I set two goals for 2008:

1. Weigh less and move more.
2. Keep less and organize more.

I haven’t done a check-in on my progress since early October, so before I get het up about what I want to do in 2009, I think it makes sense to take do a final report card for last year.

Goal #1: I did weigh less at the end of 2008 than I did at the beginning. Not much less, and my low weight for the year came several months back, but it still counts as a success, small though it may be. I did way better on the move more side of the equation, though. I joined a gym for the first time ever—I sure didn’t see that one coming a year ago—and have actually been going regularly. I get fun e-mails at the beginning of every month showing the activity I logged, where my calories burned get converted to ice cream sundaes and my weight lifted to African elephants. In December I hoisted the equivalent of 21.6 African elephants, up from 16.7 the month before. (For the engineers in the crowd, no, it does not tell me how far I lifted them.) Better yet, my gym time didn’t come at the expense of my running. I trained enough to do five races and set personal records at both the 5K and 2.5 mile distances.

Goal #2: It’s harder to get a handle on how I did here because I haven’t kept as detailed records on what I’ve done. Jotting down my weight and measurements in a notebook or my workout minutes in a computer log is pretty much automatic for me now; I don’t have similar systems in place for decluttering, which may be part of why I struggle with it. I know I threw out or donated clothes and shoes and makeup and books and other stuff and didn’t renew two magazine subscriptions when they expired; that I do keep track (well, the donations, anyway; once an accountant, always an accountant, I guess). What I don’t keep as close tabs on but should is what I’m adding—I bought clothes and shoes and makeup and books and stuff, too. More than I got rid of? I don’t know, and that’s a problem. As far as organizing, I made progress in a few areas but didn’t establish any routines to keep them that way so I’m not sure I ended up the year in better shape than I started when considering the big picture.

Overall, I think having goals helps me, and I think these two goals were the right ones–so right that I’m carrying them over to 2009. I’ve also decided to add a third goal with an eye toward making better use of the many, many hours I spend online. Thus, my resolutions for 2009 are:

1. Weigh less and move more. It would be ideal if by next ski season I fit into the super-awesome lilac-colored ski pants I bought last year as a motivator and then promptly buried in the back of the closet. They’re a reasonable size to aim for; right now far more of my belly is covered than not. The baby steps I’m planning to take in that direction for this week are: write down everything I eat, go to the gym twice, run or similar three times. Next week, more steps.

2. Keep less and organize more. I need to do more thinking on this one to quantify what success will look like, but that doesn’t need to stop me from setting some specific goals for the near term. First on the list, going through all the digital pictures from last year and sorting out which ones are keepers and which can be deleted, then archiving those off to CD to ease strain on our aging desktop with the eensy-weensy hard drive.

3. Surf less and contribute more. I’m not going to stop checking for new LOLCats entirely, but I’d like to spend more time doing things online that are a bit more productive, like the Distributed Proofreaders stuff I wrote about yesterday or the Find A Grave stuff from last week or just reconnecting with people on fora and lists I’ve been neglecting. Oh, and there’s this new social networking site for quilters, QuiltGroup, that I’ve signed up to beta test. This week’s baby steps are: proof or format at least one page a day and upload at least one project to PG.

There. I have a plan, and I feel hopeful.

One and two years ago: no entries
Three years ago: Cookie Dog
Four years ago: Just a Day
Five and six years ago: no entries