PLANS FOR 2013

So here is the list I made of resolutions for 2013. OGC=Orlando Gay Chorus, of which I have been a member since 2010. But wait, you're married. Yes, I am. They don't discriminate against the straight. Highlighted items=completed. This list is a work in progress.

Creativity Goals


Create a self-improvement blog You're reading it!! Woohoo!!
Maintain grown, manicured nails

Complete one teen and one adult novel, including NaNoWriMo in November
Create (not my hyperlink->) Java-based website (to be revealed at site launch)

Compose musical and document process on The Great Byte Way blog       
                                                                                            

Organize people to perform and teach in hospitals

Education Goals

Learn Java by completing book and (<-not my hyperlink->) building website
Learn conducting by completing book and DVD and conducting at least one outreach

Health/Fitness Goals:

Get to and stay at 110, achieving muscle tone and firmness
Have yearly checkups with GP, OB/GYN, and mammogram
Get tested for allergies again
Ten minutes daily yoga and stretching
Get 7.5 hours of sleep every night
Floss daily
Juice at least 3 times per week

Music Goals

Conducting
Read conducting book and learn entire DVD
Conduct at least one outreach

Guitar

Daily etudes 15 minutes minimum
Get all the way through the (not my hyperlink->) guitar lesson book

Violin

Daily etudes 15 minutes minimum
Get back to skill level of 2008

Vocal

Daily etudes 15 minutes minimum
Solo in OGC concert

Cello

Daily etudes 15 minutes minimum

Piano

Daily etudes 15 minutes minimum
Learn ALL OGC music and be ready to step up and play
Play at least one outreach

Home Improvement Goals:

Rugs or new flooring in my office and dining room
Organize books in office
Clean desk
Digitize and throw away cassettes
Clean bedroom closet
Clean out purses
Give away shoes, purses, and clothes that I don’t wear
Clean dining room—put away glasses
Clean out daughter’s closet

Reading Goals

26 Books

                        Fiction

                          Agatha Christie-Towards Zero
                          Habits of the House
                          The Runaway Princess
                          Saving Fish from Drowning
                     

Three classics

David Copperfield
Sherlock Holmes
Jane Eyre

Non-fiction

Embers of War
Evoking Sound
David Foster Wallace
Fred Jones
Because I Said So
God is not Great
A Brilliant Solution
Bill Bryson-Home

Family Goals

Go on one date per month with husband
Read to kids for at least 20 minutes every day

Methods

Daily To-Do Checklist
Keeping blog for accountability
Limit Facebook time by only using a timer when going on it and having a computer lock-out app
List rewards that take the place of procrastination

Resolve

If there were a pill that would make you do everything you resolved to do, would you take it every day?


No side effects. You would make your To-Do list and then wait for the pill to kick in. Once it did, you would get right to the items on the list, giving 100%, checking each off, moving to the next, and not procrastinating for a second. Perfect motivation. At the end of the day, you will have worked out, worked on the screenplay, cleaned the house from top to bottom, written the paper, paid the bills, created the budget, landscaped the yard, read to the kids, read WAR AND PEACE, and absorbed another language lesson.

Would you take it?

Oh, I would. Perhaps I wouldn't take it every day. (Actually, I do take Focalin for ADD, but it's not the magically perfect productivity pill for which I am yearning here. With two kids under the age of five, it's more like an extra cup of coffee.) Perhaps I'd want occasional holidays from perfect productivity. I just don't know because I have never gotten close to perfect productivity. I have a long list of unrealized dreams and neglected ideas that ride around in my psyche through every day I live. Focusing on the road ahead is the way to keep regrets at bay. As I've gotten older, I've gotten a lot better at making up my mind to do something and sticking with it until the very end. I earned (not my hyperlink-->) my master's degree with a 4.0. I completed the Wii EA Sports Active 2 9-weeks challenge without missing a single workout. I won my first NaNoWriMo just two months ago.

The realm of motivation has always fascinated me. I've marvelled at highly-accomplished people like Madonna, Bill Gates, and Barack Obama. What makes them so successful in seeing Point B and getting off Point A and staying the course until reaching Point B?

The next post will be about my own resolutions for 2013. For now, I will just say that I have a project idea that has been cooking for quite a while. It has to do with motivation and accomplishment. It will require me to learn how to program in (not my hyperlink-->) Java. I am not a programmer. My husband is, so he's going to advise me, but I'm doing this on my own--no college classes, just the online tutorials at the Oracle website.