Endings and Beginnings

I like the end of year/beginning of year time.  Looking back over what I hoped to accomplish this year, I'm reasonably pleased.  Here's what the plan was (and how it turned out):

Relationships: I'll continue to work on spouse, family, and friends. I'm going to focus on quality time with Mr. L  and calling my parents at least once a month. I want to be a good friend, and that varies with each friend. (I did talk to my parents at least once a month this year. The others are tougher to assess.)

For health, weight, fitness, and diet... I think weighing daily isn't working either, so I'm going to go for twice a month on the first and 15th.  I want to get my fasting glucose level below 100 and normal levels on cholesterol and blood pressure ... I think I'm going to choose Mindful Eating -- as I understand it, that's getting things right in your head, and that's where my eating problems lie. (The Mindful Eating Diet worked well for me for, you guessed it, the usual three months.  I am still less than what I started the year at by seven pounds, mostly due to closing out the year with the flu.  My blood and blood pressure numbers are all pretty much the same. My doctor was not unhappy, so I'll keep looking for ways to work on that. Since I got the Withings scale, I weigh daily.)

For home and property, there are things to maintain and things to improve. Obviously, yard work is a focus.  There are several things at each property I'd like to see us get done, but most of them will require Mr. L to make it a priority, and he doesn't like to be pushed -- he has a timeline in his mind, and it shifts as new priorities emerge, so even if he tells me, it changes from one day to the next, so I'm better off letting him "drive the bus" for those things. I control yard work, housework, and decluttering of my things.  I'm developing measurable goals for those items. (I stayed on top of yard work, and Mr. L got an awesome amount of work done in Central Texas this year.  Utterly failed at decluttering for another year.)

For Writing, I'm going to continue incorporating Product Launch Formula principles into marketing my writing, writing more short fiction, revising my novels, and building my Fiction Club list.  I plan to continue the same blogging schedule.  I'm preparing short fiction for A-Z Challenge in April.  I still need to finish revising Polar Bear on the Loose, and I have several novels to work on after I finish that. (Blackbirds First Flight was an unexpected pleasure.  I did finish revising Polar Bear on the Loose, but she needs another go around to be ready for prime time. I've decided Twilight, temporarily named Geeks, will be the next up for revision.  Blogging went according to schedule.  Fiction Club list hasn't grown much beyond the initial growth garnered from Stephen's awesome encouragement of his tribe, but I pick up a new subscriber every now and then. Having graduated from the first year of PLF, I'm part of Holly's MasterMind group, and they are a fascinating group to work with.)

So, I'm generally pleased with 2014. What's on tap for 2015?

I completed Michael Hyatt's Best Year Ever workshop.  I believe it helped me in a couple of areas (but at this point, unless renewing is a LOT cheaper than the initial cost, I see no reason to renew next year).  I have more specific goals, which was something I wanted to learn.  They could probably still be better, and I may learn to improve them further.  Here goes:

    1.    HEALTH. Lose 28 pounds by December 31, 2015, and reduce average heart rate ten points to 71 (on Withings scale). This breaks down to 2.3 pounds per month and less than one beat per minute on heart rate.  I need to improve my cardio health.  That's why the heart rate goal has been added.
    2.    WRITING. Publish Polar Bear on the Loose by August 4, 2015.
    3.    WRITING. Revise Geeks using HTRYN, averaging one lesson per month.
    4.    PROPERTY. Declutter one room or area of my stuff per month. If it doesn't have a home, box it and remove it from the house, sell it, or give it away. (Inventory glass and decide what to sell, dining room, under back stairs and downstairs bathroom, parlor, kitchen, bedroom an small closet, my closet, blue room, den, living room, store, and garage)
    5.    SPIRITUAL. Pray and meditate for 20 minutes daily.
    6.    INTERNET RESPONSIBILITIES. Successfully migrate FM to Joomla! 3.
    7.    RELATIONSHIP. Be present when I'm with Alan. (I'm not objecting to this one, but it's not measurable, and I'm not happy with it.)
    8.    FINANCIAL. Save $XXXX by October 1, 2015, to be able to pay property taxes in full with we get the bills. (This is a key to getting my finances back on track.)

The key to achieving these goals is the "next actions" tracking I've programmed into Things.  I've not done that before.

I wish you all a prosperous and joyous New Year.