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Five points
2005-12-26 - 2:03 p.m.
We've come to that time of year when I start thinking back over my
accomplishments/disappointments of the last year and start planning
ahead for the coming year. What am I going to do differently? How will
I improve myself? And I was thinking that I should set specific
goals for myself instead of vague ones. I came up with five things I'd
like to do.
1. Exercise more consistently. Sure, I already exercise quite a bit.
I ran a marathon last month. But I tend to go in spurts. Lots of
exercise for a little while and then nothing. I want to just be
consistent about it. No need to go out and spend all my spare time
running. For Christmas I was gifted a subcription to Runner's World. I
was reading the first copy in the airport yesterday and there were
articles in there about runners who run 8 miles twice a day or whatever
and I wonder when they have time to do anything else. Of course it
probably takes these people less time to run 8 miles than it would take
me, but you still have to get dressed before hand and take a shower
after and worry about planning meals such that you'll have enough energy
to go but an empty enough stomach to not feel sick. But anyway, my
specific goal is going to be running 780 miles in 2006. This translates
to 15 miles per week or just over 2 miles per day. Actually, I'd like
to make this a monthly goal so that if I have a really off month I don't
give up on the rest of the year. So I'd like to run 65 miles per month
in 2006. And I want to run another marathon on April 2nd.
2. Read more. I'd like to spend at least 30 minutes every day reading
for fun. It seems I hardly have time for fun-reading anymore. I want
to make this an hour, but I think 30 minutes is much more reasonable.
I'm more likely to be willing to take 30 minutes out of my busy schedule
than an hour, and who knows, once I sit down to those 30 minutes, maybe
I won't want to stop and the 30 minutes will expand. Also, these books
will be books I want to read, not so much of books other people
think I should read.
3. Learn to play the guitar. Obviously I'm not going to be a master
of this come next December, but I'd like to be able to pick up a guitar
and strum out a few chords and sing a few songs without sounding
absolutely awful. I'm not entirely sure how to quantify this and make
this into a specific goal. Realistically I'm not sure I'd be willing to
practice every day. The other problem with playing the guitar is that I
have to cut my nails to do it--at least on my left hand. I've been
doing a lot of hand-holding recently and I'd like my hands to look nice.
I'll have to figure out how to go about this. How about for a specific
goal I will touch my guitar at least once a week. I'm thinking that if
I at least pick it up and try to play it every week then it will be in
my mind and it's likely that I will pick it up more often. Putting it
in its case and not touching it for months is not an option.
4. Lose weight and eat healthier. Remember those 28 pounds I lost two
years ago? Twenty of them are back. My specific goal here is to weigh
25 pounds less than I do today come the end of next December. I'm
perfectly welcome to lose the weight faster than that, but I have to be
able to keep it off, too. So anyway, that exact weight goal is 135
pounds from a current 160. This puts me at 5 pounds less than I weighed
at my slimmest when I went to Hawaii two years ago. With this goal I
reserve the right to decide that I'm getting too skinny and back off
(aren't I optimistic!) given the fact that I probably have more muscle
mass now than I did two years ago so maybe I will look good at a higher
weight. The other half of this is to eat healthier. The basic idea I
have in mind here is to stop the binges. I think I generally eat pretty
healthy things, it's just that in between these I go a little nuts and
eat entire bags of cookies or something. So no more of that.
5. Get certified by the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties in
pharmacotherapy. This one might be a bit of a stretch. Am I capable?
Am I willing to put forth the effort? The test for this is in October.
It would require a lot of work on my part. Would I be able to do
any of the other goals if I seriously attempted this? I guess you can
tell I haven't seriously committed to this one yet, so maybe it doesn't
belong on this list with the others. I have my annual review with my
supervisor in a couple of weeks, maybe I'll discuss it with him then.
Deep told me the other day that the pharmacy department will pay for the
cost of me taking the test and also for learning materials leading up to
it. If that's true, and my supervisor verifies it, maybe I'll go for
it. Also, I'd like to keep it quiet. I'd really prefer it if the whole
pharmacy didn't know I was taking the test. This year we had three
pharmacists take the test and everybody knew about it. Two passed, but
one failed. How embarrassing for that pharmacist. So specifically,
should I decide to do this, my goal will be to study at least some every
week (I'm kind of going for a similar goal as the guitar thing) starting
ASAP, and then crank it up a notch closer to test time and, obviously,
pass the test in October.
One Good Thing: I'm writing an entry here!
Song of the Day: Old Time Christmas - George Strait
One Year Ago Today: No entry! :-(
8 weeks, 3 days
2012-04-05
8 weeks, 1 day
2012-04-03
6 weeks, 4 days
2012-03-23
6 weeks, 2 days
2012-03-21
5 weeks, 6 days
2012-03-18