Tuesday, June 28, 2011

26 before 26 update

So, now that my birthday's over, I decided I better check to see how well I did on my goals. I totally completed 16 of them, and sort of completed or am in progress on 7 of them. I think that's decent. Setting goals really does help me accomplish more than I would otherwise. For example, after I got up to running about 2 miles, I really wanted to quit and just go back to using the elliptical. I expressed this wish to Darby and told him, "I wish I had never made that goal." I thought maybe he would say something like, "Well, just forget about it." Instead, he said, "Well, that's the reason you make goals, right? To push yourself?" Grrr...I hate it when my husband tries to make me a better person. :) So, I kept going up to 3 miles, and, even though I still don't like running, I'm glad I did it.

I'm going to do something slightly different for my next set of goals. I'm getting too old to continue with a goal for every year! So, I'm working on a list of "30 before 30." That way, I'll have four years to accomplish them and can set some goals that would be difficult to accomplish in only one year.
  1. Finish couch-to-5K.
  2. Take and pass at least one of my seven comprehensive exams.
  3. Finish my shelf of unread books. But I started all over again with more books. :)
  4. Lose 5 lbs. and maintain it. I lost 10!
  5. Take at least 100 pictures. I definitely took over 100 pictures. Not all of them were good, but I did better than I usually do, I think.
  6. Finish my one-year Bible.
  7. Make it through my housecleaning checklist. Nope. I'm still trying to plow through it this summer.
  8. Make cheese. I don't know why I never got around to this. I still want to do it.
  9. Come up with at least 2 healthy vegetarian meals that Darby and I actually enjoy. Well, I tried a couple, but they weren't big hits. I have a couple more bookmarked to try.
  10. Start my personal Happiness Project. I didn't do this because I was feeling so much happier anyway. But now I'm a little bit down, so I think I might tackle it.
  11. Go to three events at the U of I.
  12. Make crepes. It took me a while to get the hang of flipping them, but once I did, it was fun, and they turned out well.
  13. Reduce our monthly gift budget. It's hard to tell. So far this year we're doing well, but November and December are the true tests.
  14. Go to St. Louis (for real this time). We made a brief layover in St. Louis on our train trip, but we're going back in a couple of weeks to meet up with Carolyn and Josh, who live in Kansas City.
  15. Save an average of 25% on every grocery shopping trip. My average was 33%.
  16. Take a Spanish class. I took two!
  17. Make homemade tortillas. Not yet, but I did bookmark a promising recipe. :)
  18. Initiate plans with friends twice per month.
  19. Whittle "to try" recipes saved online to 200 (currently at 272). I'm down to 189.
  20. Redesign my blog.
  21. Read 3 faith-related books.
  22. Plan an event for our college group.
  23. Stay in better touch with my sister and brother. I think I did a little better, but this is an ongoing goal.
  24. Watch at least 4 football games on TV.
  25. Become a Conversation Partner.
  26. Spend no more than 1 hour per day on the Internet (unless it's for work, school, or personal finance reasons). Ha! This was kind of a bust, but I'm still trying.

3 comments:

Sallie said...

You did great on your "26 by 26"...I'm impressed! Can't wait to see your "30 by 30" list. I feel more productive just reading your goals--haha!

Jenn said...

That's awesome! I think you did a great job - you should be very proud of yourself!!!

Beelzenef said...

Number 8 sounds amazing ^^