The Goals of Past, Present, & Future

My Goals of 2010 Summary:

1. Go to the temple 6 times--DONE (already blogged about it, too)

2. Read the Book of Mormon--Incomplete. I started last January, and I read it off and on all year. I haven't finished it yet, but I am in Alma and I'm almost halfway through the entire book. This is the furthest I've gotten in reading the Book of Mormon in 9 years, so I'm proud of my small accomplishment in making it to Alma, but I'm not satisfied with my inability to finish it in a years' time like most of my family has! I'm adding this to my 2011 goals...

3. Lose 36 pounds and maintain that weight--Failure. I started last January in a quest to become more physically fit, and lost 8 pounds. Then I quit and gained it all back. In June, I started again, and from June to October, I lost 17 pounds. I almost got halfway there! But then Halloween's chocolates came, and Thanksgiving's food, and Christmas goodies, and New Years munchies, and I'm ashamed that I've gained almost all the weight back. I can feel how yucky this makes my body feel. I admit that I'm addicted to good food, and I equally admit how much I hate how I look in the mirror in the morning. Josh gave me a treadmill for Christmas, and I'm re-dedicating myself to this weight-loss goal, so I'm adding this to my 2011 goals again as well!

4. Go out once a month with other ladies--DONE! (and blogged about it, too!)

5. Finish the England Vacation Scrapbook--Incomplete. I did work on it throughout the year, but it came to a halt when we moved, and I've only gotten 2 pages done since we moved into the new house. The London section is done, and I'm almost done with the Leeds section, so I feel like I'm at least still progressing with it. I miss the days when I used to go out with women each month to group scrapbooking--I find myself not having the motivation to work on it at home alone since I'm not surrounded by others who are doing it, too!

6. Pay off my local credit card--DONE! I was so proud of myself for doing it early this spring, and I've maintained a zero balance on it all year, until November when I started using it to purchase birthday and Christmas stuff. But I'm committed to paying it off again, and it won't take me very much longer now til it's zero once again.

7. Lower and Maintain my inbox to less than 50 emails at all times--Failure. My inbox gets out of control, and I was tired of always seeing 500 emails in it; it was starting to overwhelm me. I worked on it periodically throughout the year, and for the most part, I kept it down to under 100. The problem is that I share the same email address as Josh. And he gets lots of emails everyday about golf stuff for his work and school board stuff. I finally decided it's an impossible task to share an email with someone who's so busy and always try to keep the inbox below 50. However, I will say that Josh and I both made a conscious effort to delete stuff and move emails into file folders, so 100-200 emails in the inbox is still an improvement over 500!

8. Catch up and maintain ordering photos within 6 months of being taken--Incomplete. This one makes me sad. At the beginning of the year, I worked so hard at ordering all of 2009 photos, in an effort to catch up. I had finally gotten all of 2009's photos ordered. They weren't put in albums yet, and when we moved, there was a giant water leak in the room they were being stored, and it ruined a lot of them. I haven't had the strength to re-start ordering photos after that. I've got a painful mental block about the whole thing. Ugh. My energy is draining just thinking about it. So, moving on to something else...

9. Make something new and different with every food item we grow--DONE! (And blogged about all the food in lots of blog posts, too)

10. Forgive someone who hurt me--DONE! I tend to hold grudges, and I don't like that about me. When I made this goal for myself, there was someone in particular who I needed to forgive for a past offense, and I did. And in doing so, my heart healed and I learned to forgive others for smaller trespasses as well. There were 3 times this year that I was greatly hurt by people that I loved dearly, and those were the hardest times for me during the year, but the most humbling times came when I forgave them, and those times did the most good for my heart.

Only 50% of my 2010 were completed. That's not a very good ratio. I did work on all these goals during the year, and I'm grateful that my list of goals motivates me to constantly try to do better in areas of my life, but I'm disappointed that I fell so short at the end!

I'm excited for this new year! I've thought about the different areas of my life I still want to improve in, and things that I hope to accomplish during this year. Based on my thoughts, here's my List of 2011 Goals:

1. Do Service for others 1x/week

2. Go out on a real date with Josh at least 1x/month (grocery store trips don't count)

3. Go out with friends at least 1x/month

4. Invite friends over to my house 1x/month

5. Finish reading the Book of Mormon

6. Go to the temple 6 times

7. Save up $500 for my future trip to Italy

8. Finish the England Scrapbook (3rd time on my goals list--it's gonna happen this time)

9. Exercise 5x/week (in an effort to lose 36 lbs)

10. GET A NEW JOB!