make 2007 my best year yet

...now for 2008 (and, maybe, actually sticking to a couple goals… and setting some for that matter)

PRB

good year for me (mostly towards the end) but I’m glad others had a excellent year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I am going to have to work double hard to make 2008 even better.

When I first thought about this I was dubious (and I know I’m not the only one) about calling this my best year yet – I feel like I’ve struggled with a lot of challenges that I wasn’t expecting and muddled through the rest, but I have done the BYY process on the website this year and it helped me to see how good a year it’s been. I have changed my goals so many times (and didn’t get around to doing the book until April!) so I think a simple round up of the main highlights is in order – but first, the main disappointments…

• BMI goal – I am finishing the year only slightly lower than I started, have spent the year yo-yo-ing up and down the same 20 pound range, and never got back to the lowest weight I hit in May. All this in spite of consistent exercise and feelingknowing that my relationship with food has improved so much – I feel much healthier physically, mentally and emotionally, but don’t have the concrete results to show for it. More on this to come elsewhere.
• I was planning to see K twice this year and that didn’t happen – the right choice for both of us under the circumstances but still a disappointment.
• I could have managed to save more.
• I have made very little progress with my language goals, but I don’t really feel disappointed – I feel that there is still plenty of time for this.

In terms of what I’ve achieved, I think I did everything I absolutely had to do; the necessary stuff is done and I am ending the year on a much more stable footing than I started it. Main achievements were:

• Got a promotion/payrise and my full bonus
• Grew more independent in my job under my new boss
• Finished all my CAT exams woohoo!!!
• Was accepted as an associate of the ITI
• Had my first experiences of minion-management
• Sat the JETRO Business Japanese paper exam

• Paid off my student loan woohoo
• Saved 3 months’ worth of expenses (my most savings ever!)
• came up with an awesome cashflow-tracking spreadsheet

• Saw my entire extended family (might not sound like an achievement but we are all spread out and it’s the first time in at least 8 years I’ve managed this!)
• Maintained a consistent level of sociableness with my closest friends, made blossoming new friendships and revived powerful old ones
• kept up with all my written correspondence

• it may have been my most artistic year yet!
• read 50 books, all non-fiction or non-English
• it was the first year since I moved back that I’ve really enjoyed – I had so many adventures and fun times, did a load of things for the first time, a load of London stuff, and went abroad twice.
• I have found out exactly what I want for next year!

In terms of personal growth I think it’s clearest to me when I look back at who I was when I first moved to London; until the end of last year I was really unsure about my employability and my ability to support myself. At the end of 2007 I feel truly independent, able to ensure my own stability now and in the future, and capable of steering my life in a direction towards my own kind of happiness. I feel like I can finally make the transition from proving myself to enjoying myself, and I’m on the verge of something wonderful.

At last! Time to look back at 2007.

Goal 1: Get fitter – by exercising 4 times a week unless there are exceptional circumstances.

I did pretty well at this goal – there have been weeks where I’ve lapsed but generally I have been to the gym much more than I used to, and seen improvements in my performance on all the machines I use. I have found it helps to post weekly entries under this goal even when it’s been a bad week.

Verdict: achieved!

Goal 2. Lose 30 lb and get my BMI down to 25 – by keeping cals down to 1800 per day unless there are exceptional circs.

I got off to a good start and went down from a BMI of 30 at the beginning of the year to 27.5 in early March. After that I made little progress and put some weight back on. My BMI is currently 28.7.

Verdict: partly achieved.

Goal 3: Get the screenplay finished and sent to someone – by writing a minimum of 3 hours per week. I’m also going to sign up to a screenwriting evening class to help with motivation.

I did the evening class for one term and enjoyed it. In the second term they changed the teacher, the pressure increased to write a short script which I wasn’t interested in, and I dropped out of the class. I lost all motivation to carry on with this goal and stopped writing altogether.

Verdict: not achieved.

Goal 4: Find someone wonderful who appreciates me back. It’s unlikely that this is just going to happen by itself so a) boost confidence with Goals 1 and 2 and b) seriously consider internet dating.

I signed up for internet dating in September and went out with 3 men, one of whom I saw again twice. At this point I realised that I didn’t want to continue with it for various reasons. I did feel happy that I’d tried internet dating and it definitely boosted my confidence to go out with some people.

Verdict: not achieved but not a complete waste of time.

Goal 5: Approach work every day with a conscientious and professional attitude, and put 420 minutes of work on my timesheet. Be a wonderful colleague and give plenty of positive feedback to minions.

This was a vague goal as the nature of my work makes it hard to be more specific. I coped reasonably well during the crisis of the crap minions, got my much-missed super-minion back, and have taken on more responsibility at work, e.g. I now attend trustees meetings for two of our smaller charities. I asked my boss for a pay rise and he has promised me that I will get one in the New Year when our big charity is going to become independent of the NHS, and we will be able to set our own pay scales.

Verdict: achieved!

Goal 6: Be a better mate. Maintain regular meetings, email and phone contact with everybody at appropriate levels. In particular, be supportive to A who is having her baby in December, and call C once a month rather than wimpishly emailing.

I’ve done a reasonable job on this. C is back in her rightful place at the desk opposite me, relations with G are good, I’ve stayed in touch with almost everyone else and I’ve met some excellent friends through 43T. The first international gathering of the Breakfast Martini Gang was a particular highlight.

Verdict: achieved!

Goal 7: Get out of my comfort zone – sign up for 6 new things (courses, day projects, groups or holidays) during the year.

I did 6 big new things which were as follows:

• Joining the meditation group at work
• Doing the screenwriting class at Birkbeck (the first term at any rate)
• The cocktail masterclass at Claridges
• Attending my brother’s wedding and reading out the super-soppy poem
• Internet dating – argh!
• Visiting Berlin.

Verdict: achieved!

Goal 8: Maintain a kind, friendly and open attitude to life and people – facilitated by meditating for 20 min per day.

I still go to the weekly meditation group at work but I find it very hard to meditate by myself. I do it when I remember, but certainly don’t manage it every day. But I think my attitude to people has improved and reading a couple of books on communication skills has helped.

Verdict: partly achieved!

Goal 9: Reading – continue to subscribe to and read the wonderful London Review of Books + make a list of 30 books to read during 2007 and read them.

I’ve done a reasonable job on this. I didn’t make a list of books but think I probably have read 30 this year. Particular highlights were “PopCo” by Scarlett Thomas, “Vernon God Little” by DBC Pierre and “Then We Came To The End” by Joshua Ferris.

Verdict: achieved!

Goal 10: Be my own life coach – review the above goals every week and if they’re not happening then practise “gold time management” i.e. make time for things that are important but not urgent.

This was a wishy-washy goal because I couldn’t think of a 10th proper goal. In the end I gave up on it and replaced it with a goal to cook more new things, which I’ve done to some extent.

Verdict: partly achieved.

Overall: 5 goals achieved, 3 partly achieved and 2 not achieved.

I’m quite surprised at that result! It seems to have been a better year than I realised at the time. Maybe there is something in this Best Year Yet lark after all ;)

It’s almost 2008 so I’m going to finalize results :)
Looking back:

GUIDELINES

Want something very strong ?And absolutely sure you want this? Constancy—>This really worked out,it helped me a lot with improving some of the skills I needed in my job, but this isn’t the only thing where it helped me: the major focus that I set for 2007 was :girlfriend and all of the goals that were connected to this were literally connected to constancy. For me, being a Sagittarius was really hard to deal with constancy (whoever is Sagittarius can confirm this :) )
Think, think ,think before saying something – Count to 10 when I am angry Guys, I really will recommend this to everyone who talks too much before thinking how what s/he just told will reflect on the listener.In those 10 seconds you can easily think what will happen if you tell what you were going to say.Sometimes is really better thing to stop talking and to keep your opinion for yourself.
Improve my love relationship There was a turnaround point couple of months ago when I was almost going to give up of this and even to change my major focus—> For my bad or not…I really need help post).I would like to say “Thank you” to PRIL79 and to FireDragon for helping me sorting things out. After thinking a lot over what they told me and considering other everyday things I get to decision that this person still loves me and more important I do love him and would like to spend my life with him :) No matter of different points of view, or books/music preferences..he is still the person who makes my life happier. (we are even planning to buy our own apartment this year… ;)

Goals progress (taken from previous posts)

1. Do not shout to him(this is my boyfriend) when I am nervous and he is not guilty —DONE :) There must be more serious reason to start shout up but not simply being nervous because of missed bus for example :) Plus it shouting doesn’t help noone become calm when s/he is nervous at all;) So..no more shouting!I’m over this.

2. Make photo album my Mum was asking me about with recent pictures of myself and my brother Yep, The photo album with pictures is a fact, I even made a second one for Christmas :)

3. Graduate successfully from the University in July – There were only 2 people of my classmates that graduated successfully in July…guess who were one of them :) Me.Yes, I am already a graduated bachelor in Applied Linguitics, wondering if I want to continue studying something that I would really enjoy in Master degree.

4. To men love is connected to food- so improve my cooking and even when I feel lazy cook something FOR HIM-NOT FOR ME at least once a week —I can tell I really enjoy cooking. And know what, this is true: “To men love is connected to food”, absolutely true ;)

5. Learn at least 10 new words from every single language I learn every day and start using MyVoc regularly— This is one of two goals that I din’t succeed to deal with. It was really simple goal but somehow I couldn’t find enough time to do it every single day. :(

6. Do something that make me happy (from my list with 100 things that make me happy)for an hour every day I found out that I just make unconsciously something that make me happy (from my list) every single day so I cross out this as well

7. Find a job that I will like to do, 5 workday week, well -paid A whole year past since I started my new job and I really enjoy it,I’m working 5 days a week plus due to time difference I start job in the afternoon (2:30 pm), so I have plenty of time for other things before that, and I am satisfied with the payment. I have learnt many new things and the team is really great. I have never had so funny and cool colleagues.

8. Read at least one book weekly :DONE!!!!

9. Read books in Bulgarian not only in foreign languages – The easiest way was to start with magazines, or I really was risking to forgot my own language..well, not to forgot it completely, but to stop speaking good and using many differen words, to emprove my own dictionary. Now I already read books in Bulgarian like I was doing before, when I was a child, before started learning languages.

10. Find out new penpals from at least 10 new countries till next year Well, I have found only 5 new penpals but I am satisfied with this :)

To finalize I can say that it was really great year, one of the best years till now: my best year yet ;)

(any candidates for :Make 2008 my Best Year Yet ;) ?

some other good things about 2007:

• I started to read for fun again

• I changed my mattress, something I wanted to do, and it’s helping me sleep much better

• We got rid of our ridiculously huge armchair (it’s at my mother-in-law’s home; her house is much bigger) and bought two smaller wicker chairs. The living room feel so much roomy, ample, airy…. I’m not sure if that’s exactly de-cluttering (one of my top 10 goals), but it accomplishes the final goal of making my home better.

So I do have more things to celebrate!!!

Is have the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER which will not be that hard. I think I can accomplish this. We shall see tomorrow…or in 1 and a half hours… And then have the best New Years Eve ever.

This year was not an easy one. My mom’s cancer, my father’s dementia… not fun. On top of that emotional wreckage, writing a dissertation and defending it was not exactly easy as pie, but I did it and very well, if I say so.
So… not my BYY in terms of fun and happiness, but surviving the emotional turmoil and tackling such a big project must account to something, right? And I think the focus from the BYY goal and the support from 43thingers helped a lot :). So thanks everybody!
I got an invite (thanks!) for the 2008 goal and I joined.

i’ve been re-reading some of the book, and she does in fact say that every year she’s been doing the programme has been her best in some respect—and that some years it’s just been a matter of consolidating and finding the strength to carry on in the face of adversity. so i can get over my quibbles with the definition of “best yet” and conclude that 2007 has certainly been my best yet in terms of finding my inner athlete (heh!), learning to persevere with things i’m not particularly good at, and distancing myself enough from my work to put on my hard nose and hike my prices. to name but a few. i was reading through last year’s BYY notes last night and see that i really have come a long way.

thanks so much for all your wonderful support, team!