2018 Goals Check-in

Back in January, I wrote out a lengthy list of things I wanted to accomplish or do better in 2018. I got myself a brand new fancy notebook (I definitely have a problem with buying notebooks and journals) and promptly lost it under a pile of papers and books to read. So much for getting organized! I dug it out last week to see what I wrote and how I was doing with it.

• Reduce sugar intake: this took me a while but I’ve finally gotten away from purchasing candy which has helped me reduce my sugar intake considerably. I look at it as an addiction and sometime I’m drawn to the pharmacy to pick up a “fix”. I have been very successful in talking myself out of buying anything sugary once I’m there and that has been working well.
• Lose 10 lbs by March 30 for trip to Costa Rica: Nope, this didn’t happen.
• Go to gym a minimum of 3x per week: This was moderately successful as I was getting myself to the gym often but it wasn’t helping me get in better shape. I have a friend who is a personal trainer and deals with people with injuries and I decided to give the idea of a personal trainer a look. She brought me through a basic functional test and covered more items than my doctor does about my health, nutrition and exercise habits. I knew it, but I’m completely out of alignment due to favoring one leg from a sports injury that happened in high school (1984!) and I’ve established a program for the next three months to correct a lot of this. It’s a huge commitment but it’s time to fix it. Check with me at the end of July!
• Write 3 blog posts per week: If you average it out, I’ve definitely accomplished this so far. Daily blogging in February helped get me back into writing consistently and even when I’m not blogging I’m generally writing something every day.
• Write a (brief) review of the books I’m reading: I started off pretty good on this one but have not done it consistently.
• Interact with authors I’m reading on Twitter: I will occasionally reach out to a writer when I’ve enjoyed their book. Not everyone responds but I like being able to tell an author directly when I like their work and Twitter is a great tool for doing this as I find many authors are on it.
• Take a writing class: I have my eye on two good ones for the summer.
• Try one new (healthy) recipe a month: I thought by making this a monthly goal it would be attainable but since I never looked at my goal list after January, I completely forgot about it.
• Get a sitter once a month to have a date night: We do this one very well and we often have plans a couple times a month that require this. However, the intent was to do something like go to the movies and that hasn’t happened yet.
• Have a date day once a month with Liam: I’m sure we’ve done this a couple of times but I can’t remember what we did. Last spring when we went tech free, we created a list of ideas of things to do for the day but we haven’t really done anything like that yet. I think it’s time to revisit that list.
• Submit an essay for publication: Not yet.
• Read 60 books: So far I’m keeping the pace.
• Spend time on organizing our home: Yikes! We are about to begin a bunch of renovations so this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Overall, I think I’m doing pretty good for writing a list and then not looking at it again until recently. It’s also a lot! Now I can dust it off and reset my intentions.

How are your goals for this year going? How do you keep them top of mind?

MC