I’ve mentioned before that I view my birthday as my personal New Year’s day. So, I started out the day by reviewing the goals I set for myself last year.

Turns out I’ve only achieved 1 goal and only made some progress in 1 other goal. A generous assessment of my performance would be 2 of the 5 goal areas. That would be a Needs Improvement rating everywhere I’ve worked before.

Areas where I was successful or made progress:

Get a new hobby: I’ve taken up genealogy and renewed my interest in crafting and sewing projects.

Get healthier: I’m still not exercising regularly but I did make a lot of progress on the weight loss front - so far I’ve lost over 50 pounds.

I made relatively no progress on the other goals. Steve & I tried to institute a date night but somehow that never really got off the ground. Instead of going out by ourselves on a weekly basis, we usually end up taking one or more of the kids with us. We did manage to get out a few times but usually just for a meal. No movies. No dancing. Nothing fun. Sadness.

On the Being Frugal and Finding A New Job fronts I made somewhat half-hearted attempts but nothing serious. I’m not sure exactly why that is - I definitely need to analyze my failures in these areas a bit more.

Since I made such spectacular non-progress on these goals this past year, I think I need to keep them (with a few tweaks) for the next year as well. So, here are my personal goals for the next year of my life:

1. Get Healthier - specifically I will:

  • Lose an additional 30 pounds
  • Walk for at least 30 minutes everyday
  • Get a physical including the mammogram that I have been dodging

2. Get a new job - I’m working with a placement agency but will need to explore other options as well.

3. Be Frugal - We still have only a vague idea where our discretionary income is going. I think the first step will be to start tracking all of our expenditures. I’ve tried this before without much success. The key, I believe, will be to do a reckoning at the end of everyday.

4. Spending Time with Steve - Rather than trying to institute a Date Night, which seems impossible to stick to, I will concentrate on getting some alone time with him everyday - alone time that doesn’t involve discussing the children.

5. Reconnecting with Friends - I’m enjoying my hobbies so I’m sure I’ll continue to make time for them. Now I’d like to make sure that I make time to spend with friends. Something more meaningful than phone conversations and emails.

There you have it. The top 5 goals for my new year. Let’s see how well I do this year.