New Year's Goals
My mom is in the process of moving. To bring the new followers up to speed, my parents were divorced after 24 years of marriage when I was in the first grade. (If you do the math, you'll understand that they were a bit older when they had me. My oldest sister is 13 years older than me, and there's three full siblings between the two of us. But, I digress.) After they separated, I lived with my mom, while my dad moved to North Carolina. So, late last fall, when she decided to move, it became time for me to move all of my treasures, as well. In that pile of items was 8 FFA jackets. See previous posts on "FFA nerd disorder." The one jacket I treasure the most is my chapter FFA jacket that I received when I was a freshman in high school. I won't go into the memories tied to that jacket, but I would like to talk about the wrinkled, well-loved index card I found in the pocket. It was a list of FFA goals I wrote my first year in FFA. On the list were items such as apply for a proficiency award, run for state office, receive my American Degree, etc. etc. I had to chuckle a little bit. The goals at that point on my life were focused around awards and honors. They were such a big deal to me at that time. The goals I set for myself now are of a different nature, especially since many of them now include Greg, my partner in crime and in life.
So, here are a few things we aspire to achieve in 2011.
- Build our savings account to $xx,xxx. Between buying a house and a new vehicle in 2010, our savings has remained pretty stagnant. We want to continue to grow that number, so we can be ready for the future.
- Give more money to the Church. The Church can do things for others that we can't do on our own, so we'd like to increase our givings in 2011.
- Increase our personal health. Ok, this is probably more mine than Greg's. I look at a candy bar and gain three pounds, while Greg eats six and loses weight. (Maybe a bit of an exaggeration.) Nonetheless, EA Active for the Wii is my weapon of choice, and running a 5k is my end goal. In addition to physical fitness, I also want to work on emotional well-being. I want to work hard at my career, but I also want to leave school at school, so I can come home and spend time with my family and with my hobbies. I'm not going to let teaching consume my entire life in 2011.
- Read more non-fiction books. This is definitely more mine that Greg's! I love to read. If it has words, I'll read it. From Greg's farming magazines, to textbooks, to fiction, I love it all. This year, I want to read more non-fiction so I can learn about more varied topics. I just finished Laura Bush's memoir: Spoken From the Heart, and I loved it. I learned so much and gained even more respect for a phenomenal woman.
So, the goals I have for myself at this point in my life are different than the ones I set as a teenager, but they're meaningful to me. I'll keep you posted on how they go. Writing them down is definitely the first step in reaching them.
I have so many old FFA keepsakes and its always bittersweet whenever I come across one of them. :) BTW, thank goodness my mom hasn't moved because I also still have a lot of things at her house that need to be relocated to my house!
ReplyDeleteBrian and I feel your pain with the slow growth of the savings account. Its funny how much you and Greg have in common with us as far as our stage in life right now; we also bought a house and a new vehicle. Here are a few things that have worked for us so far: We automatically have about 20% of each paycheck deposited into our savings/retirement so that money becomes "untouchable" and we analyzed our non-essential expenses and targeted areas to cut down (eating out less, cheaper entertainment activities, etc).
I really like your goal of improving your emotional well-being! I would also like to work on that this year. A lot of times when we set goals for a new year we focus so much on physical health and we tend to forget about our emotional health. It seems like I'm always so tired and stressed out that I'm just floating through my days in a fog. I like your idea of leaving school at school. Brian has urged me in the past to turn teaching into a 9-5 (more like 7-5) job and try to get everything at school wrapped up by 5pm and then come home and focus on other things. Easier said than done sometimes but I definitely need to work harder at that.
I share your passion of reading. I try to read for at least a few minutes every night before bed. Brian got me a Kindle for my birthday this year and I absolutely love it!
You've set some great goals and I wish you the best of luck on achieving them!
So awesome to hear someone else who has similar goals as us. And none the less, someone I know + respect! :) Blessings to you two and will pray that you continue to tackle your 'to-do's for this year successfully.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I recommend Eat Pray Love for a great non-fiction book. I don't agree with some of her views, but a large part of her book deals with the 'Pray' and finding her faith. It was an eye opener for me. You're welcome to borrow mine if you like.
Thanks for the comments, girls! I'm glad someone reads this thing. It keeps me motivated to write! :)
ReplyDeleteJamie, what we've been doing (and it works, besides the occasional "we didn't see that coming" purchases) is putting my salary into our savings and putting Greg's into our checking account. That way, we're theoretically living off of one of our incomes and saving the other. It doesn't always work perfectly, but it's a good start. Good luck with leaving school at school. I've had to work really hard at it, but it's getting easier. Since I'm trying to grow my own business, that's been really good motivation to not work on school stuff at home, because I'm using that time to work on webpages. I like the routine that I've set up for myself, but it seems like there's always going to be school stuff to work on! Good luck with your goals this year, too.
Alison, I've heard great things about that book, but I've never read it. I'll have to check it out. This may sound dorky, but I'd love to start a book club. Any interest? Maybe we could Skype or something to discuss the books. Let me know what you think!
Have a great week, ladies!