2010 Goals

What I am going to get done in 2010, by category, with all the steps I can think of to get there.

1) Religious / Spiritual:
     A)Never miss church unless sick or out of town. Can be accomplished by not partying so much on Saturday night that I oversleep the next day.
     B) Participate in a mission or outreach with my church.  We have a very tiny church, so we don't  do this right now.  However, I know I am not the only one interested.  I need to talk to the people I know are interested, find out what they would like to do, and contact organizations that do it to find out how we can help.  Then I need to arrange for a time and place.
      C) Read The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language.  At some point, I believe that I've read every word in the Bible, but never through an entire edition.  I'm not sure if this will take me a week, a month, or all year - my plan is to start from the beginning and read as I feel guided to do so.  Can be done by setting aside the time every day, and not by putting it off until I fall over dead tired without having done it.
     D)Write every day in a prayer and gratitude journal. I was very touched by Debbie Macomber's Testimony as to the effectiveness of a gratitude and prayer journal on her life..  I must set aside a time every day to read my Bible and to write in my prayer/gratitude journal.
     E) Continue to Tithe. Figure out our 2010 take home and set up an automatic debit every month.

2) Health
     A) Maintain my weight between 145 and 155 pounds.  I just lost 30 pounds last year, and I am not sure where the best  balance between maintainability and healthfulness is yet.  This can be accomplished by going back to strict Weight Watchers point counting and regular exercise (see below).
     B) Swim or do Physical Therapy 4 times a week.  I want to get back into better cardiovascular shape and work on my core strength.  I am going to sign up for a gym on Monday and set myself times when I will swim, same times every day, every week.
     C) Do Physical Therapy Exercises Every Day. Continue to work on my core strength by doing the exercises recommended by my physical therapist every day.
     D) Practice Aikido Every Day.  I have been neglecting this, because I am not healthy enough to take the falls and such that I enjoy.  This year, I will set aside time every day to do the daily solo kata 6 times and to do 1000 cuts with the Bokken, both of which my health does allow.

3) Financial
     A) Pay off loan from relatives in the amount of $1000.  I have this set up to be auto-paid; I make the last payment in February.
     B) Pay off loan from relative in the amount of $30,000  In combination with my other financial plans, this will require an additional $927 a month that I am not sure where it will come from.  The easiest thing would be not to tithe this year, and use that money, but I have rejected that option because I feel that tithing is the only way that I am consistent in expressing to God my joy and thankfulness for his eternal love.  I am contemplating several small business ventures including a) buying things at yard and thrift sales and reselling them on ebay, b) restarting my old document review business on a less than full time schedule, c) finding a part-time job (this is contingent on finding more help for the farm), or d) turning old feed bags into shopping bags and selling them on etsy or similar.  It will be hard, but if I can pull this off, the only debts I will have left are one more family debt and a school loan at 1.65% APR.
     C) Fully Fund 2009 and 2010 Roth IRAs.  I have funded Mr. Goat's 2009 Roth and I have the money for mine, but I want to make an appointment with my financial adviser to discuss mine when I deposit the money. (I have until April 15, 2010 to get this done).   The 2010 money should mostly come out of the present that my parents gave me, if I can find a nice car cheaply enough.  Since we don't get employer matches, I have limited our retirement contributions to Roths until we are debt free.

4)  Dreams
     1) Write something besides this blog.  I plan to purchase the 2010 Writer's Market and see what is out there.  I'd like to enter a couple of short story competitions this year, and maybe even try to get paid for writing, if I see something that I think I can do (and the editors will take unsolicited stuff).
     2) Learn how to Accompany on the Piano.  I'd like to be able to accompany people when they sing.  My Dad, who plays the piano, has offered to give me lessons on Monday afternoons.  I also need to set aside about 30 minutes a day to practice if I plan to make any progress.
     3) Get officially affiliated with a dojo.  Since there is no dojo for my Aikido system in my area, I've not been affiliated with any since I left Dallas.  Once I get well enough to travel, I need to figure out whether I should have the guys in Houston or Dallas be my teachers and get a regular training schedule going.
     4) Keep up with my Chinese.  I've let my Chinese lapse again.  My plan is to write characters every day, so I don't forget my vocabulary.  If I add a new character every day, then by the end of the year I'll be writing 365 characters every day, and in a few years years I'll be writing all the ones I learned, everyday.

5) Prosaic
     1) Practice with my carry firearms at least once a month.  This is the bare minimum, and I have not been making it.  Of course, I'm also so full of pain medication that I don't carry right now, but I have high hopes that I will soon be carrying again, and then I'll need to be in practice.
     2) Keep my house in a reasonable state of neatness.  My housekeeper quit yesterday and I've decided not to replace her.  I'm hoping to be able to keep my house in a reasonable enough state of neatness that I don't go crazy. This isn't a financial-based decision, it is because Mr. Goat hates having people in his house messing with his stuff.  We'll see how this goes - I may need to get some kind of monthly deep clean service to keep up with myself.  But it's not as though my late housekeeper really kept up with me - the house was never in good enough shape for me to be comfortable having company over.  So I'd just as soon live in a pile of mess for free as pay for it.

In Summation:
What my goals will require for implementation is time.  I believe that I can come up with this kind of time by cutting down on the time I waste on things which do not reflect my value system.  I am going to cancel my subscription to Aion because I spend my time playing it stressed, not relaxed.  I also need to cut back on my internet browsing; I spend way too much time reading news and blogs.  When I canceled my online WSJ subscription I thought it would help, but honestly there's not much difference between the paid and the free content on their site.

In 2010 I will spend my time with projects and people that reflect my goals and values.  I will not allow inertia to steal time, my most valuable possession, away from me.