Looking into 2011

I’m blogging a lot this weekend, but for the record, this particular post is one I’ve been meaning to write for a couple of weeks but somehow just haven’t gotten around to. Yes, I am referring to my goal-setting post.

I was so proud of myself last year for making the effort to write a post with my goals in it and then to report my progress as this year started. I don’t know that I’ve ever really done that before, but it was very effective. I’d like to continue my success by writing a few of my goals for 2011. I’m going to try to keep it simple, but I am me, so if I overexplain, just know it’s a weakness common to my sex.

1) Be more grateful — I have so many wonderful blessings in my life, but it galls me sometimes how ungrateful I am and thinking I always need more. I’d like to make a special effort to be more grateful and am already making efforts to do so from thank yous, to my calendar. I’d also like to write one post of something I’m grateful for, and none of them can be the same, each week.

2) Continue with physical fitness and healthy eating — I am very proud of myself for the progress I’ve made in the last year. I have done great with losing weight and incorporating more healthy eating. I’d like to continue this into the new year and maybe even to take it up a notch. As I’ve mentioned previously, I very much value my heart and my body so I want to take care of them.

3) Get out of debt — I looked online this weekend and discovered just how close I am to paying off my car, and all I can say is, “WA-HOO!!” I am determined to not only pay off my car, but also a tiny bit of credit card debt and my student loan. Before the year is out I want to call into Dave Ramsey’s radio show and loudly proclaim, “I’M DEBT FREE!!”

4) Improve my cooking skills — I think I do fine where cooking is concerned, but it’s pretty routine and can even be slightly boring. I’d like to take a few cooking classes, get brave and experiment with some new recipes or be mentored by people I’d consider to be great cooks. I know that I can do it. I’m just kicking myself a little bit for not taking up the Daily Deal from a couple months ago that was offering three or four cooking classes for a great price. Oh well!

5) Do something I’ve never done before that scares me — I want to be brave and bold and try something completely out of character for me like skydiving or paragliding. I’m not sure exactly what this looks like, but I’m determined to make it happen. I’ll report back on my progress.

6) Go to the temple twice a month every month this year — I’m faithful about making sure I go at least once a month, but I’d like to commit to upping that to twice a month this entire year. Of course I can always go more than that, but twice a month for sure. You think I can do it? I’m pretty sure I can.

Wish me luck, brave readers, as I embark on, in the words of my former bishop, “Making this the best year of my life.”

Two New Somethings

I've just been looking over my entries from the past few months and realized I haven't had as much to say lately. There are reasons for this of course but I find it interesting all the same. I suppose I'll return to my wordy ways soon enough. After all, Idol is almost over and much as I hate to have it take my time, it really does. :)

Anyway, the point of this entry, as indicated by the title, is to talk about two exciting somethings that are happening this month. The first officially started last Saturday and the second started today, even though I thought it started yesterday. Oops! Not a bit deal, fortunately.

My two friends from work decided that they're going to go the entire month of May without eating sugar. By sugar, they mean candies, sweets, juices, pop and the like. Natural sugars, like fruits and honey, are okay. I wasn't sure about joining them because I'm a pretty terrible sugar addict. But, I made a slight modification to the challenge and agreed to participate. Strength in numbers, I say. I have now been four days without eating sugar (save the natural variety) and am doing very well. I did look a little despairingly at the calendar today and think, "It's sure a looonnnggg time until May 31" but I'm determined to see this through. My modification to the challenge is two "Get out of jail free" passes that mean if I'm desperate, I can eat sugar twice during the month and it's okay.

My reward is money toward a new iPod which I'm desperately in need of! I'd like to get it before I go to New York next month, but I'm not sure if that's going to work out or not. We'll have to see. I am planning to put a certain amount of money toward my iPod for every week I go without sugar. Wa-hoo!

The second exciting thing is a walking challenge I'm participating in through work. I opted to go for steps as opposed to time, so the goal is to get 65,000 steps in 42 days. I personally think that goal is slightly low and plan to knock it out of the park if possible. I'm excited to be participating in this campaign, however, and feel it is surely benefiting me already.

Wish me luck as I begin something new and exciting this month!

Addendum

So when I posted last night, I forgot to include a very important goal. The funny thing is that I was feeling like there should be five, but I wasn't sure what the fifth one should be. I didn't want to just put a dumb one or something. But I figured it out and here it is:

5) Study up and develop a better understanding of hope.

Two years ago I felt like my faith wasn't strong enough, and I committed myself to studying faith. Little did I know what was to come that year or even this year, but in hindsight, it was a wiser choice than I knew at the time. It did strengthen my faith, and in many ways I feel it helped prepare me for what I'm facing now.

With everything that's going on with my family right now, I'm feeling the strong desire to develop my understanding and testimony of the power of hope. It is a powerful emotion. I'm not sure where my study might take me, but I'm quite interested to find out. And I have a feeling that sometime in the not too distant future, I'm going to have great need of it . Wish me luck!