a few of the places I want to grow this year.
I don’t generally come up with a new set of goals at the beginning of a New Year; so many people seem to take the opportunity to look back and recriminate themselves for what they didn’t do, and those things go highest on the list. Yes, for some people that added pressure seems to work, but for others those resolutions simply become another test to fail the next time the year turns over. But looking seriously at ourselves and figuring out where we want to go isn’t all bad.
And… well, I always think of new things I want in my life as I go, new goals… new things become important to me and others fade into the sidelines. It’s good to recognize that a goal is a snapshot of who and where you are at one point in your life; and whether or not you reach that goal is not so important as whether or not it still has importance to you. If not, get rid of it! Make new goals! Strike out the tired goals that never excite you and add new ones that get you fired up…
Having said that, I’ve been thinking about what I want to accomplish this year, in the near-term and further ahead. Perhaps sharing them here will give them added emphasis in my life.
- Land fabulous & flexible work (full-time or contract!)
- Post new entries here at least 1-2x a week
- Read at least 1 new book a week
- Take voice lessons
- Enroll in a ballroom dance class
- Meditate twice a day (5x a week with others)
- Publish or self-publish The Heart & the Law
- Get theheartandthelaw.org site live
- Launch the Buddhist writing scholarship I wrote about last year
- Relax and apply patience & compassion in my relationships
- Learn a new language
- Ride 30+ mile bike trips a few times a month (Spring-Fall)
- Post new photographs to Flickr weekly!
- Get my passport and travel outside of the US at least twice
- Learn a new language
- Increase my contribution to the Ruby community
- Keep exercising and improving my health
- Cook more often
And one I stole from Ma.tt:
- Print my favorite picture of another person every month and send it to that person in a picture frame.
I’ve had a particularly rough and rocky start to 2009, though a friend of mine insists that “a bad New Years means a great new year.” So, in the spirit of progress, here’s a few of the places I want to grow this year.