Converting iWeb posts into WordPress occupied a fair amount of this weekend. In the course of opening old entries, I came across a New Year’s list of goals, which I’d promised to revisit off and on during the year. Well, of course the instant I posted that I promptly forgot the follow-up part. Better late than never: here are the 2008 goals I came up with, along with what’s become of them.
Three days a week, add bicycling or mountain park hiking to exercise routine
nope. never did find the time or energy. it’s hotter than a bigod out there now, and so you’ll not be seeing me on the mountain or the canal bike path till temps drop below 95.
Lose five to ten pounds by
a) staying off the sauce,
b) increasing exercise as above, and
c) continuing to eat lots of whole foods and less sugar & refined grain
sorta. lost about three pounds. off the sauce, less sugary foods. exercise: no change.
Bring food to the office instead of ponying up $8 for the miserable restaurant fodder that passes as lunch
n/a. quit eating lunch altogether while on campus.
Drink tea, not coffee, and less of it
yup, and yup
Learn to put widgets on iWeb pages
learned how; works spottily. some widgets don’t work at all; others get corrupted.
Join four social networking sites
nope x 4
Aim for two no-purchase days a week
yup. probably getting more than that in now, since the price of gas prohibits bucketing around town on a whim.
Snowflake the Renovation Loan principal down by $1,000 (that’s $83.30 a month)
yup. did that. Renovation Loan down from $25,000 to $22,200. also set aside something over $11,000 in the Renovation Loan Payoff fund. Had $13,000, but raided it to build a wall at the Investment House.
Invest $250 a month in an interest-bearing account to build liquid savings and to provide the option of paying off Renovation Loan within five years
sorta. with the teaching income gone, the most i can swing is $204 a month.
Invest net income from side job (approx. $3500 a semester) in the same interest-bearing account
yup. no longer teaching, but investing income from editing, income tax rebates, federal & state tax refunds, cash-back from the American Express card.
Wear better clothes to the office, using the wardrobe now expanded by after-Christmas clothing purchases
nope.
Try to wangle a Power Mac from the university
arghhh! hafta think that one through again!
Build cross-campus collaboration by trying to land another research assistantship to be staffed by grad students in the publishing program
done! increased my staff to 5; new Ph.D. on his way to join us as i scribble.
Build new ways to mentor graduate students and reinforce editorial training
yup. brilliantly…i amaze me. this one will get me another 4.5 on next year’s evaluation!
Make new friends
a) through Meetup.com
b) rejoin the choir
a) nope
b) sorta. joined the Unitarian choir. nice people, but a little too exuberantly friendly for my style. also really missed Anglican music.
So. Does articulating your goals and writing them down increase the chances that you’ll actually do them?
I dunno. I suspect the things I got done were things I would have done anyway. The goals I didn’t make were things that I should have done but just don’t want to.
Meetup.com: I’d rather spend time playing with the dog than trying to build new relationships with strangers. Biking & hiking: requires me to find a good two hours out of the day to devote to these sweaty activities; besides, I’d rather read a book. Clothing & personal appearance: I guess style is just not my thing!
Appears to me that if what you have to do to meet a goal is in your nature, you’ll probably do it or something like it anyway. If it’s not something you’re naturally inclined to do, you need some other impetus than just “I really oughta do that.” For example, if I were seriously overweight and it were affecting my health, I would diet and would work more than the present hour a day of exercise into my routine. To accomplish things that you don’t really want to do or that clash with your normal habits, you really need external motivation.