I managed to accomplish this by keeping an online journal. Notebooks don’t really work for me, but typing into a blog does. I just write about what happened yesterday, stream of consciousness really. It’s usually very short, but it gets me in the mood for writing and provides a good start to the day. I use my Twitter posts for inspiration.
Now I need to think of a larger writing project to do!
Here is what I like to do every day: write; research; organize information.
Here are some possible career directions related to what I like to do: information architecture, web content development, technical communication.
I should research opportunities here. It would be nice if the subject matter were related to my passions around environmentalism, food, sustainability, etc.
Maybe if I can do this in Twitter, I can actually fulfill this goal.
I want to add another box to our garden. Plan the garden in the winter and read my gardening books to help with that. Work in the garden every day. Process and freeze all the extra produce for eating through next fall and winter.
By 1/1/2010, I want to be within 5 pounds of my current weight.
I think I was fairly successful with this. Unfortunately, I didn’t get everything on my “needs” list for Christmas, but I did get quite a lot, and I reduced spending on other things during the same time. This will be something I will strive to do every year, starting in October.
Specifically, I want to keep all catalogs I get for a period of time, perhaps 6 months (Jan-Jun 2009), to see who are the worst offenders. Then I will write to those companies to get myself removed from their lists and also tell them what I think of their practices. I will also blog about it. I think this will make an interesting experiment.
So my wonderful husband gave me a gift certificate for 2 cooking classes. I will definitely be doing this after the holidays.
It’s time to start seriously thinking about what to do next. Here is my brainstorming so far:
- quit my job (maybe in June)
- raise my son full-time until he’s 3-5 years old
- identify fields to concentrate on for career change, ideally in a place where my interests intersect: food (nutrition, farming, cooking), green and writing
- during that time, volunteer in the field where I want to work
- look at going back to school to study in the field where I want to work
It is now October. I have decided to resist the siren call of shopping through Christmas. I am hoping this will discipline me to only buy what I need and not so much what I want. So for the next three months I will not buy anything for myself or the household unless it is something that I actually need.
I would like to have a small farm with a large vegetable garden, chickens and a goat or two.
This isn’t really one of those goals that you can complete, but it’s something I’m trying to do, and I have expanded my palate as a result.
It doesn’t matter what I’m writing: a novel, blogs, journaling, something else. I just want to write every day. I want to be a writer.
Next year we’d like to expand our garden to grow more vegetables. We also bought a small freezer and I am learning about food preservation so we can preserve the food we grow into the winter.
I’ve marked off as “done” a lot of ongoing goals – practice yoga, take a walk every night and this one – because although they are never really done, I have incorporated them into my routine and do them as often as I can. So I am considering these goal achieved.
Next spring, I want to expand my garden and grow and preserve more food. I also want to get in the habit of making food ahead of time and storing in the new freezer I bought instead of letting things go bad.
I don’t want to go on a diet pe se, but I do want to reduce the number of empty calories I take in and increase the nutritional value of what I eat. I see this as eating less animal fat (cheese, cream), fried foods and sugary food, and increasing the amount of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and simply prepared foods I eat. I especially want to make better choices when eating out.
