Mini-Goals

After the previous long winded posts I had a couple discussions and realized I've been rambling not just in the blog but in life as well. So it's time to refocus on my goals. I call them mini-goals if they are going to take 6 months to a year. Having too many can make me lose focus, but I want to call out both the inherent goals and special effort goals.

1. Do good/great engineering and art


• It feels weird to say I want to be a great engineer for some reason, but I want to be good at my job and I need to make that a priority. For now, this is keeping the line running well and doing my projects on or ahead of time and delivering a little more than expected, but not so much more that they think I wasted my time on flourishes. (So far so good.)
  
• Keep glassblowing. Sell enough ornaments and pumpkins to be able to fund some studio time that doesn't need to be used for saleable items and work on my exercise line of vases. Get my website and contact info to the people who will enable the website and business cards.


2. Improve my heath
   This is multi-faceted.
   
   • Take up running again so I can do a 10K on the summer solstice.
     
   • Get at least 6-7 of hours of sleep on weeknights. In a row.
     
   • Find an acupuncturist that can help me with the previous 2 items.
     
   
   
3. Get comfortable in my space
   
   • Rearrange my living room per the new space plan.
     
   • Pick a wall color and paint the LR.
     
   • Kitchen remodel - Design and start ordering stuff before the new year, start the demo in january, watch for appliance sales.
     
   • Declutter the paper files of old stuff I don't need and file the new stuff.
     
   • Get Geek Squad or a friend equivalent to make my computer setup work for me, not against me.
   
   
4. Make new friends, Keep the old
   
   • Ditto the Geek Squad thing so I can keep blogging and emailing while not at work.
     
   • Make an effort to call people on the phone more.
     
   • Send out congrats cards for the new babies.
     
   • Visit friends and family as I am able (up to 1 distance visit per month)
     
   • Attend a Suz Brockmann fan event if there is one.
     
   • Fulfill my SWE role as secretary
     
   • Find a boyfriend
     
   • Find a local exercise partner
     
   
   
5. Money management
   
   • Pay the bills. Trickier than one would expect - I need to set up a new bank account and an whatnot. I also need to rearrange some existing debt.
     
   • Try not to overspend - stay within my remodel budget, don't buy things that aren't in the plan. The closet overhaul will probably have to wait until next year, so no more clothes/shoes unless they are replacements.
     
   • Control food money. I've almost completely stopped eating out for dinner except for take out that I can use for 2+ meals. I've streamlined my farmer's market purchases. I'm not going to worry about it too much beyond this.
   
   

I'm going to try to assess opportunities that come up against this list. If it doesn't accomplish something on this list, the answer is no - not going, not spending, not buying it, not doing it. If I can't think of what to do some day, I should come look at this list. At some point, I'll turn this into a better list of achievable tasks rather than nebulous ideas. (Run 3X/week, place order for cabinets, etc...) which also helps.

So far, I'm so far off this wagon I can scarcely see it, except for visiting friends, keeping up the blog, and doing good engineering. Now that I write this out, it seems that I have an awful lot on my plate. And I need to work on the energy levels and sleep so I can do this. I also love reading, so I'll keep doing that but I don't know what category that goes in. Maybe that and glass go in a "hobby" category, but I need to get to bed, not reformat this blog. But mostly, I think if I do this stuff, and get the one-time items on this list accomplished in the next few months, I'll feel happier and more settled, and less tired. I could use a good hug too.