Tuesday, December 31, 2013

13 in 2013, and 2014 Goals

Last year I made an extensive list of the "13 in 2013", or 13 projects I wanted to complete in 2013.  Overall, I think I did a decent job of starting to whittle down some of the big projects I have.  I'll take them one by one...

  • Knit the Kleio Shawl (finished 1/25/13) and Snowflake Shawl (finished 2/3/13).  These were both huge projects, and I'm really happy that they were finished.

    The Snowflake Shawl in particular was one of the most ridiculous knitting projects I've ever done, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.  
    Check!
  • Add to the Hat Brigade (5 finished).  I put this on my list because there's always someone that's asked for a hat, and I have to oblige.  Finishing 5 this year is not bad, and knowing myself, I probably forgot to add one or two in here!
  • Read 40 Books (34 done).  Even though I didn't exactly reach the 40-books goal, I don't feel that bad.  First, I originally had the bar set at 25 books and then raised it to 40 in the fall.  Second, a lot of those books were in the 500+ pages range, such as the Game of Thrones books and the Passage series by Justin Cronin. Last- and this is a big one- Between my five classes just this semester, I've probably read easily over 2,000 pages of student papers.  I think I can count that as the last few books. :)
  • Christmas 2013 (6 finished). Two were very close to the wire, but I got it!
  • Finish Dad's Dale of Norway- Ahem.  Well now.  This one, I hate to say, I didn't make much of an effort on.  I'll have to push this one to next year...
  • Scott's "The Dude" Sweater.  Started it on February 6th last year, knit the entire back and most of the left side front, and then summer came, and my crazy last semester.

    I'll definitely be picking this one up again this year, and
    finishing it, probably for the Ravelympics!
  • Dance Bag for Stacey- Big fat NOPE on this one.  
  • Art Piece for Apartment- Check!  There is a very nice piece above our bed that took me an afternoon to make.  BAM!
  • Lavender Cardigan- Hmmm..  didn't really get to that one..
  • Travel T-Shirt Quilt- oops... not that one either...
  • Run a Half Marathon- I signed up for the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon, but due to more than a mildly large set back (the whole anemia leading to surgery thing and recovery thing) I wasn't able to run it this year.  I plan on putting my name in the pool again for the Half, and forcing myself to do cardio!
  • Academic Submission to Journal- Didn't happen.  Oops.
  • Trad Lead 5.10 at Palisade- I actually didn't spend a ton of time at Palisade this year, and when I did, I was usually with people that would not be comfortable following me on Trad Lead.  I did, however, Trad Lead at Devil's Tower out in Wyoming, so I think I can feel all right about this particular goal. :)

This was a pretty formidable list.  I think I need to simplify it for next year.  Focus on a few big craft goals, then focus on a couple areas that I want to improve on, taking specific steps to be better, get better, and improve or learn skills needed that I currently don't have.  
This year's list, then:

1- Finish my Dad's Dale of Norway and Scott's Dude Sweater.  These are leftovers from last year's list, and ones that definitely need to get off my to-do list.

2- Finish at least 3 projects for myself, including a sweater.  I'm pretty horrible at keeping my own knits, so this year I'm going to focus on knitting a few more things for myself.  This might be hard to do once the knits start piling up...

3- Read 40 books.  I'm only teaching 9 credits so far next semester, so between a little more time, less papers, and the entire summer off, I think I can finish this many books.  I almost did it this past year!

4- Bad Habit to Break: Procrastination.  This is my big goal for the year, to be as proactive as possible and stop avoiding the "hard" stuff.  This includes a myriad of things, including grading in a timely manner, putting off working out, and leaving hard or big decisions until it's too late or inconvenient.  

5- Truly Train for Climbing.  This is my other big goal for the semester- to create and follow an actual training schedule for Climbing.  When I'm lazy and not training, I can climb 5.10-5.11.  When I actually train and work on climbing, I think I'll be pushing the 5.12 range.  A good goal would be to comfortably climb 5.12 on sport lead, and climb 5.11 on trad.  Inside of this goal, I want to climb Mr. Lean (5.11d) on trad at Palisade Head.  This is going to require focus and dedication, so it's a great one to focus on.

6- Run a Half-Marathon.  This will help me train for the climbing as well, but a regimented half-marathon training schedule will force me to get out and run on a schedule, which will be good for me.  I'm going to aim for the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon again, depending on whether I get picked in the lottery.  

7- Get comfortable with French.  I need to pull out my old French textbooks and really go after learning the language again.  Hopefully Scott and I will be going to Europe this summer to climb, and I would love to have at least a small grasp of the language.  This is practical as well as a good goal to chip away at.

8- Learn and become comfortable with a computer Photoshop-type software.  I'm good at the iPhone pics, but I still haven't really found a software for the photos I take on my regular camera.  I've downloaded a couple of programs in the past, but never really tried anything on them.  

9- Create my own personal website.  As an educator, this one is a no-brainer.  I have to have a platform to keep track of my information, keep my resume updated, and it's a good place for me to explore professional development.  There's so many easy tutorials on how to do this on the web, plus I have a guy in my life that can help me with the finer details. ;)

I truthfully only have 9 true goals this year, but I'm going to add one more to make it a nice even 10.

10- "Be Silly, Be Honest, Be Kind".  This mantra, coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson, is going to be what I live by this year.  It's a good quote to fall back on this year whenever I'm frustrated, unhappy, unmotivated, or need encouragement.  I actually was going to get this as a tattoo a month ago, and I should live it before I put it on myself permanently. :)

This type of list seems a lot more manageable than the one I made last year, and gives me so really solid goals that I know I need to chip away at.  I'm positive that 2014 is going to be a great year for me, both with work, school, and play! :)

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