New Year's Goals

So it is the last day of 2012.  It has been a good year and I have tried to be a better person by bettering my health and important relationships.  This year won't be a lot different, except that after this year I know I can do more, because I survived the incremental changes I made last year.  So below are my goals for 2013.  I won't call them resolutions.  To me that means that you have to accomplish an end goal or fail or you have to completely eliminate something to succeed.  For those with legitimate demons to overcome, like smoking or drugs, a resolution is probably something to hold your feet to the fire.  For me I am looking for more meaning and balance in my life so hard and fast resolutions tend to fly in the face of that.  These are things I aspire to do and I know by working toward them I will be in a better spot next year than not working toward them.  Undoubtedly, some I will achieve and some I won't, but no one ever said I am a worse person for trying and a better person because I sat it out.

2013 Goals

Run my first 1/2 Marathon
Run 1500 miles for the year.
Run everyday
Strength train twice a week
Eliminate most TV (all pointless reality TV) - We changed our TV subscription to basic (hubby and I both see the need for this one.)
Write more - always a passion.  I only recently rediscovered it writing this blog.
Eat more variety especially new grains
Do more together - we can save $ on TV and spend it on actual experiences together
Listen more talk less
Read more.  I have read about 6o books on 100 Books to read before you die I hope to read all of them, maybe not all this year.
Cook more at home
Donate to charities I care about: Water related charities, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, and animal related charities.
Spend more time with the cats
Work as hard as I can at work and then leave it there and be fully in the moment at home.
Say yes to work projects I know I will enjoy and that will advance my field, and no to the time sucking activities that only frustrate me.
Tell people in my life what they mean to me


Seems like a lot, but none are too specific or too onerous.  I already found the 1/2 Marathon.  I am going to register for it and run it in April.  It is a women's half and is at Lake Lanier where my husband and I honeymooned in 1998.  It will be nearly 15 years and we are going to spend the weekend before the race in one of the Lake Houses so we can have couple time and I can accomplish a goal.  I am now on day 50 of running everyday.  Right now I feel good.  Setting this as a goal means I may not run everyday, but I will surely run more than if I said run 4 days a week.  Reading more is something we should all do; it transports you and keeps your mind sharp.  The others are really just about aligning my actions with my priorities.  I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year and you make progress on your personal goals.

Coming Home

Vacation is great.  You get to see new things eat at new restaurants break up the monotony of the same old same old.  Coming home is better.  For me, I have  a good life.  I am pretty lucky: great husband, good friends, a job I love, and my health.  Vacation is not so much an escape from my reality but a chance to gain a new perspective and grow and explore with the person I love most.  It is always fun, but nothing is as fun as pulling in at home and seeing 6 little furry faces in the window with eyes that say "you came home again, no way!  I thought for sure this time you were gone for good this time."

Also nice to put on our running shoes and get out the door on a familiar route and run for fun and because we can.  It felt good today.  One of those effortless runs where everything just comes together.  Okay to be fair that is how it felt to me, hubby shared with me on our return home that he was not having the same experience.  I am sorry.  Sometimes that happens when you run together, and sometimes it happens if one of you is too wrapped up in enjoying your own run that you don't tune in to your partner.  Today that was me and I am sorry his first run back home suffered because of it.  I will do better tomorrow.  We have just a short pre-race run to keep our running streaks.  I promise to follow his lead and be a better partner.  Well I have 6 cats to make up to for abandoning them to a full time pet sitter.  They have a tough life!  The mountains were beautiful, but nothing beats coming home. 



Me at Long Creek Falls, a part of the Appalachian Trail.  As a water geek I had to hike to Falls.