Goals

Writing this post is freaking me out. I think it's a New Year's curse that every goal you set does not happen. Instead of writing resolutions I will post a few "goals". Actually, it be great if I could put a list of goals on the side of my blog so that I can remember to pay attention to them and cross them out. Any tips for that?

So here are my goals in a broad sense

1) Take better care of myself.
 First, I've stopped drinking alcohol. After Christmas I was hungover, caffeinated, and felt like an overweight bag of chemicals. I never want to feel that way again. I want to stop drinking alcohol for at least 9 months because I know one day I will have to do that again. That means until September (to put it in my head) However, it the back of mind I kind of want to stop until my wedding day. We'll see how it goes.

I've limited my caffeine intake. I still drink caffeine but not every morning. I will have a caffeinated drink at a restaurant when the non-caffeinated choices are super sugary or calorie filled. I also will have caffeine on holidays. Tonight I'm going to try the Starbucks "Via" that I got for Christmas.

I'm going to do Julian Micheal's 30 day Shred starting tomorrow. I have other ideas in my head for exercise after that point, but I'll just mention this one for now (so that I don't over commit myself).

Also, I want to get used to waking up early again. This one I will have to start slow on. Once I start working again (asap) I will have to snap into it.

Lastly, track my calories on livestrong as much as possible so that I can eat healthier and lose weight. I'm not putting a number on that right now but I definitely have one in my head.

2) Get into graduate school.
I have 20 days to prepare for my interview starting tomorrow. I'd like to speak to a girl who has already gotten into PA school and ask her a few questions about her interview experience. I want to write myself answers to sample interview questions. Also, I'd like to do a few practice interviews with friends and family and read a book about interviewing.

If I don't get accepted to school, I will initiate plan B immediately and start preparing to apply for nursing school. If I end up an NP rather than a PA I would still be very happy in my career.

3) Keep things clean incrementally.
Instead of "binge" cleaning like I normally do, I want to be a maintenance cleaner. I've succumbed to that fact that I have to do at least a load of laundry every other day in order to keep up on it. It drives me crazy when I do multiple loads in a day.

Every night before bed, I want to make sure my kitchen is clean. If it gets dirtied during the day that is fine but when I wake up in the morning I want to start with a blank slate.

Once a week, I'd like to organize and sort papers lying around our house. I hate junk mail...and papers tend to accumulate very quickly around here.

I want to wash our cars once a month and commit a day to organizing our house (closets, kitchen) once a month.

4) Read at least one book a month.
I used to read nonstop, but I got so busy in post-bac that I didn't make time for it. I have a library that delivers books to my house....there is no excuse for not reading.

5) Set a wedding date and have an engagement party.
Since graduate school is looming B and I haven't picked a wedding date yet. Once we know more which we should be able to set dates for our engagment party, wedding, honeymoon etc.

6) Save money.
I'm going to start working again this year. I hope to work for the agency I worked for before. If I can't I will start pursuing others jobs. This will help B and I take care of the Christmas dent that is currently in our budget.

Sadly, we have to save a LOT of money in order to even think about buying a house right now.  I have to discuss this further with B before I can quantify it.