What I’ll be trying in 2012

Okay, I am aware that it is nearly the end of January, but I didn’t do my yearly hopes/goals and I really like doing that. So for the purposes of this blog, it is still the beginning of the year and people are still talking about what they’d like 2012 to look like. I like to start out looking at least years goals to make sure this isn’t a huge waste of time. So here were my goals for 2011

1. Read 50 books, one of which will be the Bible, and one will be a Russian novel.

In fact, I read 58 books in 2011.  The Bible was one of the books, but unfortunately I was unable to finish the Gogol.  Interestingly, Dead Souls is by far the shortest Russian novel I’ve taken on and the only one I didn’t finish.  Six of the fifty-eight books I did not actually finish, but I didn’t count them unless I read more than half of the whole book. So you can say that I read 52 and six halves if you prefer. This was an incredible experience which probably deserves a blog all it’s own.
2. Go through The Artist’s Way.

I did go through The Artist’s Way with the lovely Kim and ever-so-talented Heidi, and it was awesome.  I learned a lot about my own process and how I was tripping myself up at several points.  I’ve done more writing and enjoyed it a great deal more since going through this course.  I think this in tandem with Jeff Pelletier’s class on finding one’s life purpose (God’s Work In Progress) has revolutionized the way I do what I do, in an entirely positive way.

3. Several goals related to my human trafficking novel.

Ironically, due to the wonderful progress I made on goal #2, I decided to stop working on my human trafficking novel.  I learned that while I believe that raising awareness is a vital and noble endeavor, it is not what I personally love to do.  The novel is complete in most respects, and there is a chance it will show up in the market at some point, but it will not be the intensive nation-wide tour I’d been planning.

4. Complain about other people less.

I do think I complain about people less than I did, although I could still get a lot better at it.

5. Have sex 365 times.

Oh, wouldn’t you like to know? (Typed by a woman now eight months pregnant who can’t tie her own shoes).

The real irony in last years goals is that it was the first year in three that I declined to even write down that I was trying to get pregnant or published, both of which came to pass in the great year of 2011.  In 2012, my daughter will be born and my first novel will be released, and I could not be happier.  Not even a little bit.

Choosing goals for this year feels kind of wonky, if only because I have no idea what my life will look like eight weeks from now.  After some serious thought, I’ve decided to write down the things that I hope to cling to even with the upcoming major life changes.  Here goes.

1.  Take a sabbath every week.  I’ve been doing this consistently for two years now, and I really believe it makes my life dramatically better than it was before I started.  I think it’s a good example to set for my child.  I don’t know exactly what a sabbath looks like with a baby in the house, but I’m willing to figure it out.

2.  Have a date night every week.  Yep, you heard me.  There are those who laughed at me when I said I was going to start having date nights while my husband was in school, but we managed 50 dates in 52 weeks.  Although I already love my daughter immensely, and I imagine actually seeing her will only increase that feeling, my husband will always be the most important person in my life.  I intend to treat him accordingly.

3.  Exercise at least three times a week.  I really hope to start P90X again once I’m recovered from giving birth and thyroid surgery, but I will consider the year a success if I work out three times a week.

4.  Write 500 new words five days a week.

5.  Sell 10,000 books.  That seems like a nice round number.

There we go.  Wish me luck!