looking forward {2011}

if you are interested on my thoughts surrounding new year's resolutions, read the first part of my post from last year. i will spare you a recap.

with the new year here, i'm once again pondering what lies ahead. what has worked this year. what needs to change. i'm reviewing my major posts from last year: look forward 2010 and mid-year update, and sharing how i did.

i've been pondering goals for this new year, but more importantly, i've been pondering how to be better focused on making them happen. a blog i follow (ap freewriting 101) has put together a concept of 3 in 30. the idea is to set 3 realistic and attainable goals each month. these can be small, stand-alone goals or individual steps to bigger goals. i'm hoping to lay out the big stuff below and then work to break them down. i think i fell short of a lot in 2010 because i didn't make an attempt to break the "big things" down into "little things".

one significant change: last year's list consisted of a lot of conceptual things. though most of these things are still relevant to my life (patience, balance, etc), i feel my current list needs to be more concrete.

{organization}
i'm a pretty organized person. but i often feel totally unorganized. i'm not sure why that is. it might be because i have great organizational ideas that i never implement. or it may be that my type-a personality just leads me to believe i'm not organized, but i actually am. i typically don't lose things or forget appointments, so overall, i guess i'm doing ok. but there are parts of our home that are getting out of control (in my opinion) so it's time to deal with them.

{time management}
i wavered as to whether to combine organization and time management but ultimately decided to separate them. my biggest struggle with time management is actually based on motivation. after a day at work, it's difficult for me to find the energy to be motivated once i'm home - to do something beyond the standard taking care of coleman and feeding the family...something other than vegging in front of the tv. some days, i can't even find the motivation to get on the computer, and that's pretty sad!

{blog improvement}
i want to work my way through the online course that will (hopefully) help me visually re-design this blog. i also want to get better at planning posts ahead so that there are not so many peaks and valleys in my posting. i want more good quality content, but plan to still wiggle in my useless ramblings (if i didn't, it wouldn't really be *me*).

{scrap studio}
though this kind of falls under the umbrella of organization, i feel it's large enough to deserve it's own official goal. i have accomplished absolutely nothing in 2010 as far as improving this year. no improvements to work flow. no adapting so that coleman can be in there with me. very little purging. as a result - very little creating.  i need to get the room under control and get back to creating!

included in this, i should mention library of memories. i haven't done much of anything with this in 2010. right now i'm not feeling the *pull* to work much on it, probably because of other priorities. but a year is a long time and hopefully other things will come together so i can put more emphasis there. my focus will be on general organization of that room and improving my ability to create. the LOM process is secondary.

{weight loss}
you knew it had to be on there! this was on last year's list. i didn't lose any weight. but sometimes people asked if i did. when i look at pictures from last christmas, something is definitely different. i think what happened is that my body shape kind of recovered from the whole "having a baby" thing. even though i didn't lose pounds, my body resituated itself back to where it was. NOW it's time to lose the poundage. luckily, matt's on board with this. his focus is more on "toning up" which involves exercise (something i hate). my focus is more on controlling diet (a tougher thing for him). i am hoping that by our focus & strengths being different, we'll be able to support each other in the areas where we are weaker. in other words - i can help him eat better and he can motivate me to exercise.

{faith + spirtuality}
matt and i have continued to fail at finding (or even searching for) a church home. i have been consistent in my daily time with God and the Bible in the mornings. i've worked my way through the Old Testament and will continue my current plan until i'm done with the New Testament. then i will find a daily devotional plan that will allow me to dig deeper into scripture. as coleman gets older, i need to search for ways to share my faith with him.

{financial}
matt and i totally fell off the dave ramsey bandwagon and both agree it's time to hop back on! again, matt is on board with this and will take will power from both of us!

{writing}
continue to focus on writing, not only on this blog, but in journals. i am sometimes able to do this during my morning quiet time but not often. during december, i've used the reverb10 prompts for my writing, but i want to get back to the "pen to paper" journaling more often. this seems to be an "ebb and flow" type thing for me. i'm aiming for consistency.

so there you have it. eight main goals for 2011. stay tuned for my focused january plan.