In January, I pulled together a list of fifty goals for 2010. I hoped this method would be more successful than the standard New Year's Resolution because they are concrete, achievable goals. Now that the year is over half done, I thought it would be good to review my progress.
So, here they are:
WEIGHT, BODY SIZE & HEALTH
-Reach 188 pounds - an "overweight" BMI. MET.
-Reach 154 pounds - a "normal" BMI. Not met, and seems unlikely to be met in 2010. I was 173 this morning and have gotten as low as 169.8 (last week).
-Maintain or get below 154 pounds at the end of the year. See above.
-Wear a size Small shirt. MET.
-Buy at least one bra from Victoria's Secret. MET, although hilariously, I have to wear specialty size bras now because of my excess skin issues. VS doesn't make my size.
-Unsubscribe from Lane Bryant's mailing list. MET as to email, though they keep sending me catalogs in the mail. Argh.
-Get labs of my vitamin levels drawn at least once. MET, though I'd like to get it done again because my ferritin and Vitamin D were a little lower than I'd prefer.
-Revisit my surgeon for at least one check up. MET in early March. Recap here.
-Go to the dentist for a teeth cleaning and go to the gyno. Not met.
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY & ADVENTURE
-Complete the Couch to 5K program. Not met, and unlikely to be met. I'm scared to run because I don't want to jack up my knees.
-Register for and complete at least 3 "races" of any length. Walking them is fine. In process. I've completed one race so far and am planning to do the Outer Banks Half-Marathon in November. I will do at least one 5K or something before the year is over.
-Go hiking at least 3 times. Also in process. I've been hiking once, but now it's too hot. Hopefully I will be able to go hiking again during fall.
-Go fishing at least once. Not met, but my sister and I have been talking about going in September when my job is over.
-Go to a yoga studio, preferably for bikram or "hot" yoga, at least once. Sooo MET. This commitment started me on a lovely path toward being a real yogini!
TRAVEL
-At least once, travel to a country I've never visited. Not met, and between finances and work schedules, seeming unlikely to be met.
-Visit Los Angeles. Not met. Maybe I can find a way to reach this goal that's related to the bar?
-Visit at least one state I've never been to, preferably Texas. Not met, but not completely out of the cards. I know I have a potential way of going to Houston in June 2011, but that's not 2010, is it?
READING (Haven't done great with this, but am hoping to knock out a bunch of these during my 3 weeks off in September)
-Read Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Not met.
-Read Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth (nope, I've never read it all the way through.) Not met.
-Read Mitchell Duneier's Sidewalk. Not met.
-Read Mitchell Duneier's Slim's Table: Race, Respectability, and Masculinity. Not met.
-Read Katherine S. Newman & Victor Tan Chen, The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America. Purchased, but only partially read.
-Read Katherine S. Newman, No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City. Not met.
-Read Mary Patillo's Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City. Not met.
-Read William Julius Wilson, More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. MET.
-Read William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Checked out from the library and partially read, but not completed.
-Read William Julius Wilson & Richard P. Taub, There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America. Not met.
PROFESSIONAL
-Finish revising my SAW for publication. Not met! Not even close!
-Build my personal website. Bought the domain name; on tap for September.
-Take the GRE and score above 700 on verbal and at least 650 on quantitative. MET!
-Pass the MPRE. Not met, but I take it again on Friday! Lord, please let me reach this goal . . .
-Gain admission to graduate school and/or get an appellate clerkship. Definitely NOT trying to get an appellate clerkship. The problem re: grad school is that I won't know if I was admitted until 2011, but apps are due at the end of 2010. So, I'm slightly modifying this goal to "Apply to graduate school." I've made a lot of progress in that direction, but have not actually applied.
-During any gap of time between my clerkship and my next job, write and publish at least one op-ed or an LTE in a major newspaper. Not met; we'll see if we can squeeze that into September as well.
-Develop a sharper research focus. Met.
-Finish article review for Professor Schuck and email it to him. Not met, and I may not meet it. Turning work in late is one thing, but turning work in over a year late and over a year after you graduated is a little ridiculous. But I did tell him I'd send it to him, and I never did. I will see if I have time.
COOKING & EATING
-Cook with or eat 20 ingredients that I've never tried. MET.
-Write at least 15 new recipes. Sort of annoying because I've definitely come up with 15 new recipes, but I haven't written most of them down. I consider this one to be in progress. It only counts if I write it down and post it on this blog.
-Go to McClellanville or similar coastal area to purchase fresh seafood. Not met, but I plan to go to McClellanville this weekend! I'll be traveling from Charleston to Myrtle Beach, and McClellanville is right on the way.
-Dine in at least one of the following New York restaurants: Brad Farmerie's Public, Seamus Mullen's Boqueria, Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin, Dan Barber's Blue Hill in Greenwich Village or at Stone Barns, Wylie Dufresne's WD-50, Daniel Humm's Eleven Madison Park, Anita Lo's Annisa (when repaired), Geoffrey Zakarian's Town, Alex Guernaschelli's Butter, Aaron Sanchez's Centrico, Floyd Cardoz's Tabla, or Gramercy Tavern. MET! Ate at Butter in March.
-Dine at Sean Brock's McCrady's in Charleston. MET. Wasn't as great as I'd hoped, but I was comparing it to my experience at John Besh's August and perhaps that wasn't fair.
CULTURE & COMMUNITY
-Continue volunteering at the shelter through September 2010. This was a bust! I kept volunteering with them through March, then randomly I stopped hearing from them. I emailed the program director to see when she needed me again, and she never wrote back. It's been months since I've seen my ladies or been to AA. Sucks, but . . . ::sigh::.
-Volunteer somewhere other than the shelter at least once. Not yet, but there's no question I'll get there.
-Watch all five seasons of The Wire. I'm so in the process of this! Just finished Disc 3 of Season 4, so I'm almost there.
-Watch the Roots miniseries (nope, I've never seen it - no one revoke my "black card" please.) Umm, I actually forgot this was on the list! Not met, but I'll get it done before the year is over.
-See at least two live theater shows. Not met.
OTHER
-Write at least ten relatively lengthy emails to catch up with friends/colleagues with whom I haven't spoken recently. Nope. Just one. And I'm not sure if I still want to do this or not. At least the one I sent was highly successful, and rekindled a friendship that was dormant for six years.
-Have at least 5 meaningful conversations about religion/faith/spirituality. Notta one, unless you count a heated one about religion when I was in DC for brunch last weekend. It was an awkward, lawyer-like conversation though; I didn't get anything out of it. So I'm not going to count it. That wasn't what I had in mind when setting this goal.
-Go to karaoke at least once. Not yet.
-Pay off my credit cards completely at least once (they may still have a balance at the end of 2010.) MET!
-Own my own car/get my current car off my mother's insurance. Not met, and probably won't be met.
So, where does this leave me?
Overall, I'm not doing super-great. I've only met fourteen of the fifty goals (green), and only eight more are in process (blue). Twelve more of the goals I haven't met (red) are likely to be met before the end of the year, and most of those involve reading books. That leaves sixteen goals - nearly 1/3 - that I haven't met and seem unlikely to meet.
It's interesting to look at the categories where I've had the most and least success. For obvious reasons, weight/size/health got a lot of love from me this year, as did cooking & eating. Progress on travel, culture & community, and "other" are downright pathetic, with reading only slightly better because I was deliberately putting some of the books off for my break time in September.
In any event, I love this method. I think I've accomplished a lot more than I would have without the list. Plus, there are legitimate reasons that some of the goals won't be met. Some of the goals are unlikely to be met because I no longer think they are a priority. For example, I no longer desire to complete Couch to 5K, and for logistical reasons, I don't think it makes sense to take on a new car insurance payment. Others won't be met for financial reasons (that would be all of my travel goals). Still others are not possible to meet due to forces mostly beyond my control (see, e.g., reaching a "normal" BMI; volunteering at the shelter).
All in all, it's been a great and productive year. Can't wait to make more progress on this list and write a new one for 2011.
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