New Year's goals
Last year, I made a single New Year's resolution - to watch more movies and read more books, as a way of beginning to step away from the practically oriented work-first way I'd been living my life for so long. Making this resolution (and making it public) worked very well, and I'm happy to report that I have made considerable progress towards having quality guilt-free leisure time that amuses me and /or feeds my mind.
Given this success, I have stepped up the pace, and have actually made five New Year's goals this year. I'm calling them goals rather than resolutions because they're all very specific and measurable, and it sounds just a tiny bit less cheesy.
Go out twice a month and do something new and / or different. Now that I've made the first baby steps on the whole 'get a life' thing by actually reading books and watching movies again, I figured that the next step towards ensuring that I didn't find myself amusing myself once the kids left home by dressing the cats in baby clothes was to get myself out of the house for leisure / entertainment. The things that I normally already get out for don't count - going to the gym, attending board meetings for non-profits, grocery shopping. At least twice a month, I have to go do something I wouldn't normally do - go to an art gallery, a movie in an actual movie theatre, a meeting of the birding society, a poetry reading, a peace march, a political meeting. As long as it gets me out of the house and away from work (both paid and unpaid work) and breaks the common mold of my day to day activities, it counts.
Run four races (5 and 10k), and train to run a half-marathon distance. Last years running season was so interrupted by hospitaization and surgery that I didn't get a chance to participate in any of the local races. It seemed like it was all I could do to recover from each setback and build up to running regular 45 minute runs when I ended up back in hospital again. This year, I'm training with a purpose. The race season starts in April here, and between April and December I want to do four shorter races. There's only two half-marathons done locally, so I'm leaving it optional whether I actually manage this as a race or just train to run one on my own.
Write something every day, even if it’s total drek. Back in my salad days, all I wanted was to be a writer. And while I'd like to blame the practicalities of life choices and events for never really pursuing it, the reality is that what's held me back is mostly fear, and the voice inside my head (that sound suspiciously like my mother) that told me I either had nothing to say that anyone would want to listen to, or that the things I had to say might shame or hurt someone, so I'd better just shut the hell up. Step three of my 'get a life' plan is to allow myself to rediscover my own voice, however painful and messy the process might be. So every day, I will write something. It doesn't have to be complete, and it doesn't have to be kind, and it doesn't have to be perfect and wonderful and correct. It just has to be words, released from the prison of 25 years.
Get LOTR collection catalogued and pictures taken. Website? This one's on the list this year because it pisses me off - I keep trying to get to this, and it keeps getting pushed down the priority list. It's such a big job, so I keep finding reasons why I don't have time to do it. Now it's on the goal list, it will get done. I would love to get it all on a website, but that's a secondary and optional goal, as it would require a whole new set of skills for me to publish a web site.
Get books catalogued. I have a huge home library, and for many years I actually did keep a list of all my books catalogued. This was very useful when I had to make an insurance claim when some were damaged. I also have some nearly complete author collections that I can't finish because I don't have a list of the books I do have. I'm putting this one on the goal list this year because, like the LOTR collection, it's something I've been trying to get to for years. (It's part of the reason I bought the laptop, to make these two goals achievable.) Plus, now if anyone finds out that I'm anal retentive enough to actually have a record of all the books I own, and they tell me I need to get a life, I can tell them about all the times I am getting out and doing things (Goal #1) as proof that a person can be both practical and orderly AND have a life. So there.
Given this success, I have stepped up the pace, and have actually made five New Year's goals this year. I'm calling them goals rather than resolutions because they're all very specific and measurable, and it sounds just a tiny bit less cheesy.
Go out twice a month and do something new and / or different. Now that I've made the first baby steps on the whole 'get a life' thing by actually reading books and watching movies again, I figured that the next step towards ensuring that I didn't find myself amusing myself once the kids left home by dressing the cats in baby clothes was to get myself out of the house for leisure / entertainment. The things that I normally already get out for don't count - going to the gym, attending board meetings for non-profits, grocery shopping. At least twice a month, I have to go do something I wouldn't normally do - go to an art gallery, a movie in an actual movie theatre, a meeting of the birding society, a poetry reading, a peace march, a political meeting. As long as it gets me out of the house and away from work (both paid and unpaid work) and breaks the common mold of my day to day activities, it counts.
Run four races (5 and 10k), and train to run a half-marathon distance. Last years running season was so interrupted by hospitaization and surgery that I didn't get a chance to participate in any of the local races. It seemed like it was all I could do to recover from each setback and build up to running regular 45 minute runs when I ended up back in hospital again. This year, I'm training with a purpose. The race season starts in April here, and between April and December I want to do four shorter races. There's only two half-marathons done locally, so I'm leaving it optional whether I actually manage this as a race or just train to run one on my own.
Write something every day, even if it’s total drek. Back in my salad days, all I wanted was to be a writer. And while I'd like to blame the practicalities of life choices and events for never really pursuing it, the reality is that what's held me back is mostly fear, and the voice inside my head (that sound suspiciously like my mother) that told me I either had nothing to say that anyone would want to listen to, or that the things I had to say might shame or hurt someone, so I'd better just shut the hell up. Step three of my 'get a life' plan is to allow myself to rediscover my own voice, however painful and messy the process might be. So every day, I will write something. It doesn't have to be complete, and it doesn't have to be kind, and it doesn't have to be perfect and wonderful and correct. It just has to be words, released from the prison of 25 years.
Get LOTR collection catalogued and pictures taken. Website? This one's on the list this year because it pisses me off - I keep trying to get to this, and it keeps getting pushed down the priority list. It's such a big job, so I keep finding reasons why I don't have time to do it. Now it's on the goal list, it will get done. I would love to get it all on a website, but that's a secondary and optional goal, as it would require a whole new set of skills for me to publish a web site.
Get books catalogued. I have a huge home library, and for many years I actually did keep a list of all my books catalogued. This was very useful when I had to make an insurance claim when some were damaged. I also have some nearly complete author collections that I can't finish because I don't have a list of the books I do have. I'm putting this one on the goal list this year because, like the LOTR collection, it's something I've been trying to get to for years. (It's part of the reason I bought the laptop, to make these two goals achievable.) Plus, now if anyone finds out that I'm anal retentive enough to actually have a record of all the books I own, and they tell me I need to get a life, I can tell them about all the times I am getting out and doing things (Goal #1) as proof that a person can be both practical and orderly AND have a life. So there.