Resolutions - Part 2

To refresh your memory, this year, instead of having goals or resolutions for the entire 12 months, I decided to set goals for a quarter at a time. Let's discuss how I did.

1st Quarter Goals
1. Attend church every week I'm in town. I actually did fairly well on this one. I only missed church three times; one time I was sick and one time I had a guest visiting. I missed it a few more times due to traveling but those don't count, remember.

2. Exercise every day. I did really well on this one. Once I felt recovered enough from my surgery, I exercised in some way or another almost every day this quarter. I did miss a few days, naturally; a couple days when I was sick a couple weeks ago, a couple days last weekend while in Vegas with family (though I did get some physical activity moving boxes/furniture and walking the Strip/casino), and a few times due to poor planning on my part. All in all, though, I'm very pleased.

3. Read 3 Shakespeare plays. This one has to be far and away the easiest goal but I didn't accomplish it at all. Not a single play read. Good grief. I may need to rethink this goal as it obviously isn't important enough for me to even attempt!

4. Invite friends to my house at least once a month. I did ok with this goal. January I invited people over three times, once in February, and none in March. Not that there weren't people at my house in March, I just didn't expressly invite them over for the intents and purposes of this goal.

Now, on to my goals for the next quarter. For the past few days, I've been thinking about what I'd like to change in my life or what I'd like to focus on more. My 2nd quarter goals reflect my thoughts.

2nd Quarter Goals
1. Go to at least two meetings of church every week I'm in town. Although last quarter I did fairly well with going to church every week I was in town, I never stayed after the first meeting. I have always enjoyed the second meeting (Sunday School), so it should be fairly easy to stay at church a little longer. Cross your fingers.

2. Save $300 a month. (Not including income from renters.) I've never made an actual goal to save any certain allotment of money every month - I just stick excess into my savings account sort of haphazardly. As warmer weather gets closer, I start dreaming of trips to nearby national parks and am sure I'll find other ways to spend more money, so I need to have a savings plan in place in order to budget accordingly.

3. Play tennis and swim once a week (each). I'll still walk and ride my bike, but I want to add some variety to my exercise routine. I would love to have a designated tennis night and play every week like we have in past years! It may be a little cold to start right away, but once the weather is consistently warmer, I'd love to start playing again. Anyone interested in joining me??? And, I love swimming. It feels so good to be in the water, working my entire body at the same time. I hate the hassle of getting in and out of the pool, though, so I'm only going to plan on going once a week instead of more often (I'd go every day if a. I could walk to the pool in 10 minutes or less and b. it wasn't such a pain to change clothes, shower, swim, shower, change clothes). Now I need to go home and find my swimming suit - I haven't seen it since I moved last June!

4. Read or listen to French every day. I really want to be prepared when I go to France next year - I know my vocabulary is totally suffering from neglect. Adam gave me some French music to listen to (Notre Dame de Paris - thanks, Adam!) and I've purchased 5 books in French; two are full of short stories, one is a book of fairy tales, one is a sci-fi/fantasy novel, and the last is a classic: Le Petit Prince - I'm going to start it first because it's pretty famous and I've never read it. I'm betting that having a reason to do it (being able to converse in French while in France) helps me work harder at this goal than last quarter's Shakespeare goal (*moment of silence for that goal*).

Whenever I set resolutions/goals, I try to pick things designed to improve my mind, body, heart, and spirit. Since this quarter I sort of combined body and heart in one goal (tennis = physical activity and social interaction), I added a fiscal goal into the mix. It's my list, so I pretty much get to do whatever I want with it. Teehee.