2010 Goals

I’m not one to make resolutions because honestly, I never write them down and always forget them.  Which goes to show, since I don’t remember ever writing down goals for 2009!  Anyhow, I thought this year I’d let the blog hold me accountable…or least lead me to not forget my goals!

1. Give Yourself A Break: I’m always too hard on myself.  And I never give myself enough or any credit at all.  I would like to become more of an optimist than a pessimist that I seem to have been well, all my life.  My eating disorder took the reigns too many times in 2009 and I don’t want that to happen in 2010.  I need to appreciate myself and what I can do instead of focusing on what I can’t. 

2. Be Brave: Seriously, no joke, I’m probably one of the shyest people you’ll meet.  I won’t open up to you in the beginning and if you want to be my friend, you have to come to me; I won’t come to you.  I’m horribly terrified of first impressions and always think mine are horrible, so making friend’s has never been easy for me.

3. Open To New Experiences: This one stems off of being brave.  I’m always hesitant to try new things and this year I want to be able to say “I’ve done it!”  I was able to learn so much about opening up and being brave with Brad in Florida, that I would give anything to let myself be that brave, without the help or pushing (and/or forcing) or others.

4. Be More Mindful of What You Say and Do: I tend to have a big mouth sometimes.  I need to think about what I’m saying before I say it.  Many times I want to say something and it comes out more harsh than it needs to be, so that’s my biggest dilemma.

5. Strength Training 2x a Week: I really think this is going to help me with my running.  I realized this while training for the San Antonio 1/2 Marathon and want to keep up with it.  This year I want to incorporate more weight into my moves (I got 5 pounders for Christmas, I want to be up to 10 and 15 lbs by the end of the year) and to try new ones.  I tend to stick to the same thing. 

6. More Yoga: I really want to perfect my downward dog.  I’ve been doing yoga off and on for years, and this has always been my problem move.  The best way to describe it right now, is that I look like I’m doing a very whacked out push-up with my butt high in the air.  The problem seems to be my shoulders/back that are too tight and I can’t get my upper body to straighten out.

7. Running Goals:

• Speed work: I have been relaxed about this since I got out of high school where we did speed work every Tuesday and Thursday.  I’m going to try to get something speedy in with short repeats at least once a week, and maybe a tempo run along with the speed work (on a different day) every other week.
• 5k: Under 24 min.
• 10k: Under 52 min.
• 1/2 Marathon: Under 2 hrs.
• Marathon: ??? Let’s just try to get that half marathon done shall we?  But I’m being optimistic…since last time I trained for a marathon I got so hurt I was out of running for almost two months and it was absolutely devastating to me.

8. Less Stress/Anxiety: Takes things one day at a time.  I need to seriously, just chill out.  I stress out over the tiniest things and always have to have a schedule.  And having a schedule is nice, but if I learned anything from last year, is that spontaneity can be fun.

9. Save Money: I work probably around 9 months out of a year while the rest is spent traveling on my own dime.  I need to start saving what money I can since I don’t get paid much with the jobs that I do and one day I’m going to have to settle down and live a real life.  I also have student loans to finish paying.  Yikes.

10. School: Take the GRE’s and start the GIS Certificate program with Penn State.  My goal is to study like a mad woman and take the GRE’s by the end of January, at the latest mid-February.

11. Blogging:

• More Centered Blogging: Although I don’t hate that my blogging tends to be all over the place, I would like to focus on more specific things like recipes, workouts, eating disorder awareness, and environmentalism. 
• Posting: I need to get it in my head that if I don’t post everyday, it’s not going to kill me.  I love blogging, but sometimes I go to write a post and it’s so boring that I feel bad.  I need to move away from feeling so obligated to do it and enjoy more of the content and the ones that I read.

Lets hope that 2010 treats me well and I can get all my goals accomplished!