Model Behavior

Well it’s that time of year again to write goals for 2009! My goals for 2008 were:

1. Start exercising regularly, possibly running.

2. Be completely debt free.

3. Get all core science courses out of the way in one foul swoop!

4. Begin 401k  savings

How did I do? Pretty darn well I must say! Every year I write my goals on a calender, then use sticky notes to break then down into monthly achievements. For example, my yearly goal of exercising daily got broken down into “work out 3 times per week every day this month” etc. I mark off the days of this calender every day so my goals are always right in front of me! It’s a great system! Ok let’s see how I did on this years goals:

1. I did great with this resolution! I began walking 3 miles a day during my breaks at work and by March I was antsy to move on to running! 9 months after my first jog totalling only a mile and the majority of that walking, I am running about 12 miles per week and am training for my first race, a half marathon in May!

2. This was perhaps the resolution I most struggled with. I don’t usually discuss money on the blog, but I will admit that when I first moved back from NYC in 2007 I was up to my neck in debt. Everything from student loans that were in deferment, to credit cards, to a car loan, to personal loans from my parents. I had all credit cards taken care of by the start of 2008 so I focused on my car and student loans after that. I am proud to say that in May of 2008 I sent my last student loan payment, and have payed by cash ever since! My goal of getting, and staying, debt free has been a success!

3. I was positively dreading the core science classes I needed for my major, biology, physiology, microbiology, chem 1 and chem 2. I decided to get them done in one yucky intense year (while working full time mind you). As with everything they weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they would be (accept Chem 2, that just sucked). I am sssoo happy to have these out of the way and to be able to focus on actual nutrition classes! I am also happy that my lowest grade in any of the aforementioned classes was a B+, not only did I get them over with, I kicked their butts too!

4. I have known for a while now that I needed to do this, but with all that left over debt from my NY adventure this took a back seat. I did get it started though the very day I got my student loans paid off and am now on my way to early retirement! Haha, just kidding, but it’s good to start early!

Now, let’s see what 2009 shall bring hmm?? Here are my goals for 2009, I wrote them on my brand new ’09 calender this morning

1. Complete half marathon in May and possibly (probably) complete 10k in April to prepare for the half. I also want to compete in the market to market relay but that depends on whether I can get 3 more people to sign up on my team! I’ll give you more info about each race as it comes closer!

2. Have $XXXXXX in savings. I like having a actual dollar amount for savings goal, it just helps to keep me on track then just saying “I want to save more money”. I do have an actual dollar amount by the way I just think it’s a tad personal to include on the blog

3. Find a job that is in my desired field. My current job is fine for me now but I know that I need a job in the nutrition field to make me competitive for my internship. I will start looking at this goal more seriously towards the end of the year…or when my department gets outsourced and I get laid off, whichever happens first.

4. Try to not get as stressed about things I cannot control. I am EXTREMELY type A and have a strong urge to control events around me. If I have a plan for something, and the plan goes awry, I have a really hard time adjusting to that…I don’t “go with the flow” well and it’s something I need to do better for my own sanity!

There are my beginning goals, I usually end up adding more during the year. I find that having concrete written goals really helps me stick to them, as does having them right in front of my face all the time (hence the calender arrangement!).

What are some of your 2009 goals/resolutions?