New Year 6

Ahhh, what I have been procrastinating for so long has finally come down to its time.

My new year's resolutions for this year are:

To learn chinese, by spending some time 5 days out of the week on learning activities.

To make at least one new recipe a week, to become a better cook.

To write in my blog at least twice a week. It can be about what I've cooked that week or small activities from "how to write" books, or journalish entries.

To maintain my exercise routines. It has turned into walking for an hour as many days of the week as I can, between 3 and 5. Riding my stationary bicycle at least 3 times a week and using free weights for upper body exercise at least 2 times a week, and doing my QiGong DVD also at least 2 times a week. It all seems manageable.

New Year 5

Back at the library!! I am so resistant to creating goals. I just don't want to do it. I guess that if I don't do it, I won't feel bad when I don't achieve them, but of course that keeps me from achieving anything. A vicious circle of medeocrity.

Here I am at step 2 of my 3 step process to creating goals for next year:

2/ CREATE
This is the fun part. This is where you get to dream about your possibilities, your dreams. Don't get caught up in the "HOW" in this step, just keep dreaming. Use the same 8 areas of your life and think; What do I want in 2010? What do I want to build on? In what areas do I want to grow? Learn? Contribute?

Relationships: More relationships with more poeple.

Recreation: More outdoor activities. Goals about reading classic books and books about writing. Goals in my writing, maybe to write a book, or short stories. (I feel a moment of panic when I say this, because there are absolutely no ideas inside of me to write a book about.)

Career: Prepare to be a librarian. Keep my mind open to other possibilities careerwise.

Personal Growth and Development: Learn Chinese. Have a weekly goal setting time to reevaluate how I'm doing and to set the big rocks into my life before all of the other stuff.

Health and Fitness: Keep exercising with walking and stationary bicycle for cardio and weights for resistance. Learn a new recipe every week to increase my healthy repertoire of food ideas. (Buy Ellie Krieger cookbook.)

Financial: No changes necessary.

Home: Nothing until baby comes and decisions have to be made.

World Contribution: Volunteering. That's about it.

That didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. Hmmmmm. Maybe I don't have that many goals to make after all.

I had an interesting thought last night. I was reading "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" which is an amazingly well written book. I've enjoyed it like morsels of chocolaty cheesecake melting on my tongue. Something has been stopping me from writing, this thought that it must all come out great or it is not worthwhile doing at all. What if I write and most of it is crappy and there is only one or two salvageable sentences or paragraphs in lots and lots of writing. And then I take those good parts and create something out of them and do lots and lots of editing and fixing and then after all of that, something well written and tasty comes out of it. That is worthwhile. Am I lazy? Hmmmm, something to think about. Not whether or not I am lazy but whether or not I can write well and want to put the lots and lots of effort into it that is probably necessary to come up with something that will be melty on the tongues of others.