29 Goals

Last year, a friend of mine challenged me to follow in her footsteps and make 28 goals to accomplish in my 28th year.   It resulted in a lot of personal changes and growth so I have decided to continue on with 29 Goals this year!  I will share these goals with you now and as I accomplish them I will share it here. Since my birthday is 10 days before the end of the year these goals are going to be my New Year's Goals in no particular order:

1. Go back to school
2. Read the entire Bible and Book of Mormon in 365 days
3. Keep Exercising Regularly
4. Be a more patient and engaged Mom
5. Get more organized at home
6. Potty train Paige
7. Read 20 books
8. Take more pictures than last year
9. Figure out a blogging schedule and stick to it
10. Get my piano tuned
11. Play piano 2-3 times per week
12. Play flute 2-3 times per week
13. Implement a house cleaning schedule that's more efficient
14. Do three public music performances
15. Take walks regularly
16. Learn the guitar
17. Be happy with myself
18. Read Scriptures daily with Matt
19. Pray morning and night (at least)
20. Learn to be on time
21. Go to the temple once a month
22. Drink 100 ounces of water daily
23. Start writing poetry again
24. Be better about speaking my mind in the moment rather than keeping quiet to keep the peace
25. Look for opportunities to provide service and take them!
26. Go rock climbing
27. Eat healthy and splurge occasionally without guilt
28. Quit my nervous habit
29. Reduce time spent on Facebook, phone games and the Internet in general


I'm excited to tackle these new (and old) goals this year! I hope I have an even better result this year! Please, if you would like to join me in doing one goal per year you are old, link up in the comments on the goals page! You don't have to make that many goals to join in though! If you have any New Years Goals, feel free to join in. Keep me updated on how you're doing throughout the year!

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28 Goals Recap

My 29th birthday was last Wednesday and it's time to evaluate what I accomplished this year.  I am not too upset about what I didn't accomplish because, frankly, without making these goals I wouldn't be where I am today.  I feel great about what I've done.  Here is an update:

1. Go back to school- still working on this.  Going to add to next years goals.

2. Decide where to live- we're going to stay in Utah for now.
3. Exercise Regularly- other than the last couple weeks being sick I can definitely say exercise is a regular part of my routine
4. Learn to overcome some of my OCD tendencies This is and will likely always be a work in progress, but I have made positive strides in letting go of perfection and control.
5. Visit home more often I have actually been home a lot this year.  It's been great to spend so much time with them.
6. Potty train Zoe!!! Done and done.  I think we're going to try to get Paige potty trained before the end of next year.
7. Read 100 books- Changing this one for next year.  100 books is far to many for my busy life.  I think I read a grand total of 8 this year.
8. Take more pictures than last year (especially of Paige)- not sure how to figure this one.  I took pictures, but not as many as I would like. Still, I am pretty sure I took more than last year though.  I think next year I will make a goal to take at least 2 photos a week.
9. Replace porch light bulb- I did it, but now need to do it again because the black light bulb has been in there since Christmas.  :)
10. Get my piano tuned- definitely adding this to next year
11. Play piano 2-3 times per week- recently I have been, but not enough to consider this done.
12. Play flute 2-3 times per week- same as above
13. Sing full voiced as often as possible- I ALWAYS sing full voiced, and often.
14. Do one public music performance- I actually did three, and plan to do a lot more utilizing opportunities through Church next year.
15. Take walks regularly- adding to next year
16. Learn the guitar- adding to next year
17. Be happy with myself- I'm getting there.  Adding to next year.
18. Read scriptures daily-  I was doing well for a while, but dropped off, need to recommit.
19. Pray morning and night (at least)- same as above
20. Learn to be on time- excruciating that I haven't accomplished this one yet.  Much harder than I thought it would be.  Adding to next year.
21. Go to the temple once a month- Next year.
22. Drink 64 ounces of water daily on a regular basis- I regularly drink about 100 ounces.  Yay!
23. Start writing poetry again- I haven't written anything new in a while.  Adding to next year.
24. Find a place to go swing dancing and try to go often- Still working on this one.
25. Look for opportunities to provide service and take them!- I need to be more open to this next year.  Though I did accomplish some this year, especially recently.
26. Go rock climbing- next year.
27. Eat at least 1 serving of fruit and vegetables every day- Something that has definitely become part of my diet.
28. Quit my nervous habit- still at it.  Darnit.

Ten out of 28 completed is not half bad.  Especially for someone who never followed through on goals before.  I am especially proud of the strides I have made towards my health and my music this year.  I'm excited for what lies ahead for next year.  I will continue to focus on health and music but want to work more on spiritual goals and some of the others.  Stay tuned for next year's 29 goals page.  It's coming soon!

28 Goals- May

To begin, I am going to publicly call myself out as a slacker for April. It was a crazy month, it flew by and part of it was spent in another state. However, these goals are important to me so I am going to refocus this month. Here's the state of the goals I've assigned myself so far:

I'm still working on reading (#7), slowly. I think I've changed this goal to reading as much as I can. What was I thinking when I said "100 books"?!

Exercise (#3) was killed by Easter weekend and illness. We are bringing it back tonight and then we're going to add Insanity to the mix in a couple weeks. I'm excited!

I've decided to call #13 "Sing full voiced more often" completed as I now sing all the time. Sometimes Zoe tells me, "Mom, I want to listen to music instead" when I sing a capella in the car...not sure how to take that.

Morning prayers (#19) are still a struggle-mostly because I always get up late. I REALLY need to work on both of those!

Potty training Zoe (#6) has begun, but I haven't been committed to it. Perhaps it's laziness on my part, or that our days fly by, or that I don't really know what I'm doing. I am not sure. If anyone knows of any good, short books on potty training for parents PLEASE share!

Water (#22) was becoming my drink of choice for a long time. I had given up soda and was drinking a lot of water every day. That has changed, but I plan to refocus on that starting today.

My poor flute (#12) remains untouched. Sometimes I wonder if I'm trying to tackle too much? (A topic for another post.)

My OCD (#4) seems to be getting more manageable. I have been working hard at letting things go, letting people help me. My biggest struggle is letting Zoe do things because she's not old enough to do a lot of them the "right way" and it's so frustrating. I know she needs to learn responsibility so I'm trying to keep at it, but it's truly difficult for me. I'll keep working on this...probably for the rest of my life.

My nervous habit (#28)- have I even told you what it is? I bite my cuticles when I'm bored, when I'm nervous, when they crack and sometimes for no reason at all. I have done it for as long as I can remember and it's always been something I hate about myself. I'm not even close to sure how to stop as I often find myself doing it without even thinking.

May Goals:

#8 Take more pictures than last year (especially of Paige). I think I'm going to try to start blogging more, thinking of switching homes for my blog and updating/ redoing. Along the same lines I want to start adding more pictures to my posts. I think doing that will help me take more pictures. Plus, miss Paige needs to be captured more.

#15 Take walks regularly. I want to do this as a family or at least with my girls to get some fresh air, give Zoe and myself some exercise and enjoy the beautiful weather we're FINALLY having!

# 20 Learn to be on time. People that know me well might laugh at this goal. I have been late to almost everything for as long as I can remember. It's embarrassing and I don't like it, but somehow it always happens. I think this will be a difficult goal to accomplish, but I think it will be extremely character building and satisfying when I do.

Feeling a little overwhelmed now. Breathe...

Goals: February and March Update

I'm proud to say that even though my life has drastically changed again, I have still been working on my 28 goals. Since January I have completed 3 of the 28. I know I didn't post my goals on here for February and March, but I did assign them. Here's how I'm doing so far.

January

#9 Replace porch light bulb: DONE! My fabulous Home Teachers ended up replacing it after they asked me if there was anything they could do for me. The light bulb had been broken for months and the metal piece was still stuck in the socket. Even though I didn't do it myself, I did allow some great people to help me out. (This goal wasn't assigned in January, but it was completed in January.)

#7 Read 100 books: Sadly time has not allowed me to stay on top of this goal. At this point I have only read 2. I am currently working on my 3rd. The year is not over. Maybe Summer and some road trips will allow me some more reading time. For now I will continue to do what I can.

#3 Exercise regularly: I'm proud to say I am on my 3rd week of exercising 6 days a week using the P90x program! It is hard, but I'm loving it! I feel stronger already and also really enjoy exercising with Love. This goal is one I want to keep up with for my lifetime, so I will update on it regularly throughout the year.

#13 Sing full voiced as often as possible: I'm doing much better on this, but could definitely sing more often. I'm thinking of maybe getting involved in Church choir or something. We shall see. :)

#8 Take more pictures than last year: I try to pull my camera out more often than I was and am doing better. However, I know I can do better than I am, so I'm still working on this one.

February

#2 Decide where to live: DONE! I have a life, a house, great friends, and (once again) family here. As much as I miss my family and friends in New Mexico, I feel like Utah is where I'm supposed to stay. At least for now.

#19 Pray Morning and Night (at least): I'm doing great on evening prayers and have been for a couple months. Still working on morning prayers. It's mostly that I procrastinate getting out of bed until I'm running late...

# 6 Potty train Zoe: I'm failing miserably at this. Mostly because I just don't even know where to start! Any ideas??

#12 Play flute 2-3 times per week: I haven't even attempted to start this one. Will probably refocus on it in April.

March

#4 Learn to overcome some of my OCD tendencies: I'm still working on this one. I am doing much better in some areas and terrible in others. I don't think I'll ever be able to stop the thoughts that rush through my head when things aren't how I think they should be...but I'm learning to ignore them a bit better.

#18 Read scriptures daily: DONE! I have been reading my scriptures daily for a couple months now. I have noticed a calmness about myself, my family members and in my home since doing this so I plan to continue. Also, I have enjoyed learning more about the gospel and gaining greater knowledge of the scriptures.

#22 Drink 64 ounces of water daily on a regular basis: Exercise has me drinking this amount or more on most days...but not every day. Still working to be better. I DID cut out soda though!!!!

Stay tuned for April's goals and future updates!

The Beginning

My boss has us set goals at work all the time and we're constantly reviewing how to set goals and accomplish them. One of the best ways to accomplish a goal is to break it down into smaller goals. You have to figure out what it's going to take to actually reach your goal. Otherwise, it's just a good idea. I do this for work all the time so I thought I would apply the same principles for my personal goals. There are 28 goals so I need to start working on 4 of them every month. I'll have to plan this carefully because some of them will take more time to accomplish. For January I want to start a couple easier ones...to get the ball rolling, one hard one and one that will take the whole year. The first thing I noticed was that #7- 100 books is quite the lofty task with my busy life. The only way to reach it is if I read roughly 9 books a month starting now! I am going to accomplish this by watching less tv, bringing my fabulous kindle that I got for Christmas (thanks Sis and Bro-in-law!) everywhere I go, and not getting behind in reading. A hard goal for me is #3- to exercise regularly. This isn't because I don't want to, it's just hard to fit it in. In my opinion, 3-4 times a week is regularly. I have exercised once this week so I need to fit in at least two more times and I'll be on my way. I am going to do pilates, yoga, and find some way to get in some cardio until it warms up and I can run outside. Also, I have really already started #13- sing full voiced often so I thought I'd add that one into this month. Lastly, I chose an easier goal #8- take more pictures than last year (especially of Paige). I'm going to work towards taking 1 picture everyday of each of my kids and then other things if I choose to. So, that is the beginning...my January. Wish me luck!

28 (Updated)

A friend of mine challenged me to follow in her footsteps and make 28 goals to accomplish in my 28th year. Considering I am staring at a new beginning, I thought it was a fabulous idea. I will share these goals with you now and as I accomplish them I will share it here. Since my birthday is 10 days before the end of the year these goals are going to be my New Year's resolutions in no particular order:

1. Go back to school

2. Decide where to live

3. Exercise Regularly

4. Learn to overcome some of my OCD tendencies

5. Visit home more often

6. Potty train Zoe!!!

7. Read 100 books

8. Take more pictures than last year (especially of Paige)

9. Replace porch light bulb (there is a story here)

10. Get my piano tuned

11. Play piano 2-3 times per week

12. Play flute 2-3 times per week

13. Sing full voiced as often as possible

14. Do one public music performance

15. Take walks regularly

16. Learn the guitar

17. Be happy with myself

18. Read scriptures daily

19. Pray morning and night (at least)

20. Learn to be on time

21. Go to the temple once a month

22. Drink 64 ounces of water daily on a regular basis

23. Start writing poetry again

24. Find a place to go swing dancing and try to go often

25. Look for opportunities to provide service and take them!

26. Go rock climbing

27. Eat at least 1 serving of fruit and vegetables every day

28. Quit my nervous habit

Some of these are goals I have to work up to, some are easy, some are really hard. This should be an interesting year...but no matter what I think I will be better for it!