This brings me joy

This brings me joy!

Reflections

"...We may ask ourselves if we've shown enough kindness and generosity and compassion to the people in our lives. Perhaps we question whether we are doing right by our children, or our community, and whether our priorities are in order. We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame - but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others... The loss of these wonderful people should make every one of us strive to be better in our private lives - to be better friends and neighbors, co-workers and parents..." - President Barack Obama, January 12, 2011.

2010 Goals - A year in review

It's time for my annual review of the year to determine what went well, what didn't, and what I want to change for the following year.  Here are the goals I set for myself, and the end of year update:

• Be happy with what I have
• Yes, I've been happy with what I have.. I guess.  That's not always easy.  If I was happy living in an apartment and throwing money away, I wouldn't have bought my house.  So I guess it's ok to sometimes be unhappy with what you have. Being unhappy with something leads to progress.
• Eat better
• Ok, this had mixed results. There was a part of the year I was doing really well. But I just couldn't pull it through the whole year. It's hard to always eat well. This morning, I decided to look back on my bank statements, and determine how often I ate at McDonald's (my favorite fast food place). The only way to track this was via my debit card, so my results were mixed, because for part of the year I was using only cash, so I would say a large number of transactions are not recordable. So... I'm so embarrassed and disgusted by this quite actually.  Just at McDonald's, and just when I used my debit card, I was there 97 times!  If I ate 3 meals a day, that's nearly 9% of my meals this year at McDonald's.  Now, if I figure that I went another 75 times at least, paying cash, that means 16% of my meals were there.  Just at McDonald's.  What about Taco Bell, Hardee's, Culvers, Burger King.  OMG. That is totally unacceptable, unhealthy, and dangerous, not to mention costly.  Must improve greatly in 2011!
• Laugh more
• I think it's fair to say I've laughed more this year.  I've probably cried more too.
• Learn life lessons from the elderly
• Still a work in progress.  I see great things through those at church.  I never did get to go have tea like I had planned however.
• Learn yoga and meditation/deep breathing techniques
• I started the year by doing much more stretching and relaxation and breathing exercises before bed. It never developed into a habit or yoga for that matter.  This still remains an interest for me.
• Mentor youth
• I've informally done a bit of this at church, but nothing formal.  I want to continue to look for options to get involved in the future, but need to balance my time.
• Reduce credit card debt by 15%
• Failure. Started strong, but then buying a house sets in, and all of the things that come along with that. Need to try to focus again during the new year, but darn, owning a home, especially an older one is expensive. I should have learned more from my younger sister!
• Run around Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles by end of summer (6.2 miles)
• Failure. I had good intentions, but kept hurting myself while trying to train. I guess I'm just not a runner. Maybe biking is more my thing.
• Volunteer more
• The majority of this has been through church. So much so that I became overwhelmed and started to have negative feelings over what I was doing.  Need to balance everything moving forward so I don't get burned out.

So there you have it... full disclosure on my successes and failures this past year. I will be setting some new goals for 2011 and hope to do better. Maybe I shouldn't have so many?

How did you do this year with goals you may have set?