Setting Simple Goals

Thanks to Country Girl for tipping me off to this! Elsie at A Beautiful Mess has put forth this challenge of setting and achieving simple goals before the end of 2010.

Here are Elsie’s guidelines:

choose simple goals that will make your life richer and happier on a daily basis. choose things you may not otherwise get done, but that are not difficult to accomplish.

do not choose result oriented goals, choose activity oriented goals. for example… instead of “lose 10 pounds”, choose something like “eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day”. positive actions instead of just the end result!

choose goals that are personal that you believe will truly make your life richer just by doing them! they can be daily, weekly or one time experiences.

choose a reward for each goal as it is accomplished! it can be a small or large reward.

blog your goals, each one as you achieve it and a big post when they are all finished before the new year!

I really need this. After having Josh, it seems that everything I enjoyed as hobbies (well, besides blogging) has been put on hold. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, but I’m missing all the fun things I used to do, even though Josh and I do fun things together now. So here are my goals:

Start knitting again. I have pretty purple yarn that I bought last fall to make myself a scarf and hat. I have lots of blue and green yarn that I bought to make things for Josh, too. I’m going to work on my purple scarf and a hat and (thumb-less) mittens for Josh. Reward: My new purple scarf, of course!
Learn more about chickens. I’ve been talking about getting chickens for a few years now. I need to read a few books about them in preparation for getting them next spring. I SWEAR I’m going to get them next spring! Reward: Something from Etsy, maybe with a chicken theme, limit $20.
Go to bed early. My friends on Facebook and Twitter will tell you how little sleep I’ve been getting lately. Since I’ll be going back to work in two weeks and will be getting up at 5:30, I really NEED to get my rest. I’m setting a bedtime of 9pm on weeknights. (This may interfere with all my other goals!) Reward: New warm and cozy jammies after 3 weeks of getting to bed early
Blog weekly. I know that’s not really a lofty goal, considering I used to blog multiple times each day. Again, going back to work is going to be tough, so I’m setting a goal of posting here once a week (don’t worry, I have guest posts lined up… and YOU can contribute if you’d like to!) and at Josh’s baby blog once a week, in addition to my new blogging gig at a soon-to-be-launched site. So really, that’s 3 posts each week. Reward: The satisfaction of knowing I achieved this goal, and interaction with all of my dear friends online!

I’m excited about this challenge! But if you’ll excuse me now, it’s my 9:00 bedtime. Unless, of course, I start tomorrow…