Goal Setting for 2012

I was looking back at my goals for 2011 (some of which I posted here and some of which I didn't) and thinking that I didn't really achieve all that much.  But then I realized that I actually accomplished a really big goal in 2011.  It's one of those goals that I sort of half-heartedly set every year, and yet never accomplish, so I didn't even mention it here, but I actually did it in 2011.......I quit smoking.  After smoking for almost 27 years, I smoked my last cigarette on June 27, 2011.  So regardless of all the other goals I did not meet last year, that one makes up for it in MY grand scheme of things.

Hoping to do a little better on some of the other ones this year though.  The two general categories remain the same....health/weight loss and writing.

Health/Weight loss

I put health first, because although I do want to lose weight, my first priority is recovering completely from my back surgery.  I'm hoping in the process of focusing on that first that I will lose some weight, and I'm planning to take other steps to help with weight loss as well.  However, I don't expect to complete my weight loss in 2012, but I do hope to make some progress and get myself in a better position physically to do the exercise I know will be necessary. 

Specific goals:

• Do exercises recommended by physical therapist, as often as recommended. (currently daily)
• Walk at least 1 mile either outside or on treadmill at least 2X per week. I hope to increase this over time in both the mileage and number of times per week, but right now 1 mile takes almost 30 minutes and the PT exercises make me really sore, so don't want to overdo to the point I give up and quit.
• Re-evaluate exercise goals monthly and set specific goals to achieve.
• Track food intake.  Note that right now this is not "eat healthier" or anything similar.  I just want to get in the habit of tracking what I eat.  I know that as I make the tracking a habit I will naturally start to eat healthier.

Writing

I just need to make writing regularly a habit.  There were a couple of weeks during the middle of my recovery from surgery, when I was still on pain meds but reducing the amounts, that I journaled in my handwritten journal daily, and sometimes more than once a day.  Maybe it was the pain meds, or maybe it's that I was home alone so much at that point that I didn't have anyone to talk to so I just wrote things out instead, but I'd like to get back to doing my personal journaling on a more regular basis, in addition to posting here more frequently, and I still need to work on some of my story ideas as well.

I think I was a little overly ambitious last year about how much time I would be able to put aside for writing, but maybe not.  I'm currently reading The Productive Writer and I may revise these goals some as I have time to ponder the recommendations in that book and see how they best apply to my real life.

Specific goals:

• Write in handwritten journal at least twice per week.  I should really try to do this daily, but I'm going to start with the 2X per week goal.  
• Post on blog at least twice per week.  Again, would love to do more, but I think the 2X per week is achievable.
• Spend at least 2 hours every month working on fiction.  This includes fleshing out story ideas, reviewing and editing already written material, and doing writing exercises.  I should be able to find at least 1 weekend in every month where I can find 2 hours of quiet to do this, but if I manage it in 15 minute increments throughout the month, that works too.

I'm going to come up with some way to remind myself of these goals on a regular basis, otherwise a week gets away from me too fast.  I will also try to remember to update here every month or so as I reconsider or change specific goals and just to generally report on my progress.