Monday, February 08, 2010

nine for twenty nine

having goals for my 28th year kept me on track, helped me maintain my focus, and was a nice way to monitor how my year was shaping up.  it makes perfect sense to do it again... here we go with nine for twenty nine.

1 - conquer my anxiety, or at least win a few battles against it.  this is a clear continuation from 28 and i think will likely be a regular dialogue circulating through my head.  but i would like to leave 29 a little less anxious than i found it.

2 - be more thoughtful of others, especially around special events, days, occassions.  i like to be thoughtful, but i think this past year has found me rather wrapped up in my own stuff.  now i am ready to shift my focus back out to my network when i should be thinking of others.  i like to think of others so this isn't really a challenge, just that i need to remember.  bring on the daytimer!

3 - continue making visiting family and friends a priority.  recently, i had a little birthday and was amazed at the number of places from which i had wishes from - canada, the us, the uk, greece, kenya, laos, bermuda, australia, sudan, south africa, new zealand, india, denmark, vietnam, mexico, italy, indonesia, sweden, rwanda, afghanistan, east timor, uganda, and spain.  i managed to get out and about last year and this year i hope to keep it up.

4 - nail down some sort of short-term career goals.  after a few weeks in europe, visiting with old friends, having conversations about development and academics and other mind expanding topics, coming back to work here in calgary has been a little errrr.... boring.  i like my job enough, but i think it is time that i start to look forward and set some goals.  i am not sure what those goals will be, but i do need to give it a think and come up with a direction.  i work best when headed in a direction.

5 - lay a nest egg to accompany my nest.  seeing as i effed the dog on this goal last year (but i DID get those receipts into a accordian folder, yippee!), i am going to keep it up.  i will need to learn a lot on this one, but hopefully this year i will be able to free up some of my time and monies to get it done.

6 - eat more balanced, regular meals.  i often forget to eat.  sometimes i eat a croissant for dinner.  most days, i have a latte for breakfast.  i typically eat when i am hungry, don't have any issues with the amount that i eat, and i used to be very responsible and cook healthy meals regularly.  but not lately and i am not sure why exactly.  i know i could do better and i will have to work this into my schedule.

7 - sleep an appropriate amount.  not necessarily more, but appropriate.  sometimes i can sleep and sleep and sleep and this past year, i made sure that i got enough sleep because after years of deprivation, i was amazed to see how much better i felt once i had enough sleep.  but now, i need to suck it up and find a way to get by for a day on only 6 hours of sleep because otherwise, i end up heading into work late and considering i want to have a little nest egg by the end of 29, i need to make sure i am billing as many hours as i can.  but napping, oh i could never give up napping.

8 - maintain my priorities.  this became a challenge immediately before christmas when i felt that i was being pulled in a number of different directions.  oil and gas work.  counter trafficking work.  commitments with friends.  dates and more dates.  i am going to do my best to keep my priorities in check throughout the year and make sure that as they change, my schedule changes with them.  i have started running regularly again, i have a new volunteer commitment, my trafficking work is only getting busier, and all of this stuff is good and makes me who i am so it makes sense that these would be my current priorities.  but sometimes, other commitments and aspects of life seem to take over, so i will do my best to remember what my priorities are and allow them to change and shift throughout the year.  being mindful, really.

9 - keep laughing.  when i get to spend time with my family, the next day my stomach invariably hurts from laughing so hard.  i think this is fantastic and my goal for 29 is to keep this up and to find more opportunities to laugh that hard.  (this goal was a toss up between 'keep laughing' and 'keep asking for what i want.'  i am going to see what happens with this as the year progresses, but it might shift to the other if need be.)

wish me luck!  1 week in and i gotta say that i was slightly drowning under various priorities, but after hosting a birthday/fundraising party (spread the net, people!), i am ready to start this year off right.  bring it on, 29!

3 comments:

S said...

On #9, I saw on the news last week that one thing women can do to avoid heart disease is laugh for 15 minutes a day. This was an actual expert in women's heart health saying that 15 minutes of hearty laughter (pun intended, of course) has shown to be very good for our physical hearts. So laughing every day should be a goal for all of us.

craftedbylindy said...

These are great goals! I agree that laughter is very important. Maybe you could add a 9.5 half way through the year. LOL. Then you wouldn't be breaking any rules right. Hee hee! Good luck!

lu said...

good idea because i really do like to have rules and this would be a way of building the rule so that i could break it without guilt!