Thursday Thirteen #17 “Thirteen Plus Personal Goals for 2008”
I’ve given a lot of thought to what my goals for 2008 are. I don’t want to give myself impossible challenges, but I really do want to make an impact in my own life. I don’t do these things to please anyone else, but me. I’ll start from the beginning, for a lot of these one progresses into the other.
1) Something I’ve started to do the past couple weeks is blogging everyday. Even if I have to jot down note when I’m out of town, I want to be sure I use my online journal to pass on info in some way each day. Not only do I make great new friend that way, but it keeps me writing and out there. To go along with the writing a blog everyday, I must visit others blogs too. Not only do I plan to make the rounds of my lj friend blogs to read if not comment I also want to visit at least one new blog everyday. I’ve done that for a week now and I’ve discovered lots of interesting stuff.
2) Music really draws me in, and where I play the drums (set and djembe) I’ve never taken active lessons, I play mote out of sound and instinct. I’ve always also been drawn to the bass guitar as well. This year my goal is to take music lessons for at least one musical instrument rather than just playing them by feel alone.
3) A big personal goal for me also is to eat better. This not only means eating more healthy (like with the juicing I am doing), but also to began cutting out the bad stuff I eat as well. The diet issue come up a lot, and you know, I don’t think that’ll be my goal. I want a lifestyle change, not just a list of eating rules and some calorie chart. I’m gonna check out the WW point system, not as a diet, but as a food maintenance to help me plan a realistic daily menu.
4) Once the food I eat is changed, so will my energy levels. What I need to do is get more active. With the weather changed and my thyroid crap making me cold all the time as it is, walking is now always an option everyday, but activity is. I love to dance, that’s a perfectly great exercise and I can do it in my own house once I make space.
5) That brings me to my next goal, getting my house in order. Now this doesn’t mean I turn into super maid. That’s what’s happened the rest of the times the house got cleaned and it just served to piss me off. I’m not doing this alone, but as a family it will get done.
6) I got a set of drawing books that came highly recommended. My goal, I WILL learn how to draw. I’ve always regretted not knowing how, and I may never be good at it, but I’m sure gonna try.
7) Get a new tattoo. I have several ideas, the trouble had been not being able to draw them myself or to find anyone who could draw them. I never got one to signify my graduation last year, and I will rectify that this year.
8) Declutter the attic and find a way to improve air circulation up there. My spiritual room is up there, as is my workshop, but the family have stuffed so much crap up there I can’t get to anything. It also gets so hot in the summer up there I can’t bear it. Both issues are fixable. Clear out basement. I miss doing my tie dye, and with the basement flood, it’s a mess down there. I know the basement gaming room is the hubby’s job, but it been a year and I’m about to pull out the whip and chair to get it done. I’d like to have a social place again.
9) Clear out my wardrobe. There are a lot of things I never wear in there, and I need to clear them out so I can get to the clothes I do wear. If I can lose weight, then I’ll have new (okay resale but new to me) clothes to wear.
10) The feel of clay has always been a relaxing and pleasurable thing for me. Like plugging into the earth herself and creating. This year I will take at least one pottery class series so I can learn more about working with clay. It’ll need to be a place with studio time and access to a kiln as well, but I know there are several like that in Milwaukee, or there use to be at least.
11) And here’s where we get to the next goal. Getting our finances in order. Hard? Yes. Impossible? No. It’s not like we throw our money around. We don’t have a mortgage or credit card bills. The worst of it is the medical bills and the insurance deductibles that we just haven’t been able to keep up with. Getting our budget in order will also help us with another goal, Fix up the house. This house need work in a lot of ways. I figure if we can fix three big things or ten small things each year, well catch up with it. Painting and miner fixes could really make this a more comfortable place to be.
12) I will read on book a week. Doesn’t sound so hard really does it? Well with two kids and an active house, it’s really hard for me. I need to read more. It will make me a better writer, as well as the fact I like to read. It’s a way to carve out time for myself in the week for something besides work.
13) Advance my spiritual training. Since my spiral door graduation, I’ve been looking for other places to learn things that will help me towards my goal of being ordained. I will not be ordained this year, but there’s plenty I can still do. I was invited into a Green Witchery Circle last week done by a crone herbalist I really respect. Basically advanced herbal training compared to the workshops I’ve taken with her over the years. I’m trilled. I want to get the money to take the athame class Falcon is doing in March too.
Bonus
Get to more conventions than just Wiscon this year. With my book coming out I need to have more of a physical presence. I’d like to make it to Saints and Sinners and GCLS con, but between airfare, hotel, and con fees, that means a lot of saving.
I plan to get at least two new novel contracts for my books this year, also I will work on my short story writing skils so I can sub to anths as well. I don’t want to give myself a word count goal, or page goal, but I will make the goal to work on my writing everyday.
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