2005 Goals Review

Given that we're well into the first week of the new year, I figured it was about time that I actually get around to reviewing last year's goals and setting new ones for this year. Problem is, I'm still not sure what I want those new goals to be. I can think of lots of things I want to accomplish, habits I want to either establish or break, but I'm a big believer in a small number of measurable, attainable goals, rather than an impossible list. So, I'm still trying to narrow that down.

2005

I don't think I ever posted formal goals for 2005. But, I did post a first draft of goals, and I buried another goal in a post about Dave Ramsey's baby steps and my status on each one. Here's the list of both:

1. Continue to improve personal financial management. Work to pay down personal loans, then home equity line of credit, and build up savings. Live within a budget. I paid off the personal loans early in the year, and that felt wonderful. I decided later to focus on my savings, though I really didn't do that. I'm starting to now, though, and am actually really using a budget for the last four weeks (which makes it about 3 weeks longer than any previous budget). Basically, I stopped playing around - I wrote up a reasonable budget, and started using cash as much as possible. Big difference - and I think it's working. It also helps that I have good friends who are focusing on living within a budget, as well, so there's encouragement. It's hard to get that otherwise, as a single.
   


2. Improve and create systems for managing my home. What the heck does this mean? Apparently, I didn't hold measurable goals in high regard a year ago.
   


3. Work on follow-through - accomplishing what I plan to, making progress, finishing projects to completion. Again, completely immeasurable, though I have the general sense that I'm doing better at this.
   


4. By January 2006, I will have an emergency fund with 3-6 months of expenses, and be contributing 15% to my retirement. So, this is measurable, but with no plan for how to attain it, it just didn't happen. No matter - I'm starting over (see #1).

There are also a few other key things that happened in 2005.

1. I lost about 35 pounds, and made some changes to my regular diet that are still sticking, even though I'm not tracking my food intake the way I did.
2. I started singing in church again, both special music and on the praise team. Both have been very rewarding, so I'm glad I'm doing these again.
3. I stopped leading with Young Life at the end of the year. I won't go into detail, as this is probably a post in itself, but it was definitely the right decision.

2006

These are not goals for 2006. These are thoughts about things I would like included in my goals. I'll work out the specific goals later.

1. Health - weight loss, specifically working out on a regular basis. I think I need to come up with something really small and easy, and work myself up to where I'd really like to be. Right now I'm thinking this looks like 20 minutes on the recumbant bike at the gym on base, 3 times a week.
2. Financial - I'm working on saving 3-6 months of expenses, but the goal date and actual amount I haven't figured out yet. I think I need to use the budget for several more weeks until I get a better of what is reasonable here. So, maybe, using the budgets and cash for daily expenses, is actually a good goal.

There are a couple other things floating around in my head, but I'm not ready to list them here. So, that's it for now.