2011 Goals

I know my goals are up a bit late this year, but in my own defense, I had them written down on the back of a piece of paper in the last week of December.  It seems like (for the first time) I’ve got too much stuff to publish, and not enough days.  I’d like to keep my Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule that I’ve been moderately successful at keeping this year.

I think that setting goals is one of the most important things someone can do for themselves.  It can take them from just floating along with the current to swimming with (or against, if need be) and doing something you want to do.   I try to set some goals every year (I got fairly serious about it in 08, and have had a few goals every year since then.  They have changed in number and in purpose, but I try to set them every year.  I keep a few categories and break each category down further if need be.  For instance in 2008, I set a relatively simple goal in my travel category: Go to New York City.  I’d never been and always wanted to go check it out, so I made that a goal.

Last year I had a few goals, and while I didn’t have success on all of them, I did pretty well on most of them.   I hope that I can  complete everything this year, but looking ahead for the next 12 months, I have a feeling that there will be quite a few surprises and changes for 2011!  I’m excited for them, whatever they may be.  Anyway, here are some of the goals that I have for this year (I’m keeping some of them private, mainly because I haven’t figured them out yet).

Financial Goals

  1. Pay off my Direct Loan.  The balance for this loan as of 12/31/10 will be right around $4,250.   While this wont help out my cash flow that much, it’s still by far the lowest loan balance  that I have.  I’m hoping that this will be paid off in Q1, and it should be if I can get back to my gazelle intensity that I lost in December.
  2. Pay Off Truck.  This goal is going to be a heavy lift, but I think that I can do it this year.  I’ve been debating if I should pay this off first or move on to the next lowest balance.  In the end, the truck is going to win out because of the amount of cash that it’s going to free up.  The balance on this note as of 12/31/10 is $17,979.

Health Goals

  1. Establish a routine at the gym.  I seem to be teetering on the brink of a solid schedule of gym attendance, and I’d really like to have it gel into a nice routine this year.  Unfortunately, this goal sits a bit at odds with my goal of paying off my debt (because I spend extra time working more to earn more).  I’ve got a spreadsheet tracking my progress, and I’m aiming for 4 days a week at the gym (if anyone cares, tuesday, thursday, saturday and sunday).  I think I can do this and stay focused on all of my other projects.  I’ll share these results in my monthly reviews so you can keep up as well.
  2. Identify an unhealthy eating behavior and stop it.  After thinking about this for a while, I’ve decided that instead of stopping an unhealthy behavior, I’m going to start a healthy one.  I’ve decided that I’m going to eat vegetarian 1 or 2 dinners per week (my breakfasts are sometimes vegetarian, and I can switch my lunch if I want).  This will give me 1 or 2 days of full vegetarian food per week, which should do great things for my health.

Well, while that’s not everything, that’s everything that I’m going to share here.  I havent thought of environmental goals yet, but when I do, I’ll share them here.  To increase the likelihood that I’ll complete something, I’m going to make a priority goal – one that I want to complete more than I want to do all of the others –  I haven’t decided that yet either, but I’ll let you know when I do.

What are your goals for 2011?  How did you do last year, and where did you fail?  Were you too ambitious, or not ambitious enough?

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12 thoughts on “2011 Goals”

  1. Wow, that’s a big number when you add those two loans together. Good luck and keep us posted as the year progresses. It’s always fun to see how things go, hopefully even better than planned!

    • I know it’s a big number, beagle. It kinda freaked me out when I calculated it myself, but I’m going to keep plugging away and hopefully in 12 months, I’ll get there. I’ve got quite a few new tactics and tips that i’ll be sharing on the blog, as well as my monthly status updates on my progress. Unfortunately, I think that the lynchpin in this whole scheme is taxes – Will I owe, or will I get a refund? (best case scenario: owe a bit or pay a bit)

    • Thanks for the encouragement Sam. The First loan should be gone before the tax bill gets here. I saw my post up on yakezie – I’m about to leave some comment responses.

  2. Good luck with your goals Jeff! I failed on my goal last year to get rid of all my credit card debt, although I was really close!

    I’m planning on saving this year and I’ve set myself some really tough goals, the key is being motivated and it’s easier said than done!

    • Good luck with your goal this year PF4 all. Don’t think of not completing the credit card free goal as a failure – You tried hard, and you’re surely better off for having done so. Keep it up and you can try for it again this year.

  3. Good luck on your goals! I posted my workout schedule up on my flip calendar right next to my computer screen. So far, so good. Making a workout schedule around my work schedule also has the added benefit of making sure I adhere to my work schedule. Yay!

  4. Thanks for the post Jeff, surely inspiring to have someone posting life goals. Obviously it is several months into the new year, but my main goals are: quit coffee (your article on that is how I found this blog), quit tobacco. Beyond that, it would be nice to workout, and meditate (somewhat cross legged).

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