Goals for 2015

New Year's Eve, at almost midnight, it began snowing in Tucson, Arizona. The year ended and a new one began and as Dan and I drove home from a party at our new friend's house, the world was covered in white. It was a literal blank slate. Clean, crisp, and gorgeous.

On the long drive home, we had a lengthy discussion about the past year. While it wasn't necessarily a bad year, we decided it felt like a place holder. Nothing major happened or was accomplished. Great things did happen and bad, sad things happened, too, but the year, as a whole, was a wash.

We summarized the year by three things: 1) Our amazing vacation to Hawaii, 2) Dan getting a promotion (which I am so proud of him for that I forgot about it completely. I am under the assumption, because he is such a good, hard worker, that he is constantly getting promotions.), and 3) Making a lot of new friends.

For the most part, those things weren't on my list of goals for the past year, but I am very happy they happened. Let's go through what I hoped to accomplish one by one.

• Take better care of myself
• Get a new dentist - Done! A
• Get a new doctor - Nope! F
• Go for more walks and hikes - Didn't happen as often as it should have, but it was a definite increase from 2013. B
• Wear more lotion and wash my face more often before bed - I can say I thought about doing this more, but the follow through left something to be desired. D
• Take up bellydancing again - I don't think I did a single dance class or dance workout in 2014, but it wasn't because of a lack of trying. I just never found a class I wanted to try. But since I did manage to complete the 30 Day Shred, I'll cut myself some slack. C
• Take another crack at the Cinco De Mayo 10K again - Nope. I thought about it. I trained for it and when the time came to sign up, I knew I wasn't ready. Rather than put myself through that pain again, I said no. Because of that, I knew I needed a better strategy for 2015. I've been training for an upcoming race for months now. While I don't think I'm where I need to be yet, I'm getting closer and I'm actually sticking to it. I've only had one run fall apart on me. Just one! So, while technically, I failed at this one, I learned from it and hopefully won't have the same failure in 2015. F
• Go to the Nutcracker Ballet - I gave up on trying to trick Dan in to taking me, so I took him instead. A
• Stop making excuses
• Finally buckle down and lose the newlywed weight - Nope. Maybe this year will be different? F
• Be more of a force at work - My job is in a better place than it was in 2013, but that was more from the added time and experience than anything I actually did. D
• Take a vacation! Yes! A
• Contribute more to the house remodeling. This one didn't go exactly as I had planned, but it wasn't a failure either. Over the past year, I've come to the realization that how I contribute to the house is different than Dan. I'm more of a planner and a motivator than a carpenter or tiler or builder. I can help with the execution, but I am much better with everything around it. My job is planning out the project and then all the finishing touches at the end when Dan has already moved onto a different project. C

See? Overall, kind of a waste of a year. But with the symbolism of a crisp, clean New Year's Day, I think 2015 will be a big year and here's why...

Goals for 2015:

• Say 'Yes' more. Sometimes, it's nice to stay in on a weekend with leftovers and a movie, but the long term effects of saying yes and doing something you don't want to do and getting off the couch should outweigh the laziness.
• Be ready for my ten year high school reunion. Whether this means dropping 20 pounds or getting into the head space where realizing that it isn't a competition and I should be happy just to see people I haven't seen in years has yet to be seen.
• Find a way to advance my career. While in 2014, I felt like I was finally a member of my team and a legitimate engineer, it's time to kick it up a notch. Who knows what that means right now, but I'll get there.
• Find a doctor. Really this time. 
• Eat more fresh food. Go grocery shopping more often. Cook more. Experiment with cooking vegetables and ingredients that scare me. Snack on more fruit.
• Attempt a long race. I'm not going to limit myself to which race I try, but try to complete a race in the 5+ mile length.
• Make some more youtube videos. Filming youtube videos scares the bejesus out of me, but I find the process so fun at the same time. The true goal would be to film one a month, but that seems like a lot. If I can make more than the two I made in 2014, that'd be cool. 
• Embrace being a nerd. This year, I became friends with a great pair of girls who LOVE everything fandom and nerdy. They're so open and vocal about their nerdy passions. I love nerdy things, but I'm not very forthcoming with it for the fear that someone will tear me down for not knowing enough. For getting something wrong. I'd love to go to some sort of Comic-com or convention with them this year. Just lean into the nerdiness.
• Take another vacation. The Hawaii trip was so good for us. While we probably can't afford to take a trip like that two years in a row, taking some sort of time off and getting out of town will be well deserved. 
• Be me more often. Over the last couple of years, I really started to find myself. To really figure out who I am and embrace it. Yet, I still am so timid about just being me. About stepping on toes or being seen as unprofessional or worrying (like an idiot) about the ramifications of just being outwardly happy. It's time to filter myself less, in both positive and negative connotations, and living with the results.

I usually do better at the more concrete goals, but at the same time, those tend to stress me out more. After reading the book "The Happiness Project", I've learned one of the easiest ways to accomplish goals and resolutions is to review them often. I don't know if I could have told you what my resolutions for the past year were until evaluating them today. To combat this, I've even put a monthly reminder in my calender to evaluate my progress. It doesn't take much to stick to goals if you can remember to stick to them and make little bits of advancement along the way.

Here's to a great new year, guys!