A Goal-Setting Resolution

Reflect and resolve. It’s the annual exercise we all know so well.

I’m not sure the process is ever very useful for me. I repeat the same vicious cycle each year:

      

1. Enumerate the areas of my life in which I’m guilty of failure.

2. Identify an action to address each failure. Maybe ponder a vague plan of attack.

3. Fail to keep up the effort of improvement in each identified failure area, or fail to even   initiate the improvement effort at all.

4. Feel guilty until the following January.

Some resolutions, though I’ve made them over and over for years, have yielded some improvement:

1.       Get up earlier. (makes a fabulous difference in my day when it happens)

2.       Keep better financial records. (still room for further improvement here)

3.       Spend time daily in prayer (only successful at this during Lent).

Other resolutions, I’ve actually done pretty well at sticking to:

1.       Exercise multiple times per week. I started running last summer, but then fell off the wagon after my second 5K.

2.       Cook more.

3.       Make my bed daily. I chose this one because my mom made her bed every single day.

4.       Buy only expensive shoes.

Overall, I think I estimate I’ve had a 50% success rate where resolutions are concerned. We all know what 50% is. An F. Failure.

Actual paper, actual pen, actual goals.  I decided this year I wouldn’t make New Year’s Resolutions. Instead, I have made a list of written goals on actual paper with an actual pen. The difference is subtle, but it’s a powerful difference nonetheless. There is something about the process of writing that seems to make goal-setting work for me. Remember last fall when I decided to implement a cash envelope system for grocery shopping? I’ve actually been 80-90% successful at this. And when I haven’t used actual green cash, I’ve used a debit card, as opposed to my trusty blue Discover card. It’s so nice to not have to pay off our grocery bill at the end of every month, but I digress.

Most importantly, the writing process actually makes me think. For example, I never write a post directly onto my blogger page. I write, think, delete, add, undelete, rearrange, edit, add, delete, think, write some more before I finish the post. It takes an hour at a minimum, and that doesn’t even count the time I spend “pre-thinking” about it before I even sit down at the keyboard. (Sadly, most of my blog posts never make it past the “pre-thinking” stage.)

I’m sure you’re all just waiting with bated breath (yes, that’s the correct spelling; I looked it up) to find out what these life-changing, earth-shattering written goals are. You’re practically screaming at your monitor, “Tell me, Bobbi! Tell me! What are your goals?” You may have already skimmed ahead to find out. If you have, shame on you! (or not, there’s really no wrong way to read a blog, is there?)

Before you read my written goals, I want to point out something else that’s special about this approach. With each written goal, there is also (1) plan of implementation, and (2) an accountability system. These two additional elements are designed to contribute to the success of the goal-setting process.

Bobbi D. Clark’s Written Goals for 2012

1.      Read more books. Specifically, read more thought-provoking books, but most importantly, just read more books. I am an avid reader. One wouldn’t know it to observe the stacks of magazines in each bathroom, but I really am. Or rather, I was an avid reader. But even at the height of my voracious reading, I tended to read a lot of brain bubble gum: novels (mostly mysteries,  I will confess, even a few cheesy romance novels), an occasional memoir, and less-than-challenging books from the “inspirational” category. I’ll accomplish this by my participation in the NGBC (nerdy girl book club). Well, it’s called a club for lack of a better term, it’s more of an agreement between myself, a cousin, and a sister-in-law to allow each of us to share good books we’ve read and most importantly read good books we might not have otherwise chosen or discovered on our own. We’ve done this for a little more than a year, and if my calculation is correct, we’re on our fifth book. Each of us gets to pick every third book. We’re currently reading The Republic, by Plato. Yes, that’s right Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher. Plato. See why this book club is so cool? Do you think I would have ever chosen this one on my own? No. Nope. Negative. Not a chance. But when it was proposed by one member, I found out that it was actually on the reading list of another (the other, since there are just three of us) member of the club. So, the plan part is I have two other readers to make good reading suggestions, and the accountability part is, I have to finish the book before we can move on to the next selection. See the sidebar if you’re interested in following what we’ve read or joining us in our current selection. I’ve also posted books I’ve read on my own lately that I feel are worthwhile.

2.      Regular blog maintenance. Not because you really want to read it (though I do hope you want to read it), but because I really want to write it. Maybe it makes you laugh. Maybe it makes you think. I really hope so, but it makes me laugh, makes me think, and that’s why I do it.  So my plan is to start a new post every Saturday morning and have it posted at least by Monday. And the accountability part? Well, I can tell when people read it because blogger tells me how many page views I’ve had. I like to see page views, so if I know you’re reading, that, in theory, will make me more inclined to stick to my schedule. As an extra incentive for you, I think I’ll try to post more pictures entertain you. Maybe.

3.      Menu planning. This is a kind of “step 2” to one of last year’s resolutions which was to “cook more.” I’ve compiled a great selection of kid-friendly, man-friendly entrees, potato choices, and non-boring fruit/vegetable side dishes (mostly, the secrets to fruit and vegetable cooking are sugar, salt, and butter). Eventually, I’d like to get to the point of planning a whole month’s worth of dinners at a time, but to start with, I’ll tackle one week at a time. Lunch is probably going to be leftovers or ham sandwiches. Sorry, Matt. The accountability element here is I get to tell you about new stuff I’ve cooked and how well I’ve stuck to the plan. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to admit my failure. This is the approach I’ll take through the end of tax season, at least. I’m sure I’ll be forced to cook more than one meal per day when the boys are home with me all day, every day.

4.      Regular exercise. As I mentioned, I implemented this one last summer and was pretty successful. I attribute that success, in part, to the fact that my new running hobby allowed me to justify the purchase of a pair of really cute safety-cone-orange running shoes. I ran about 3 days a week and participated in 2 5Ks, one in September and one in October. And when I say “participated”, I mean I actually ran the whole 3.1 miles. Don’t misunderstand: I did not run them fast, but I did run them in their entireties. One race was in a warm late-summer rain, and the other, just a month later, was in early morning frost-on-the-pumpkin temperatures. With the commencement of harvest and the end of daylight savings time, my running routine was out the window. I look to resume a regular exercise schedule in the new year, and to keep me accountable here, I plan to compete with my husband. Hopefully, our competitive natures will keep both of us on track, and on treadmill until spring springs here in the greater Edina area.

Now, I challenge each of you to go write your own list of goals, complete with plans of execution and accountability for the New Year.

Good Luck!