Thursday 13: Goals for 2012

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In 2010 and 2011, I set out 13 goals for myself for the coming year. Technically, this could be a one-per-month-plus-one-for-good-luck thing, but it's more because ... hey, it was a Thursday 13 post. You need 13 items.

Neither year resulted in accomplishing everything on my list, but at least trying to reach set goals made me a better person. (I think.) I don't expect to finish everything on my list of Goals for 2012 either, but I do expect to try. (Not like 2011. 2011 was bad for Getting Things Done.)

1. Finish my Year of Awesome. In May, I made a list of things that I wanted to do before my 30th birthday. I could cheat and list each of those items as a separate goal, but I'm not going to do that. I would just like to finish the list, even if it means running around the weekend before and trying to hit four new states and a bunch of places of historical value.

2. Finish my current novel. Also in May, I started work on a new novel. It was a one-off of opening chapters for a contest that I entered, and as it turned out, I did quite well. Not winning well, but I was in the top 25. Not bad for something that I dashed off over a few weeks while wiping butts. Anyway, I polished it and tried again two months later, still landing in the top 25. Then,I discovered Will Write for Shoes and The Weekend Novelist. My writing has been transformed, as well as my approach. I have a year--well, about 50 more weekends--to finish this novel. And it's going to rock. (I hope.)

3. Start--and finish--another Journey To Greatness. In 2010, I was a fairly avid reader of ThoseGirlsAreWild.com. I was a little old for their target audience, but I liked what they had to say. I've stopped reading regularly--they're still wonderful writers and lovely women, but I don't relate to the content as much as I did two years ago. What I do still relate to is setting an overarching goal for the year and doing something EVERY WEEK to accomplish that. They called it a Journey to Greatness, something that I wholeheartedly support. I haven't settled on my goal, but it's likely to do with writing. Because I love it, yo.

4. Decorate our living room. Late last year, I cut a deal with Matt--if I stop stressing about keeping the entire house magazine-neat, then I'm allowed to go all designer on one room in the house AND he'll help me keep the kids out of it. I chose the living room. So far, we have a half-finished gallery wall with photos of our children and pieces of cultural art and our rocking piano bar. Our couch was delivered this week, and I have an old foot locker that's either going to become a table or a chair. Not sure which yet. We just need a few more things in there and it is DONE. Give us the year.

5. Replenish our savings account. This year was a little rough for us financially. We had a few unexpected expenses come up, and our savings took a small hit. We're only a little short, but I'd like to get back to that comfy spot.

6. Start a salad garden. I grew herbs and tomatoes last year, and it was lovely. We had fresh basil on damn near everything in the summertime, and it was so satisfying to start the plants from seedlings and watch them grow. The kids enjoyed being part of it too. This year, I would like to grow something a little more substantial. We don't have a yard anymore, so I'll have to figure out container planting, but we should be able to grow a few things!

7. Make money writing. I think this one makes me a bit selfish ... but it's true. I would like to finally make a little coin doing something that already sucks up 1-3 hours of my day, nearly every day. It could be from a book advance or from magazine articles, but a little fun money would be awesome.

8. Go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I can go by myself, with the kids, with the family, with Matt, with friends, whatever. I just want to go. And call me a nerd if you want.

9. Read five classics. As depicted by my 2010 and 2011 Books Lists, I like chick lit and popular literature. I have a deplorable knowledge of classic fiction. I must rectify this immediately.

10. Try a No Spend Month. Thanks to Pinterest (I think), I started reading smallnotebook.org, a wonderful blog about living simply. The writer and her family, every July, do a No Spend Month. They set a very small budget and, aside from rent and bills, don't spend money outside of that budget. They've learned the real difference between wants and needs, which is inspiring. I want to do February, but that would rule out living off of things that we grow. Maybe June?

11. Set up and stick to a writing schedule. When I accounted for my writing time recently, I came to the conclusion that I'm about halfway through the 10,000 hours required to become an expert at something. If I keep at my current pace of about 8 hours per week, I'll be well over forty before I can assume that I'll be published to the degree that I would like to be. If I can up it to about 13 hours, that brings me down to seven years. If I can squeeze in the recommended 20 hours per week, or about 1000 hours a year, that lowers my expected rate of success down to about five years. If I'm going to hit any one of these goals, however, I need to create and stick to a writing schedule. For real.

12. Take more pictures. We do stuff, I promise. But I never have a camera on me and my phone is too dirty for taking real pictures. I want to change that, because my babies are growing and I don't want to look back on this time and say, "WTF, Lynn, why didn't you take more pictures when the kids still liked you?"

13. Take a gymnastics class with Petra. I'm determined to have a gymnast in the family. I don't know who it's going to be yet, but my money is on this one. She's a rough-and-tumble baby with powerful legs that is still pretty flexible, and I want to encourage that before she learns fear. Also, I didn't get to take a regular class with Malia, and I would like to do it with at least one baby before they all get too old.

It's interesting to me to see how self-centered my list has become. Over the past two years, I've spent some time focusing on my husband and children, but this year, it's all about ME. Am I ashamed of that? No, not in the slightest. It's my list for my self-improvement, and it should focus on me. Also, things with the fam are pretty good now, so no need to spend extra time fixing what ain't broke, right?

Right.

Have you set goals for 2012? What are they?

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