Sunday, December 01, 2013

Goals for December


Over at In Blue Ink, aka Nadine posted her goals for December, and the results of her goals for November.  I meant to post my November goals but never got a round to it.  They included doing NaNoWriMo, which I did and am pleased about. It took a good part of my month!

Thinking about goals gets my knickers all in a twist. I'm not good at limiting them to 5. And then I feel overwhelmed.

I'm going to try for 5 realistic goals:

  1. walk 45 minutes every day, and if I miss a day, make up for it. Right now, because of the holidays, I'm down a half-hour.  I was down an hour, but yesterday and today, I walked an hour.  I do not want to use a distance, because of my fibromyalgia (sometimes, I'm too sick to walk far and have to walk slowly), and until I can get a fitbit or similar items, I probably will not count steps.  OK, I'm modifying that to success if I average six day a week.
  2. finish 4 books.  (yes, I'm sort of copying Nadine until find my own rhythm--like a said, I tend to go overboard.).  I just finished one today, so I only three more to go, but that's OK, it's going to be a very busy month.
  3. get out into nature at least twice during the month--hmmm--even though this is a big favorite for me, I now live in the city, I hate driving in bad weather, and December is probably the busiest month of the year.  I USED TO GET OUT IN NATURE NEARLY EVERY DAY!  WAHN.  OK, I'm trying for 2, but I'd like even more than two.
  4. post here at least twice a week.  Hmm, I'm not really sure that's an appropriate goal.  I don't exactly have a shortage of things to post, I have a shortage of time.  I'll try it on for size, though.  I'll have to do a costs-benefit analysis!
Auxilliary goals:
  1. do some fun things with my sweetie!!!!
  2. write at least one new poem a week.
  3. revise at least one poem a week
  4. send out a packet of three or more poems every other month (OK, JANUARY? except see below))
  5. meditate 3 times a week (I'm slipping here) or do t'ai chi or something for calmness and serenity.
OK, now my "real" list of what I really wish I could accomplish:

  1. create and "publish" 3 new books for Frankie for Christmas (or anyway, at least one.)  I have two started, but may start a third because that one would be easier to finish.  I want at least one done for Christmas.  One of them requires not only artwork, but also working out the poems needed.
  2. prepare 3 pictures for myself and encourage K to do his or do them for him for the DSS meeting which is December 11.  The theme is water.  (And decide what to bring for the covered dish and make it).  Does that go in the fourth list, under have-tos, or here?
  3. get my Christmas shopping done early, and the gifts wrapped early so I can have one less thing to worry about.
  4. stop worrying (yeah, right).
  5. make homemade Christmas cards and get them all sent in time for them to arrive by Christmas.
  6. continue working on my current novel that I did for NaNoWriMo until I finish it, so for the month of December, lets say I write at least every other day at least 1000 words.  The reason is, once I get separated from working ont he novel, I lose the thread of it and it slides onto the back burner and becomes very difficult to pick up again.
  7. Do some kind of artwork at least every 3rd day, to keep my hand in.
  8. Get the Moleskine that I am currently working on finished and mailed by December 15.  This means finishing the current piece, which is a collaboration, doing one complete page of my own, hopefully for one of the Frankie books listed in goal number one of this second list.  It also will help with goal number 5 (there is some overlap here).
  9. Submit collaborative with Julie Levy poem to Mixitini Matrix.  This means finishing an art piece I started to accompany the poem.
  10. Submit postcard poem 
  11. submit poem to Bitter Oleander (determine if December is the right month and if not, put it on calendar.)
  12. getting back on a diet (this may be impossible in December, too much going on that involves food.
  13. getting back on my exercise program:  I quit exercising , except for walking, during the month of November in order to free up time for writing.
  14. come up with an idea for NaNoWriMo 2014 even though I think I should NOT do it.
And a list of "have-tos:"
  1. Cleaning for guests who will be coming here.
  2. Planning Christmas eve dinner, which I am in charge of
  3. Planning our end of the Christmas trip to Syracuse.  (maybe that should go up above).
It's sort of difficult to decide where to put certain things, and even things I like or love and think I want to do become onerous when I look at the whole big stupid list.

I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, too. 

Image:  from the Heidelberg project in Detroit.

7 comments:

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

10:30 PM I just succeeded at my first goal of the month, which is submitting a poem and an accompanying art piece to Mixitini Matrix. YAY!

a/k/a Nadine said...

Wow!! That is quite a list. I like your auxiliary goals. :-)

merrytait said...

I know, totally ridiculous, right?

I just completed one of the sub goals, toward getting one of the wish-list goals done. Hey, plus I am posting here, which means that I've already fulfilled one subgoal of my 5 main goals which is to publish here twice a week.

John said...

(I corrected the typos...)

Wow Mary, as I was reaching the end of the list I got to thinking you must be able to squeeze more than 24 hours into a day! :) What energy and determination you have.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Well, of course, wanting to do all that and actually succeeding at it are two different things.

today, I walked 45 minutes, and I worked on image for the DSS and collected images for a painting for Frankie's book to be done in a Moleskine, but the chances of getting it done for Christmas are rapidly diminishing.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

How will I know if I succeeded in this verging on onerous list unless I keep track (Yes one more thing to add to my list.) I worked on my novel yesterday. I wrote a poem and painted two (unfinished) pictures today. But I "did art": Experimented with egg tempera. First time.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I'm not sure about how I worded the exercise goal, so I'm going to try to clarify my goal there--I want to average 45 minutes of walking or "equivalent" exercise for six or more days a week during the month of December. If I miss a day, I can make it up by doing extra (say 15 minutes a day for 3 days) shoveling snow, running, bicycling, swimming etc count as equivalent exercise and I am not going to be anal about figuring out exact equivalents because in the exercise category, I'm more likely to do extra than not enough. If I'm not fast, it's because I can;t be. So far, I am doing great, doing extra many days. I missed a day the day before yesterday, but I'm allowed to miss a day and have already made up most of it anyway.