Sunday, November 14, 2010
Achieving My Goals for the Year
I do a lot.
Between travel, friends, running, a demanding job, self-development, and more, I have a lot that I want to accomplish. One reason for having such an active life is that I know there will come a point when I may not have the chance to do a lot of new things, so I want to take advantage of the time I have now. One thing I've learned from some friends' and family members' health problems is that that day could be decades away, or it could be tomorrow; you never know. Another reason is, there are just so many things I want to do, so many things that seem interesting, and I want to try them all.
And so, I make goals.
This helps me figure out what I want to do, prioritize what’s important and what’s not, and forces me to think about how to accomplish things so I can better overcome obstacles. It’s not so much that I sit around making lists and plans and itineraries, but I do try to have an idea of what comes next.
Back on New Year’s I didn’t have resolutions, but I did have goals for this year. I met them. In fact, I pretty much met them back in August.
New job This didn't turn out quite the way I expected. Still, I certainly managed to change jobs! I've found that I'm about 1,000,000% happier now that I'm out of the military. I'm not sure it was being in the Air Force that was the problem, as it much as it was the position I was in for the last 4 years (c'mon, I volunteered to go to Afghanistan to get out of my office!). In any case, I really enjoy my work now, and that's made a huge difference in my general happiness.
Travel with Linh This one almost didn't work out even before I tried, but his work schedule became such that we were able to head somewhere after all. The next question was deciding where to go, knowing as we did that we wanted to visit a place neither had been to before, and so we ended up with a fantastic week in Lisbon, Portugal. I've traveled alone a lot, and with a partner or boyfriend back when I had one, but traveling with friends is fairly new for me, and I like it!!
Explore emerging interests I'm slowly getting back into photography. It's fun, and I like grabbing my camera and going for a walk, though it certainly isn't second nature yet to start photographing at random. But I'm getting there. I also went to Bangkok and studied Thai massage, which some of my friends back here have appreciated a lot!
Run a marathon for fun Back in May ET and I flew off for a weekend in Cincinnati to run the Flying Pig Marathon. This was my "run for fun" race, which I really needed after running for time in Hong Kong and instead getting to know the paramedics afterwards. I tend to have a little more endurance in my legs than ET so he started fading at Mile 18 while I was still thinking we could set a new Personal Record. Rather than take off and leave him, though, we kept running together, which made for a GREAT finishing effort (never mind that he told me to shut up as I was encouraging him at the end lol).
Start a business I created a consulting firm in August. I haven't done much with it yet, as I've been settling into my teaching job, but I anticipate some cool opportunities in the next year.
Sometimes, new goals will emerge…it isn’t just a New Year’s thing. For example, I made the decision to run this year’s New York City Marathon, and that turned out pretty well.
When I was a kid I was one of those pretentious little twerps who tried to organize the other kids into things. I remember my mom telling me that maybe I should just focus on having fun. She was sort of right, but I’ve found a happy medium that is allowing me to have a pretty incredible life.
So, any suggestions for next year’s goals???
Between travel, friends, running, a demanding job, self-development, and more, I have a lot that I want to accomplish. One reason for having such an active life is that I know there will come a point when I may not have the chance to do a lot of new things, so I want to take advantage of the time I have now. One thing I've learned from some friends' and family members' health problems is that that day could be decades away, or it could be tomorrow; you never know. Another reason is, there are just so many things I want to do, so many things that seem interesting, and I want to try them all.
And so, I make goals.
This helps me figure out what I want to do, prioritize what’s important and what’s not, and forces me to think about how to accomplish things so I can better overcome obstacles. It’s not so much that I sit around making lists and plans and itineraries, but I do try to have an idea of what comes next.
Back on New Year’s I didn’t have resolutions, but I did have goals for this year. I met them. In fact, I pretty much met them back in August.
New job This didn't turn out quite the way I expected. Still, I certainly managed to change jobs! I've found that I'm about 1,000,000% happier now that I'm out of the military. I'm not sure it was being in the Air Force that was the problem, as it much as it was the position I was in for the last 4 years (c'mon, I volunteered to go to Afghanistan to get out of my office!). In any case, I really enjoy my work now, and that's made a huge difference in my general happiness.
Travel with Linh This one almost didn't work out even before I tried, but his work schedule became such that we were able to head somewhere after all. The next question was deciding where to go, knowing as we did that we wanted to visit a place neither had been to before, and so we ended up with a fantastic week in Lisbon, Portugal. I've traveled alone a lot, and with a partner or boyfriend back when I had one, but traveling with friends is fairly new for me, and I like it!!
Explore emerging interests I'm slowly getting back into photography. It's fun, and I like grabbing my camera and going for a walk, though it certainly isn't second nature yet to start photographing at random. But I'm getting there. I also went to Bangkok and studied Thai massage, which some of my friends back here have appreciated a lot!
Run a marathon for fun Back in May ET and I flew off for a weekend in Cincinnati to run the Flying Pig Marathon. This was my "run for fun" race, which I really needed after running for time in Hong Kong and instead getting to know the paramedics afterwards. I tend to have a little more endurance in my legs than ET so he started fading at Mile 18 while I was still thinking we could set a new Personal Record. Rather than take off and leave him, though, we kept running together, which made for a GREAT finishing effort (never mind that he told me to shut up as I was encouraging him at the end lol).
Start a business I created a consulting firm in August. I haven't done much with it yet, as I've been settling into my teaching job, but I anticipate some cool opportunities in the next year.
Sometimes, new goals will emerge…it isn’t just a New Year’s thing. For example, I made the decision to run this year’s New York City Marathon, and that turned out pretty well.
When I was a kid I was one of those pretentious little twerps who tried to organize the other kids into things. I remember my mom telling me that maybe I should just focus on having fun. She was sort of right, but I’ve found a happy medium that is allowing me to have a pretty incredible life.
So, any suggestions for next year’s goals???
Labels: Friends, Life, Running, Travel, Work
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I'm so happy for you that things are going well. And you have ticked off so many things on your list!
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