country skiing
Submit at least one proposal/article to a yoga magazine

But, since I set these goals just with the intention of having more fun, being adventerous and enjoying my life, I was willing to be flexible with these goals. I ended up still having lots of fun and adventures of different kinds. Many of them just looked different than I’d imagined.

Have a wonderful, happy New Year!