set goals

I’ve been shite about setting goals, so I’m trying to do the 101 Things in 1001 Days meme. Even if I don’t complete my things, just writing them down is a small step to setting goals.

Part of setting goals is not setting goals; that is, remove those goals which I never really had a hope of completing, or that are time-consuming enough that I realize that my enjoyment-to-effort ratio is just too low. That said:

Goal 1. practice voice at least a little every day. I’m getting burned out of singing. I go to my gigs, sing the notes on the page, collect my check, and go home. I love music, but I really don’t have the kind of time or money to get really good. And honestly, I don’t have the interest. If I become more involved doing things musically, I’d like to try something very different. I’d love to start a neo-vaudeville troupe or some such thing. Being a classical singer won’t help much.

Goal 3. exercise regularly. I really want to do this, but it’s not quantifiable. It will be on my list forever. What I need to do instead is to make sure to make this a part of my life whenever I can. Get involved in physically demanding activities. Work on the house, go running occasionally, develop my own exercise plan that fits into my life. As it is now, if I were to actually follow this goal, this would take up three to four hours a week. If I try to integrate exercise into my life (which, honestly, I already do) I’ll be more successful.

Goal 6. wake up when my alarm clock goes off. I already do this. Rather than forcing myself to awaken at an arbitrary time when I don’t have anything to do, I should set the alarm when I need to. If I have nothing to do, then sleeping is okay. This goal is entirely arbitrary, and should be removed as such.

Goal 10. find a style of my own. Not so much up for review yet, because this goal doesn’t take any time to try to complete. Keeping it on the list because it doesn’t hurt. Reinvestigate later.

The above goals will be deleted when I feel comfortable doing it. Organization isn’t just about doing things; it’s also about not wasting time doing things you don’t need to.

This is almost a meta-goal. Do I need to set a goal to set goals before I can use 43 Things? No, not really.

But it’s important that I learn this. The problem is, I don’t ever really set goals.

I say I want more money, but I never actively try to save. I don’t know why I want money. I don’t prioritize my savings, so that I can, for example, say that I’d rather save $20 for a round of golf or $20 for a night at the movies, but that $20 is better spent as one-tenth of a $200 game system or one-third of a night of hotel on a vacation.

I say that I want to go out and do more things, but by never telling anyone, I never do them.

I’m afraid, yes. Of what? No idea. It’s kind of silly, really… but I will fight.