Thursday, November 1, 2012

Update on New Year's Resolutions

I set some pretty aggressive New Year's resolutions for myself in 2012. I had intended to revisit them around the middle of the year. Is November close enough to the middle?
  • Qualify for the Boston Marathon. This goal won't happen this year, and it won't be for lack of trying. Over the winter I ran every day but one. I did a long run of at least 18 miles every week. I then followed that up with a nearly flawless training cycle in the spring. The result was a personal best at the Ogden Marathon in May, but my best wasn't good enough. I'll try again for a BQ in 2014 when I reach the older age group.
  • Create and follow a set of value statements. Done. I have nine sentences that define who I aspire to be. I read them every other day.
  • Keep a daily tracker. Done. I certainly haven't kept it every day, but the majority of days I faithfully check off my list of to-do items.
  • Read 12 books. I've read 10 books so far, so I'm right on target to complete this goal. The books I read are: Mockingjay, They Never Came Home, Alien Hand Syndrome, Locked in Time, Design Patterns, The Clockwork Three, The 5,000 Year Leap, How to Sell Every Magazine Article You Write, Training for Endurance, and No They Can't.
  • Post to my blog 26 times in the year. I've posted 14 times so far, including this post. I'm hoping to do a lot of posts during National Blog Posting Month, starting today. I should easily make my goal.
  • Be more patient with my kids. I've been more patient, but I definitely could do better. The kids have been great this year, so being patient has come easily.
  • Pay off our home equity loan. Done. We met this goal three months early. It is a great feeling to have that weight off our shoulders.
  • Earn a promotion at work. This isn't looking very promising. We had a company-wide reorganization and I was assigned to a new team with a new manager. This would have been bad enough, but I was then asked to keep working on my old team until the project I was working on was finished. This meant that I spent almost half the year working on one team, but answering to the manager of another team. I was also in Africa for three weeks. When I got back it felt like no one knew who I was.
It looks like I'll get six of the eight goals. Not bad. The two that I probably won't get have been put on hold, but I intend to reach them eventually.

5 comments:

Barb said...

Brent these are so great, the wonderful thing about setting goals is that you can see your progress.

Andrea said...

I set some goals for myself this year too, and have resisted posting about them because I haven't met them, despite a good effort. This post has prompted me to tackle the subject during one of my 30 posts. I would love to hear some (or all) of your value statements. Love the idea. I'm glad you are participating in this 30 day challenge again this year!

Beverly said...

Brent, you've sure done a lot better on your goals than I have done mine this year. I hope you'll do a post about some of the books you read. I'd like to know about them.

Zimmerin said...

I'm impressed by what you've accomplished. I always lose sight of my resolutions early on in the year, then make and break them again over and over throughout the year. In the case of my similar commitment to try being more patient with my kids, I make and break that one on a daily basis...

Russ said...

You're my hero. I'm not kidding.