New Year's Resolutions: Short Term Goal Setting

I have never been very fond of New Year's resolutions because I already had my own goals in progress.  I didn't feel I needed that extra push to get me where I wanted to be.  Now that I have achieved the two stretch goals I set for myself in my twenties, I spent my 30th year enjoying the fruits of my labor.

I find myself thinking more and more about what my next big goal should be.  When I sit daydreaming and pondering this in all my free time (read: the 5 minutes between when I finally put all electronic devices out of reach and my head hits my pillow) I come up empty.  I'm coasting and it feels nice but since when am I happy with just "nice"?

I am dedicating 2012 to self-discovery.  I am going to find something, somehow, that drives passion within me and ignites a new level of dimension within my spirit.  Fancy.  Let me start with a brain exercise.  Free word association, what makes me tick? What do I wish made me tick?

Love, friendship, money, stuff, no stuff, philanthropy, patience, integrity, compassion, zen, grace, Grace, faith, good-sense, generosity, introspection, strength, focus, creativity, cooking, eating better/less, health, prosperity, quality, family, simplify, meditation

And stop.

Now that I've spent the last 60 seconds spewing words onto this page there are a few areas that pique my interest.  Family is my foundation.  I feel like it is always there and I rarely take it for granted.  I am pulled more toward an essence of who I am and who I am evolving to be.  Grace, generosity and introspection.  I hope you see some of this in me already.  I know I can do better.  I am light-hearted mostly but I have a depth that some people get to see.  I am very sensitive when others judge my emotional side.  I get better and better at screening the depth of my emotion the older I get.  I don't know if I like it.  It is protective and controlling.  Some may call it maturity.  I am hoping that by blogging and writing more I am stretching the softly callous and insensitivity I have worked into some areas of my life.  It is my hope to be more mindful and aware.  I am proud to be a strongly empathetic person who is genuine and honest.  I am true to my values but I lack patience in some instances.

I could pontificate all day about what drives me and what annoys me.  That would get really boring.  I like action.  I want things to move forward.  For 2012 I am setting one short term goal per month for the entire year, experiments if you will.

My points for pontification for 2012 are as follows:

January - Financial Health I: An experiment in savings
This is really about living below my means.  How much can I really save in one month?  How much potential is there for me to be more fiscally responsible than our current government.  Ok wait, setting my goals higher than that should not be difficult!

February - Love and Relationships (cliche for February, I know)
Independent to a fault and living a wonderful fulfilled life.  I need to think more about what this means to me.

March - Healthy Eating
Experiment with ways to make every day healthy eating less annoying.

April - Financial Health II (an experiment in investments)
Bonus check cashed, what to do with it?!  Invest? Shopping spree? Travel?

May - Healthy Living
Focus on not making excuses for incorporating exercise in my life.

June - Philanthropy
Donating my time to charitable causes was always so important to me.  With a busy life, this has fallen to the wayside.  Now is the time to show Ava what giving is all about and remind myself of the importance of sharing time and resources with those who need it most.

July - Religion and Faith
Hmm, this will be interesting.  I'll have to think on this one.

August - Reflection and Meditation
Maybe I should move this one before Religion and Faith. LOL

September - Growing patience
Patience and understanding.  Taking a deep breath and counting to 10.  Remembering lessons learned in August.

October - Career Goals
This is completely open-ended.

November - Discover my inner Julia Childs
I think I can, I think I can.  Cook Cook Cook!

December - Traditions, old and new
Being the head of my family means thinking about the importance of traditions.  Which traditions are important to me from my upbringing and what new traditions do I want to build and grow with my own little family?

More to come soon!  I have to go, I only have a couple more days to shop! ;)