2009 - The Year To Get S**T Done

Everyone is writing their resolutions. But I don't like to do resolutions... I've always written goals. In fact, I write down my goals each year. I then save them in the same place so I can pull forward the long term goals that carry over from year to year. And I believe in the power of intention... of writing things down and watching them happen. I've put what I want out there and time and again I've been surprised by what happens. It's amazing in such a positive way.

And this upcoming year seems as if it is going to be one heck of a year! I'm already so inspired by the level of positivity and energy that is out there for 2009. So inspired that my list of goals is HUGE! But in a good way. I'm trying something new for the year; I'm breaking my list down into sections. I usually do a big long list and then organize it by month so they are more concrete. A lot of this year's are all year long so I will need to put some more structure to them. Oh yeah, they range from huge to terribly mundane.

Here we go!

Home - House interior, exterior, improvements, furnishings



♥ Get our living room fireplace lined so we can snuggle in front of it

♥ Get our gravel drive redone

♥ Build a "secret garden" with a boxwood hedge and chairs under the wisteria

♥ Create a Victory Garden to help eat vegan and share produce with friends and neighbors

♥ Finally clear out or sell some of the stuff I've been hanging on to that doesn't have a place

Financial - Money in, out and the future

♥ Pay off what I owe

♥ Save more money

♥ See if I can incorporate more monitization elements to my sites without compromising the site from a holistic standpoint

Social - Travel, Connections, Friends, Social Media

♥ Meet up with folks from my old city that have moved to NC like me

♥ Have more tea parties

♥ Continue the Backyard Movie Nights (wanna come?)

♥ Plan a trip (???) to Austria/Germany for next Christmas

♥ Try and organize outings with my online friends when I travel

Family - Pets, People, Future

♥ Make sure the pets are getting all the health and dental they need, especially Bailey who is 15

♥ Train Napoleon to do more tricks... is walking on a leash far off?

♥ Catch up with my elderly cousin in Ireland

♥ Definitively answer some lingering open questions


Spirit - Emotional, Service, Donations, Volunteering



♥ Get my "A Gentle Paw" pet therapy group off the ground

♥ Develop a vegetarian/vegan group for my area - it's the South... veggie lovers need all the support we can get and people need a way to be exposed to the idea and learn together.

♥ Budget in money to donate to my favorite causes

♥ Budget in money to surprise and delight people

♥ Become more active in the causes I support


Physical - Health, Food, Exercise



♥ Meditate - it's really hard for me to work this in

♥ Do more yoga

♥ Walk and get back to running - maybe a half-marathon by 2010?

♥ Do a Juice Feast - Starting with 30 days but will keep going up to 92 days if possible

♥ Keeping vegan but focusing more on raw, whole foods fewer processed foods

♥ Try to create more boundaries between work and home

♥ Get more sleep

♥ Take fencing lessons again starting in the summer

♥ Learn archery


Personal Growth - Learning, Languages, Reading, Culture



♥ Learn French - our long, long term goal is to move to Paris so I'm laying the groundwork

♥ Read all the exising books I have

♥ Continue my British history reading plan

♥ Listen to all the book and history podcasts I downloaded from iTunes

♥ Journal more

♥ Take a course in beekeeping so we can have an apiary

♥ Watch more old classic movies that I've never gotten around to

♥ Take a class in cordwaining (???)


Creativity - Outlets, Projects, Expression



♥ Write more

♥ Attempt to do quilling

♥ Get the tattoo I have planned

♥ Plan my outfits in advance so I can incorporate more of the cool stuff I have that I get too rushed to remember

♥ Bake more and work more with my cake decorating skills

♥ Plan out the colors and elements I want for Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter

♥ Do more photography (get a macro lense if possible)


Professional - Work, Sites, Teaching, Writing



♥ Find an illustrator for the childrens' book I wrote and self-publish if needed

♥ Grow my Technorati ranking and audience

♥ Transfer my sites to a new platform

♥ Reach 1000 posts by my 2 year anniversary in July

♥ Go to BlogWorld

♥ Teach a class on Social Media

♥ Submit a post to IFB at least twice a month


I have more (if you can beleive it) but these are the main ones.

Have you made your plans? How do you organize them? If you haven't, get on it! Let's get some stuff done!


Photo Credits:
- My House by Me
- Ile St-Louis Stairs by Mohsan
- St. Anton am Arlberg, Tirol, Austria by Kruhme
- For Like Ever poster by Village
- Hand to Paw by Jim Dutcher
- One day's worth of produce by David and Katrina
- Eiffel explosion of stars by Ingiro
- Simple by Messaround
- The Magic is in the Telling by Yulia Brodskaya