Monday, December 31, 2012

The 13 goals of 2013 - Slightly Revised.

We're planning to hit the slopes today, as well as get the rest of our Christmas decorations put away. It's nothing if not an ambitious day. We're going to close out the evening with an Xbox Kinect dance paty, a movie, & some popcorn. We live on the edge! :-)

I've been fine tuning my 2013 goals a bit, & have a few minor tweaks. I've combined a few goals that go together & made some goals more actionable by clearly defining what I hope to achieve & how to get there. (If you're reading between the lines, I love goals, love to push myself, & consolidated in order to give myself additional goals while still staying within my requirement of only having 13.) :-)

  1. Lose 12 pounds, bringing my weight to 135. I'm trying to shoot for a healthy, but realistic number.
  2. Track my food/exercise every day in My Fitness Pal.
  3. Improve my fitness by doing the following:
    • Complete 13,000 minutes of cardio. This will be a huge stretch goal for me, but I'm ready for the challenge!
    • Complete 100 strength workouts.
    • Complete 100 stretching workouts.
  4. Run consistently, as measured by the following:
    • Run 10 races. I have a few in mind, but basically want to challenge myself to really maintain my running endurance throughout the year.
    • Run 20 miles (or more per week).
    • Run 1000 miles in 2013.
    • Achieve a personal best in a half marathon.
    • Run a 5K, 10K, 15K, & potentially a 30K.
  5. Reach 50% of our boys college fund savings. This will take around $10,000, depending on the tuition price fluctuation.
  6. Pay $50,000 of principal on our mortgages.
  7. Have one date night per month with M, & get together with two friends per month.
  8. Track our spending, stick to our budget, & continue the monthly reports.
  9. Review our charitable contributions, & increase our yearly giving by 10%.
  10. Organize one room in our house per month.
  11. Learn to bake bread (bagels, english muffin bread, sandwich bread). This is partially because I'd like to trim our grocery budget, but also because it's something I've tried & failed at before & just want to improve.
  12. Create/finalize will & guardianship papers. I hesitated even adding this to my goals, as I've failed at this for the last two years. But, it's important enough that I'm adding it again.
  13. Generate $1,000 in "side hustle", loosely defined as anything outside my normal paycheck, for the year. I've never tracked this before, so keeping the bar low. The money will be used to convert my grandmother's old movies into DVDs, and the rest will go towards my sister's 40th birthday trip.

And, here's a picture of me with M, last year, on the slopes. :-)


What are your goals for 2013? I love reading about all of your aspirations & ideas!

14 comments:

  1. Good luck on all your goals! Happy New Year!

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  2. You are very ambitious! I love your goals though - especially the fitness ones. I cannot do much cardio because of my injury, but I may try to match you in my walking minutes (as cardio). Let me think on it.

    Happy New Year!

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    1. Do it! :-) I find that tracking in minutes is the most helpful for me. A few years ago, I just had my goal be x number of workouts. But, when I'm running, a two hour long run is nothing like 15 minutes on the elliptical. I found that I was taking the easy road & just checking off workouts. Now that I'm counting them by minutes, it's more motivating for myself.

      And, walking is great when you're recovering from an injury!

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  3. Since your kids are so young, how are you figuring how much to have for their college expenses? Just wondering what the thought process is for that one.

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    1. We're using the Washington state GET program (which is like a 529, but a slightly different variant). It's prepaid tuition credits. So, assuming the boys each attend for four years (I'll be optimistic that they can finish at that pace :-)), they will each need 400 tuition credits. We buy the credits now at $175 each (I think that's the going rate) & currently have 42% of the 400 credits per child saved.

      Hope that makes sense, it's a bit confusing!

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  4. Good Luck! You've set some great goals for yourself! Print em off, and put them somewhere where you can look at em every day! Have a safe and happy New Year!!

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    1. The fitness ones are always top of mind, but the other ones tend to sneak up on me. I will definitely print them off! Thanks for the idea. :-)

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  5. You inspire me with your fitness goals - I need to break down my activity in the same way. I also need to be as diligent with MyFitnessPal as you are.

    Happy New Year! Have a brilliant one :)

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  6. Carla wrote a whole post about how she makes bread and it's wonderful!!! I've been making it ever since!

    Love your goals!

    Here's to a healthy, prosperous and Happy New Year!!

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    1. You have such wonderful goals. Congratulations on the weight loose. My eldest daughter is getting married this summer and I would like to loose weight and look good.I think I have to be selfish and take the time for myself to loose the weight. Life and everyone else always gets in the way.

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  7. Good luck! They sound like wonderful goals. Running is amazing. It is always hard for me to get out the door, but I never regret going on a run once I'm out there.

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