Goals Reached, Missed, and Planned

Funny thing about goals. You generally only reach them if you try, consistently, to do so. So how did I do with my five goals for 2011? In June, I had accomplished only one. By the end of the summer, I had accomplished two, leaving three goals left for autumn, none of which I thought about more than in passing. Here's the rundown:

1. Finish my bed quilt: DONE

2. Draft an original dress pattern: FAIL (because I never did #3)

3. Lose 25 pounds: FAIL (partially because I didn't keep up #4)

4. Do C25K: Partial fail. I did start exercising and I did build up the ability to run for 20 minutes straight without dying. But I never made it to 5K.

5. Create my kitchen garden: DONE

So, where does that leave me? I did not accomplish everything I had hoped to accomplish, but that's largely because I stopped trying. I managed the creative things that were not dependent on the more odious, non-creative things. And, truthfully, the time it took to finish that quilt and create the kitchen garden ate into a lot of time I could have spent exercising. But we each only have 24 hours in a day, and very few of those are reserved for personal projects.

On to 2012. I'm not done making goals just because I didn't accomplish some of them.  So here's what I hope to accomplish in 2012.

1. Lose 20 pounds. I'm really not so tied to the number on the scale as I am interested in getting inches off my waist, mostly so that I don't have to do as much pattern adjusting when I sew! Plus, I have to get my cholesterol down a bit. Good eating (which I've been doing lately) and exercise (which I've started) will be essential to reach this goal. I have to be consistent with both. I'm remembering how awesome I felt (and how I combated the winter blahs) last year when I was exercising regularly and I'd like that good feeling again this winter.

2. Finish my novel. I started a new story in July and now have nearly 60,000 words written. My goal is to finish the book by the end of winter, do revisions in spring, and start looking for an agent in the summer. I feel this is a very worthy goal that I can accomplish, again through consistency.

3. Sew from my stash only. I've already talked about this (twice, I realized) so I won't belabor the point. But this is, I think, the easiest goal to reach on my list.

4. Draft an original dress pattern. Yes, I still want to do this. But I will wait until I've accomplished goal #1 before I do it, because I don't want to have to re-do it later.

That's it. Four doable goals. What are you hoping to accomplish in 2012?