I said it and this time I meant it!! Really!!
So one of the things I've been doing lately is 8760 Hours. It's basically a REALLY INTENSIVE version of your New Year's resolutions, but taking like... a day or two (or several weeks, if you're me and don't always actually go work on it when you say you're going to) to sort out. In the end, you have about 14-20 things that you' like to accomplish during the year, of which you pick 3-5 to really focus on (with expansion potential if you achieve the first set).
So my goals for the year (which I'm really counting as the current half-year, so I'll re-do this in December) are as follows:
* Prepare for and take my Grade 7 RCM Vocal exam and Advanced Rudiments exam (December)
Ideally, I'd like to try for my ARCT before I'm 40, so I've set up a bunch of sub-goals for myself relating to moving forward with that. All told there are 20 steps to getting my ARCT, so I figure if I aim for 2 a year it's possible.
-Find a pianist
-Practice 3 hours/week
-Get feedback from a teacher at least a few times between now and then, because I can't afford regular lessons right now
-Finish self-study with my textbook
-Take practice exams
-Set aside the money for the exams
* Get myself down to eating out only 25% of the time (for every 4 meals, I can go out for one of them)
This one is a combination financial and health goal. I eat out A LOT, especially given that I generally only eat two meals a day.
* See my family more often - parents each at least 1x/month, siblings 1x/month, two closest cousins at least 1x/season. Call Nonna once a week.
This one seems fairly self-explanatory. I realized I was seeing my mom's side fairly often, but I don't see my dad's side nearly enough. I want to make more effort to spend time with them.
* Travel at least twice a year (short travel counts)
Traveling is one of my favorite things to do. I did go visit Ben this spring, which was AMAZINGLY AWESOME, but I missed out on the usual Boston trip. Pat and I have been saying we want to go to Chicago for the last, like... three years, and I want to actually do that.
* Find exercise that I actually like doing
This one is honestly probably the toughest one on the list. I hate exercising, or at least all the types I've tried. I manage to stick with it for a month and then just give up in a heap of 'sweat is terrible, sore muscles suck, I hate everything, goodnight'. I know that exercise is important, so I need to find something I actually ENJOY so that I will stick to it for more than five minutes at a time.
-Try a new activity each week
So that's the five that I thought were most important to me. Other stuff on the list includes reducing meat consumption (those of you also on FB saw the results of that; I'm going to try but I'm not putting a concerted effort into it yet, the eating out thing is more important), improve earnings (I want to get to a regular $3600/mo pre-HST and income tax deductions, or about $2700 actual "my" money), write 500 words/day, see friends more frequently, have potlucks more frequently (see previous point), volunteer, get myself more organized/less prone to getting out of bed at the crack of noon, and meditate 20min/day.
So my goals for the year (which I'm really counting as the current half-year, so I'll re-do this in December) are as follows:
* Prepare for and take my Grade 7 RCM Vocal exam and Advanced Rudiments exam (December)
Ideally, I'd like to try for my ARCT before I'm 40, so I've set up a bunch of sub-goals for myself relating to moving forward with that. All told there are 20 steps to getting my ARCT, so I figure if I aim for 2 a year it's possible.
-Find a pianist
-Practice 3 hours/week
-Get feedback from a teacher at least a few times between now and then, because I can't afford regular lessons right now
-Finish self-study with my textbook
-Take practice exams
-Set aside the money for the exams
* Get myself down to eating out only 25% of the time (for every 4 meals, I can go out for one of them)
This one is a combination financial and health goal. I eat out A LOT, especially given that I generally only eat two meals a day.
* See my family more often - parents each at least 1x/month, siblings 1x/month, two closest cousins at least 1x/season. Call Nonna once a week.
This one seems fairly self-explanatory. I realized I was seeing my mom's side fairly often, but I don't see my dad's side nearly enough. I want to make more effort to spend time with them.
* Travel at least twice a year (short travel counts)
Traveling is one of my favorite things to do. I did go visit Ben this spring, which was AMAZINGLY AWESOME, but I missed out on the usual Boston trip. Pat and I have been saying we want to go to Chicago for the last, like... three years, and I want to actually do that.
* Find exercise that I actually like doing
This one is honestly probably the toughest one on the list. I hate exercising, or at least all the types I've tried. I manage to stick with it for a month and then just give up in a heap of 'sweat is terrible, sore muscles suck, I hate everything, goodnight'. I know that exercise is important, so I need to find something I actually ENJOY so that I will stick to it for more than five minutes at a time.
-Try a new activity each week
So that's the five that I thought were most important to me. Other stuff on the list includes reducing meat consumption (those of you also on FB saw the results of that; I'm going to try but I'm not putting a concerted effort into it yet, the eating out thing is more important), improve earnings (I want to get to a regular $3600/mo pre-HST and income tax deductions, or about $2700 actual "my" money), write 500 words/day, see friends more frequently, have potlucks more frequently (see previous point), volunteer, get myself more organized/less prone to getting out of bed at the crack of noon, and meditate 20min/day.