Happy New Year

I notice that the years when I make a point of clarifying what I want to do with my energies are more directed than others. Actually, I find it works best if I do this twice each year: once now-ish, and once in the summer. So this post is me figuring out what the general goals are this time around and what in the world they might mean.

1. Continue to have a life. I’ve gotten pretty good at this in the past couple of years, but I could be better. “Pretty good“ means that I make time to hang out with The Husband, to go to lunch or dinner with friends, to have massage work done, to read books that don’t have anything to do with my job. This is all excellent, and I think I’ve discovered a reasonable ratio of work:play. “Could be better” has to do with the fact that I often spend some or all of my play time feeling guilty and/or angry about not working. When I play, I want to be all in the moment of playing and not dragging other shit into the mix.

2. Continue with the career progress. In 12 months, I’d like to be most of the way through the Next Big Project. I’m scared to even talk about it for fear of jinxing myself, but my actual goal is to have an entire but shitty draft by the end of September. I’d also like to I will also finish up my current Greek project and get it out the door.

3. The always-present Be Healthier Goal. This is nebulous and needs definition. What the hell does be healthier mean?

• It means being able to eat reasonably and intuitively. I refuse to cut entire classes of food out of my life, but I want to be eating reasonable portions of real food that seriously feeds me. Steps to this would be: figuring out what actual portion sizes are and applying them to meals. Making sure to eat a wide variety of whole foods. Packing in enough servings of fruits and veggies.
• It means finding out just how pain-free I can be. This means staying properly hydrated. It means regular stretching in a variety of different ways. It means continuing with massage and chiropractic as necessary. It means losing weight and moving around consistently.
• Finding an activity that’s actually fun and that I want to do consistently. I hope this means learning to ride a bike. I already like going for walks. I need to find something to do in serious winter weather, which is a lot of the year where I live.

4. Find ways to be more frugal. The first goal with that is the grocery bill, which is entirely out of hand. Also, I spent some time yesterday setting up Quicken so as to track spending and figure out where the hell else our money is going.

5. Travel as much as responsibly possible. Especially locally, since we won’t get to live here much longer. My grandparents lived an entire life of “Oh, we always meant to do that” and “We never got to do that.” My parents did too for a long time, but they’re better about it now. I refuse to live my life this way. If you want something, it’s your job to find ways to make it happen.