Goals for 2012

 Image from here.

I consider goals essential to my progress. They help me. They may not help you, but they sure help me. They help me focus my energy.

Last year I had these goals, and upon reflection I feel like they were almost satisfactorily met. That's okay. I can move on or try again. This time, general things like "love your family" and "fulfill your church calling" and "go on a date every Friday with Andrew" and "feed your child" are not included in these goals, because those are givens. I'm trying to be more specific this year.

So these are my goals for 2012:

• Read Marshallese Children's Book of Mormon by June (I have an English copy that helps me decipher the Marshallese—it is quite effective)
• Read 1/2 of Marshallese Book of Mormon from June to December
• Read a book every other week, more if possible (26+ books by the end of the year)
• Learn how to draw (with the help of my friend Daryle; she is great and in return I'm going to teach her InDesign)
• Exercise 5x a week and keep using www.loseit.com (A note on that: one of the FSO bloggers I follow had a funny post about LoseIt, so I checked it out—and lo and behold, I too started realizing a lot of stuff about the way I eat. Although I don't think it is healthy to judge your value by how little you weigh, and I absolutely refuse to base my happiness on a scale, it is good to be observant about the types of things you put in your mouth and what those things do to your body. It's keeping me accountable and it's rather like a game. Andrew is doing it too and it's been fun to discuss it)
• Write my own eBook
• Write a children's book and illustrate it myself (having learned to draw)
• Set up a non-profit (to be discussed later)
• Finish my grandma's personal history

In the words and goals of Simone de Beauvoir, I am not just maintaining the repetition of Life, but I am transcending Life through Existence. I am grateful for my son, Max, but I do not believe that my only contribution in this life has to be through bearing and raising children. It's so important to have things you like to do, to progress in areas of interest, and to use talents to make the world better. It's ever so much better than sitting in front of Facebook or the TV and watching life go by. I love to act and not be acted upon!

Image from here.