The ball dropped in Times Square 24 minutes ago and the rest of my family is in bed already. I thought that before I go to sleep I’d do a quick look back on what I posted that I wanted to accomplish last year. Here’s what I wrote a year ago, updates are in red.
- Lose 15 pounds (I’d like to go for 20, but 15 would be a good start) How? well, still working on that. I know I need to do 2 things for starters: cut waay back on cheap, processed foods increasingly eating more fresh foods. And exercising a heck of a lot more than I do. I don’t like working out, but I do love riding my bike and there’s a nice bike trail 1/4 mile from my door that I need to be more regular about hitting. UPDATE: Well, this didn’t go that well. Not well at all. I think I gained some weight instead. I did, though, cut waaay back on the amount of fast food I was eating. As a family we were more conscious of what we ate. Still need to cut back more on the processed foods. And the weight? well, I’ll still be striving for this one in 2012.
- Complete my Wood Badge training. This is a big one and very important to me. UPDATE: Ugh. If it was that important to me I’d have completed my projects to finish this up by now. Instead I slacked. There’s now only 3 months left to get this done. I do have faith that I’ll complete it in time.
- Continue to purge possessions, getting closer to owning what I really want and use. I’ve been doing the work and getting rid of stuff during the last year or two but now it’s time to kick the whole thing into high gear. One way for me to be accountable to this goal is through weekly blog posts reporting what I’ve purged. UPDATE: Finally, something I actually accomplished. I did a thorough purge of my stuff. I’d say that a true 99% of what’s left are really the things I want to own. I’m still finding things here and there that I can get rid of and there’s some clothing that I think I want to ditch. But that sort of simplifying will never stop. The less you own the more it seems you can continue to live without.
- Drive my 2000 Ford Explorer for at least 9,000 more miles. At that point the vehicle will have 200,ooo miles on it. If it’s still performing well at that point my wife and I will decide whether I keep driving it or whether it’s time to look for a replacement. UPDATE: I did do this one. My Explorer now has 201,ooo+ miles. We’ll be looking to replace my vehicle sometime this year…I hope.
- Cut non-mortgage debt in half, now that’s an ambitious goal. Not impossible by any means, but a challenge. UPDATE: Well, we made very small strides in this. It took my wife longer than anticipated to find a job after graduating in May so money was still a little tight until late summer. We’ll try for this one in 2012 with continued earnest.
- Understand what I have for investments. My portfolio is diversified, but so diversified I’ve lost track of what each fund is doing. I’m going to become reacquainted with what I have, what they represent and what else I need to do to properly prepare for retirement. UPDATE: Umm, nope. It’s still on the list.
I really don’t know if I’m going to add any goals for 2012. This is going to be a transitional year in some respects and I think I’d rather go with the flow as well as continue to finish up the old 2011 goals. Have a great year everyone!
