Make 2009 My Best Year Yet

This goal is not really working for me this time round. I think I have everything covered elsewhere (apart from baking) and some of those goals are more meaningful. So I’m going to shut this one down.

I am determined to achieve every single one of my goals this month. I’m even going to write these into my moleskine so I actually do them!! March will be a successful month. Mark my words.

Savings
1. Revive meal planning
2. Bring lunch to work 3x a week (TRY!!!)
3. No clothes purchasing!

Weight Loss
4. Lose 2 kg

Exercise
5. Walk to work 2x a week
6. Go for bike ride 1x a week
7. Go for hilly walk (some might call this a hike) 1x a week
8. Aqua aerobics 1x week

Meditation
9. Listen to meditation CD each night

Baking
10. Bake biscuits
11. Bake a slice

Creative Pursuits
12. Tune guitar – this is a goal I can surely accomplish this month!!
13. Journal

Socialise
14. Invite C round to sample baking (call it morning tea for convention’s sake)

February was a very busy month for me. I am very aware of how bad I am at balancing things. I used to be a bit better at it I think. It just goes to show that if you don’t really want to do something, you probably won’t do it…

Savings
I did no meal planning. I hardly ever brought my lunch to work because I met my friends for lunch just about every day. I now work in another part of town so I had no choice! But on the plus side I did get some money from paid out annual leave which went on my floating mortgage so the month wasn’t a complete dead loss savings-wise…

Weight Loss
Nothing.

Exercise
The busier I became socially, the less inclined I was to exercise. However I did have my fitness tested a lot when I was on Great Barrier Island so it’s become more important to me.

Meditation
I did this sometimes.

Baking
I made a chocolate cake which wasn’t great. I also made a ginger crunch slice which was a success to the point where I was able to offer it to other people!

Creative Pursuits
Still haven’t played that guitar!
Did a bit of journalling

Socialise
This dominated the month. A lot goes on here in February. It’s by far my favourite month for social activities I realise. The good news is that it was all manageable and I didn’t feel too exhausted at the end of it. My friend J has now gone back to China for good and that was a sad way to end the month.

All in all a really fun month enhanced by starting a terrific new job:)

Savings
1. Continue meal planning
2. Bring lunch to work 3x a week (TRY!!!)
3. Look for ways to cut down on spending – remember savings goals

Weight Loss
4. Lose 4 kg

Exercise
5. Start 5x a week for a minimum of 45 mins – no compromises
6. Walk to work 2x week

Meditation
7. Start meditating for 5 mins each morning and night – use the CDs regularly again

Baking
8. Bake a cake
9. Bake a sliceThese will both be successful!

Creative Pursuits
10. Play my guitar
11. Journal

Socialise
12. Spend as much time with J as possible before she leaves
13. Enjoy all the social things that I’m doing without feeling overwhelmed it’s a very (almost too busy) month-

Savings
Meal planning is going pretty well and I’ve been managing to bring my lunch to work a lot more often than I used to. Lucky because January is the month of the hefty annual insurance bills and other expenses.

Weight Loss
Up and down which equals nothing.

Exercise
I’ve been steady at about 4x a week but haven’t really been doing more than about 30 mins. That’s all going to change next month! I also went swimming at the beach as planned.

Meditation
I started off well but it’s dropped off the last 10 days or so. Need to focus on doing this again.

Baking
I made Anzac biscuits which were so hard the army could use them as weapons and carrot cake muffins with peanut butter frosting. Even though I greased the muffin tin they still wouldn’t come out easily so there were big chunks missing from the muffins. So all in all my usual quality.

Creative Pursuits
Have been doing a lot more journalling and have really enjoyed this. Still haven’t played my guitar. Not sure what the barrier is there…

Socialise
Have had a great month socially.

And the highlight was I got to resign from my crappy job:)

I agree with some others who decided not to keep this goal (in this wording) in that so far this is hardly My Best Year Yet. I don’t think I’m in the right place at a number of levels to crank it up and make it that either but I can still make it a whole lot better than last year so that’s the plan!

Savings
1. Continue meal planning
2. Bring lunch to work 3x a week (TRY!!!)

Weight Loss
3. Lose 1.5kg

Exercise
4. Start 5x a week for a minimum of 15 mins
5. Go swimming at the beach

Meditation
6. Start meditating for 5 mins each morning and night

Baking
7. Bake a cake
8. Bake biscuits
9. Hope that neither of these are a disaster

Creative Pursuits
10. Play my guitar
11. Journal

Socialise
12. Go with the flow…

And I get to hand my resignation at the end of this month – already written!!

For those who don’t know, the wording of this goal in previous years was inspired by Jinny Ditzler’s Best Year Yet programme. You can do a free summarised online version here.

After going through the book, here’s what I think will make my year a lot better and what I hope will be achievable too!

Guidelines
Do first things first
Follow principles of anima sana in corpore sano
Use the power of the mind to make things happen

New Paradigm
I am creating my best year yet

Major Focus
Health Coach

Goals
1. Pay off floating mortgage
2. Save $5000
3. Lose 15kg
4. Commit to exercising 5 times a week
5. Develop a regular meditation practice
6. Become really good at baking
7. Do more creative pursuits
8. Socialise more and enjoy it

I’m only doing 8 because I want to do fewer and commit to doing them properly.

Edit – I should probably qualify some of these. The $5k is to go towards paying off a chunk off my mortgage when it comes around for refixing. And I do socialise but I’m just finding that on a Friday night if it’s a choice between America’s Next Top Model and boozing with my mates then I’m more likely to pick Tyra. Is that so wrong? I need to set up better social events.