7/12ths of the year (in pizza slices…)
More than halfway through the year. Halfway through my goals list? Afraid not. I will post anyway, as a reminder to myself to keep going.
1 and 2. My number one goal this year was to put people first and to pay attention to friendships. Embarrassingly, I have only written one personal letter this year, despite my best intentions. Although I don’t post much on my personal Facebook, I have been visiting every day, liking and commenting on what my FB friends are up to, which helps me feel more connected. I have kept up with people through my volunteer job and my book club. A new development: now that I have been in my “new” job almost 2 years, my co-workers are becoming real friends. In previous jobs, there’s been more of a division between professional and personal. We all still have our boundaries because I’m the manager, but it’s a much more inclusive work environment than I’ve experienced before. Meanwhile, cutting back on my outside commitments has allowed me to spend more time with extended family.
3 and 4. As a result of my volunteer job winding down, I’ve had more wiggle room to do things I like, just as I hoped. I am reading so much more. I have been reading “all over the place,” and not attempting any kind of reading regime. I still only see the occasional movie, but I like knowing I can! I am just starting to get back into leisurely cooking after work, which I had missed. This week I made lasagna, and last week I tried a new recipe from the Food for Thought cookbook. I’m still not back to the monthly meal plans that worked so well, but I am getting there. I keep saying I will return to making my own snacks, like muffins and granola, but I have made no progress there.
5. I vowed to get enough sleep every night. I have no trouble falling asleep, and I never lie awake for hours because of true insomnia. However, after 6 hours of sleep, I wake up often and can’t get settled. This won’t do because I don’t/can’t nap. I am trying to follow the textbook rules before I claim it’s hopeless to get 8 hours. For example: having a set bedtime, eliminating screen time before bed, not having dinner too late (despite Goal 3, above), making sure I am active enough during the day that I’m actually tired at night, and so on. Let’s not even mention temperature!
6. Most readers know that Rom took over grocery budgeting and grocery shopping this year and has done a fine job of it. The next step was supposed to be sharing out the rest of the household chores. But because I have a lot of commitments outside the house, I haven’t really been doing my share. Rom does some, and other tasks are always neglected. We’ve never really discussed this properly, so a real talk is due. I still do the yard work and Rom still does the laundry.
7. I grandly said I would like to experience physical excellence this year. Well, I would still like to, but whether I want to actually put work into it is another story! Instead I have settled for Physically Not Deteriorating. Will that do? I have managed to set my weight to rights and to keep up a non-punishing fitness regime. But I’m not pushing myself, or having fun with it. So I would at least like to enjoy it more. It’s not that I hate workouts – I feel much better with than without them – but a change would be welcome.
I had some goals carried over from 2014.
I said I’d continue putting 29% of my take-home pay into long-term savings. This has happened, but I am seriously considering withdrawing from long-term savings to do some house projects, rather than save for them slowly over the coming years. I do have a “projects” fund but it only allows me to do one project every year or two. Long term savings = non-registered retirement funds and TFSAs. I would have to pay back that fund – and trust that I would be able to do so.
I made a good change to my charity giving. I had been making donations to charities at year end. Last year I started direct monthly payments for 2 of my 5 favourite charities. I was saving to give the other 3 their payments at year end. Then I thought, this is silly, the amount I’m saving could be helping them now. So I turned them all into direct monthly payments. I feel good about that. I am sure that as a Monthly Donor, I will be continually hit up to increase the amount, but that’s true no matter how much or little I give.
I keep saying I will celebrate many occasions throughout the year and not just have a blow-out at Christmas. While I find there aren’t as many all-out festivities as I would hope for, there is lots of entertainment. I feel better when I spread it around and don’t gorge on it all at once!
I haven’t organized my digital photos, or scanned my print photos. Does it count that I at least get pictures off my camera?! It’s beginning to feel like a pipe dream, but knowing myself, someday I will become obsessed with getting them done, and work on it flat-out. Taking more of my own photos for this blog has been a FAIL too!
I wanted to start drawing this year, just for fun, but it rarely crosses my mind. It seems odd to put it on a To Do List, but maybe I will.
Finally, I promised myself I would listen to all The Beatles albums. I have listened to 8 of the core 13 albums, most more than once, so someday I will actually be knowledgeable about their catalogue!
What it will take to complete my goals this year is: a weekly plan, a weekly review, and perhaps even (eek!) being accountable. But being a little less exacting this year has worked in a lot of areas!
How are you doing with year-long goals or resolutions?
An Exacting Life 
Those are great goals!
Thanks – now to actually do them, LOL!
Personally my biggest aim this year was to get through a big, planned operation which took place nearly 3 weeks ago and seems to have been successful although still weeks of recuperation to get through. Upside of this downtime is reading so I have borrowed the complete Harry Potter set to read. I also plan to try and watch 3 elusive (to me) films – Fiddler on the Roof, Dr Zhivago and Gone with the Wind. As my fitness improves I also want to start knitting a baby blanket for someone having their first child next Easter time. Walking a little further every day is another challenge and OH bought me a seated exercise bike yesterday to help too. Being more of an active, working person mormally – this enforced inactivity is difficult but necessary and I have to think of how life will be more energetic once I fully recover.
I hope you are well on the road to recovery! I have not experienced getting active again after surgery so I admire those who can and do. I have only seen one of those movies – great project! Had you attempted to read any of the Harry Potter books before? I think if I were laid up, I would try to read the Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire) books. I miss having an exercise bike; I used to love it but was unable to get replacement parts for my last one. All the best!
I really enjoy reading goal posts. It’s great that the work move has panned out so well – not just a good staff but even friendships. And it must be great to be able to prioritise free-range reading again. I wonder if a few challenges in getting enough sleep goes with the territory of being a manager and having a demanding job?
I would also love to finish organising the photos but it really does seem like a huge pipe dream. And we’ve got to a laughable point of deferring home projects in favour of false ‘savings’ (heating fail, microwave fail, no clothes drier, carpets needing done…) so I definitely share that goal. I especially love the celebrations idea – may there be many that lie ahead!
I am concerned that the early waking thing may be permanent because I hear it mentioned a lot in terms of ageing! They say seniors get as much sleep as other adults, but not all at once. And since I can’t nap between 9 and 5 (and an evening nap would probably make my night time sleep worse), I don’t really know what to do. I almost never think about work in the middle of the night! I would like to think those days (nights) are over. Your home repair/ systems management has really jumped on you this year! I am trying to think ahead. We have only two essential projects coming up – painting the inside of the house, and eventually re-shingling or replacing the roof. None of the other systems (heating, plumbing, electrical) should need work any time soon, and the appliances are new-ish. But we do have a growing “want” to turn the little deck into a year-round sun room…hmmm!
I think the monthly charity payments is good. You probably spend more judiciously with all of the fine charities out there and some that are not so fine in terms of management.
Thanks – I would like to think that monthly payments help keep their admin costs down.
Great update. Is the cookbook you referenced by Jane Noraika and from the London restaurant or a different one?
Thanks, Juhli. Yes, that is the cookbook. I bought it online when I heard the restaurant was closing and I’d never be able to go back! But have found that many of the recipes are very time-consuming. For example, in the one I made last week, it required that I roast peppers and puree them with other things to make a sauce, then cook several vegetables separately to various degrees of doneness, then combine and bake!
It is really good to have goals and plans, but to follow up on them, and truthfully aas you do, is even better. In my mind this is what makes dreams ton plans into reality. I really like your blog and I will start telling you more often. The plan is made and the target set! 🙂
You are great at setting targets and following up!
We are doing pretty well. We are doing well with minimalizing and reducing waste. My facebook group is growing and my book club is doing great! And we have almost saved our $11,000 goal that we were trying to hit. I’m looking for some new goals for the second half of the year, and I’m struggling. I need something new.
Wow! And you moved house, too!
You are really very inspiring, because of your lists, I set myself a goal of reducing the size of my wardrobe by reevaluating what was in there and what I truly needed. Apparently not that much. It’s an ongoing process but I can’t tell you how great it is to have a reference point.
Thanks, PK! I wish I could discipline myself to draw, like you do!
Haha, I’m beginning to think I bit off more than I could chew with that one but it sure is teaching me a lot and that makes it worth it.
You might not be halfway there, but you’re making progress! The organization of digital photos is something I have to really stay on top of or it gets too overwhelming. And since I started doing it in 2011, all the photos before that are together in one folder (unorganized!) and going to stay that way! I’ve been using an okay system since 2011 – basically dump everything into a folder based on what year it was taken and then into a general category (one for vacation, family events, the cats have their own folder, etc.) It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough and I rarely have trouble finding a photo I want. I may run into trouble when I have 20 years of folders, but I’ll worry about that if/when I get there. 🙂
The sleep thing was a struggle for my grandmother too (when she still worked – once she retired, I guess her sleep habits became less of a problem and more of, “oh well.”). Good luck!
I think I have all my photos tagged up to about 2011 so it’s the last 4 years I need to do! They are organized by the default folders (by date) so I have to try to remember when I did things, to find the photos. Just imagine how many thousands of photos you will be taking in the near future!
You have some awesome goals and I’m impressed with your focus. (And love the pizza graph.)
I’m an expert on sleep. Spend my time reading about it instead of doing it. And a fellow blogger, Fiona, and I have carried on a conversation when we both found each other up reading blogs at 4 in the morning. Sometimes and some people just don’t need 8 hours. So if you get through the day, it might be you. Maybe you’re like Margaret Thatcher? She only had 4 hours a night. But she did develop Alzheimers and I read lack of sleep may be a cause. So there’s another thing to worry about.
I find if I put on some soft commercial free radio or relaxation music, I drift back off. Found a great hour’s worth of massage music on YouTube. Always sends me off.
I find myself sleeping in a “student-like pattern” of about 6.5 hours on weeknights and 7 or 8 on the weekends. I would just let it be, except that I am too tired in the evenings after dinner to do anything significant. Maybe evening downtime followed by sleep is redundant?