2013 Goals - Boom and Bust

At the beginning of 2013, I was full of energy. So full of energy, in fact, that I made New Year's Resolutions (click here to see original blog post). Only instead of true resolutions, with an ultimate "outcome" in mind, they were daily, monthly, and yearly goals that were "process" oriented, dealing with different habits. 

2013 is over now and it's time to evaluate how I actually measured up. [Well, technically the calendar still says there are 16 more days of December, but I can guarantee that any goals that aren't met now never will be.]

Daily Goals
- Keep a gratitude journal: Fail 
I found a really neat app called "One Thousand Gifts," which is designed with the idea of capturing 1,000 "gifts" (gratitudes) over the course of a year. I started out the year really strong but started to fizzle out by May. On June 30th, I realized that I was halfway through the year and was behind on the number of "gifts" I would need to log by the end of the year if I wanted to meet the magical 1,000 mark. My logging has slacked off to the point where I just now checked the app to see my total for the year....and realized that I cannot even remember the username and password to log in. 

- Blog on 4 is More: Pass, Sort of 
This was originally designed as a daily goal, which I was pretty strong about through the end of March, especially when I gave up Facebook for Lent. After that, however, I blogged much less frequently. I really enjoy blogging when I can, however, and love having the record of what we've done. 

Monthly Goals 
- Conduct an in-depth purge/clean of one area in the house + car/van each month: Fail
Another area where we started strong and then fizzled. We did fantastic for the first few months and got the downstairs bedroom, basement, and garage really cleaned out. Now....well, I was unable to give a friend a ride home last night because our Corolla is so messy there is literally not any place for a passenger to sit.

- Go on a "date" with each of the kids each month: Pass  
This was probably my favorite goal of the year and one I am so glad that we started. The kids absolutely cherish our kid date nights and seem to love the agency of planning whatever it is we will do and getting undivided attention. This fall semester has been tough to schedule, but we have also started having weekly lunch with the kids at school, something I wish we had begun years ago.

- Volunteer somewhere as a whole family once a month: Pass, sort of 
We were very regimented about this in the beginning, doing things like all helping with taking down the church decorations in January, working the school book fair in February, helping to set up for the school movie night in March, etc. In April, I started to get panicked that there was not a natural place to all volunteer together as a family in school or church and oh my gosh I am so stressed out because we needed something for April!!! So we decided to volunteer at school or church (or elsewhere in the community) whenever the need arose but not worry if it wasn't necessarily once a month.

- Perform a Random Act of Kindness as a whole family at least once a month: Pass? Fail? 
In hindsight, this was an area that it was probably ridiculous to try to schedule so tightly, since (1) it HAD to be each month and that (2) it HAD to be with all of us. So this led to one month where it was the 31st and that was our deadline for leaving money in books at the library, and it was 6:30 p.m., and Daniel had an accident when we got to the library, but we had to go in and do it right then because this was the last day of the month!!! So we have now tried to do this just whenever the need and/or opportunity arises.

Year-End Goals

- Meet my 5k and 10k time goals- Fail
- Run a Road Race each Month - Pass (click here for revised running goals)
I did not meet my original time goals for running, although I did PR in the mile, 5K, and half marathon. I also had an absolute blast running a road race each month. This was another one of my favorite goals for the year and one I want to do in 2014 just because it is so much fun and so motivating.

- Transfer all of our CDs to iTunes: GIANT FAIL. 
HAHA!!!! Well, I bought two new CDs by Vampire Weekend and put them on iTunes...and I put the Les Miz soundtrack on iTunes. Yeah....

Biggest Winner Loser of 2013

With all of this talk about goals for the year, I am going to completely embarrass Will, who was hand's down the biggest winner loser of the year...he has lost 60 pounds! That is amazing and after the little bit of dieting I have done, incredible that he hasn't been grumpy or crazy during this time. 

Before (218 pounds): 

After (158 pounds): 

Not only that, Will has really gotten into running this year and his drop in times has been amazing, from a 33 minute 5k in January to 20 minutes and change in November. Way to go, Will!!

For 2014 - I want to keep up running a road race every month and doing the regular kid date nights. Maybe I should also make it a goal to clean the house less. Because that is a goal I could definitely meet!