52 Week (50?) Challenge

I hope you are settling into the new year. We traveled for Christmas and returned home the day before New Year's Eve. We had a birthday party this past weekend for Jacob and Julie's parents came to town. We spent the last couple of weeks thinking about and planning for the party, so we've stayed busy well into the new year. Julie's mom flew home tonight and Julie's dad is leaving in the morning, so we will just now get the opportunity to settle down and get back into our normal routine.

The new year is a fascinating even to me. Turning the calendar from December to January is an arbitrary time to change the year. We have a first day of the month 12 times a year and we have a first day of the week 52 or 53 times a year. But people place so much emphasis on January 1 as a time of introspection and a chance to make changes and resolutions. To me, January 1 is just another day. The biggest significance for me is the chance to watch some good football games all day.

I've never been much of a resolution maker. I like to joke that I resolve not to make any resolutions. That way, I've broken the resolution before the clock is even reaches the 12th ring and I can get the failure out of the way and move on.

Having said that, I wanted to get this year off to a different start. For the past year, I've been reading about Project 52 on my friend Jennee's blog. Project 52 is an approach to goal making that focuses on self-improvement and personal enjoyment of life rather than the absolutism of resolutions that are viewed through a failure/success prism. As I see it, the idea is to come up with a mixture of goals for the year. Some of the goals are whimsical. Some goals will take more work than others. But overall, the ideas is to set some goals for yourself and then focus on working on achieving the goals over the course of the year. As Jennee explains it, you work make a concrete effort to take steps toward accomplishing a goal each week and as time goes by, you'll slowly begin to cross your goals off your list.

I think goal-setting is far superior to making resolutions. To me, the idea behind resolutions is negative. Find the bad things in your life and change them absolutely beginning on January 1. If you break the resolution, you have failed. I think goal-setting is a much better mindset. You can still focus on self-improvement, but there is not the overwhelming pressure not to fail. Goals are more about the steps you take to achieve the goal. Rather than focusing on your negative qualities or habits and simply changing on the spot, goal setting requires planning, effort and patience as you work to change the goals. I think success will come much easier and be sweeter with this mindset.

Finally, Project 52 is about accountability. This comes in two forms. First, I am joining a community of bloggers who are participating in this project. There is strength in numbers and being a part of this group of bloggers provides encouragement as you read about other people's projects and the steps they are taking to work on their list. Second, by publicly declaring my goals in this forum, I am implicitly giving the reader permission to hold my feet to the fire. By publicly stating my goals, and failures on my part will also be public because you can ask me how I'm doing any time. It's scary to think that you will have to face someone when you haven't followed through with what you said you would do. Although the primary motivation for following through on these goals is personal, that fear of public failure adds a secondary motivation.

I'm posting this and getting started a little late. I committed myself to participating this year and started developing a list some time last year. But I stalled out and had a hard time coming up with 52 projects. But I finished my list a few days ago and then I shared my goals with Julie prior to posting them here. Now I'm ready to share my goals with all (ha ha) of my readers. I will post about my progress every Monday which is part of the Project 52 protocol. Feel free to ask me how I'm doing on my goals.

Without further adieu, here are my goals for 2012 along with some commentary:

1. Finish a half-marathon in under 3 hours--I started participating in endurance events with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program a few years ago. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to stick with it. Now I want to work on improving my performance in these events. This is one of several similar goals that I have set for this year. Rather than setting an arbitrary goal weight, working on these goals will have the secondary benefit of improving my health, fitness and physical appearance.
2. Complete a triathlon--This goal is about gaining new skills and to keep challenging myself in new ways.
   
3. Complete a full century ride--This past Spring, I trained with TNT for America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride. This is a bike ride through the mountains around Lake Tahoe. A century ride is a 100 mile bike ride. Since we trained in South Florida where the interstate overpasses are our biggest hills, this was difficult, challenging ride. Our team completed the 72 mile loop around the lake, be we were not able to complete the full 100 mile ride. Even though our coaches told us the 72 miles in the mountains was as challenging as a flat century ride and even though we completed a metric century (100 KM), I was left with a sense of dissatisfaction. I won't be completely satisfied until I bike a full 100 miles, so that is another of my goals this year.
   
4. Swim with the dolphins--This is something that I have wanted to do since we moved to Miami. I intend to make it happen this year.
   
5. Read 5 presidential biographies (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe)--I recently set a goal for myself to read one biography of every U.S. President from Washington to Obama. I decided to incorporate this into the project by setting a goal of getting through the first five presidents this year. This is really a multi-year goal. At the rate of five bios a year, there could be one or two presidents added to the list by the time I complete the goal depending on how the next couple of presidential elections go.
   
6. Read the bible in year (daily reading)--This goal is about the discipline of daily bible reading. I've read the entire bible through several times. This goal is about developing a daily time of reading as a lifelong habit.
   
7. Take a weekend trip with Julie--Pretty self-explanatory. Looking forward to getting away without the boys once Jacob is weaned and can stay with someone.
   
8. Pray with Julie every day--I have to admit, I started working on this before the New Year. I was challenged by several people to do this. I made it a part of my list before we started doing this together, but I decided not to wait until New Year to start (see about about my thoughts on the arbitrary nature of New Year's Day). Like number 6, this goal is about the habit it will develop and the lifestyle change it will bring about.
   
9. Read 25 total books--I love to read but don't make enough time to do it. My father is a voracious reader and I was when I was younger. I want to get back to that. One aspect of this goal is to read broadly across a wide spectrum of genres. Reading broadly is the best way to develop your mind and stay sharp. This equates to about 2 books per month. That doesn't seem too bad, but some books will be heavier than others meaning I'll have to do more than two books a month in some months.
   
10. Build a model airplane--My brother did some models when I was younger. I only had one model that I built and it was the kind where you snap it together. I want to do a real model where you have to glue the pieces together and then paint it yourself. You know what they say. Boys don't grow up...just our toys.
    
11. Repaint/Remodel Master Bedroom--Our bedroom is disorganized and in need of renovation. There are still nail holes in the wall from the prior owner. There are spots where we patched holes but we never sanded down the spackle and painted over it. There is even one spot where the paint doesn't match because I got ambitious one weekend while Julie was out of town. I thought I would resolve those problems so I got out all the paint. I thought I had found the paint from our room (painted by the prior owners who left numerous unmarked paint cans of various shades and colors). I did a test stripe in the corner and lo and behold, it was the wrong color. That spot constantly mocks me. I intend to rectify that.
    
12. Read a book of poetry--This will support #9. I made it a separate goal because I am unlikely to intentionally choose to read poetry unless I force myself to do it.
    
13. Take Caleb to a UM baseball game--Caleb loves baseball. UM baseball season rolls around in February. Every year I think I'm going to go to a few games. Before you know it, it's May and the season is practically over. Caleb has been asking to go watch UM play baseball for a couple of months now. I'm going to make it happen this season.
    
14. Go to a concert--It's been a while since I've been to a concert. Time to change that.
    
15. Take Julie to eat at Joe’s Stone Crab--I've had the privilege of eating at this South Florida landmark two times on someone else's dime. It's time for Julie to see what all the fuss is about.
    
16. Go to a play/Broadway show--See #14. I need more culture in my life.
    
17. Take Caleb on an airboat ride--Airboat rides are kitschy, classic South Florida attractions. We take all of our out of town guests to do this. Caleb has been when he was a tiny baby. It's time to go back now that he will know what is going on.
    
18. Go to Harry Potter at Universal Studios--We are big Harry Potter fans. We love the books and movies. It's hard to believe we live three hours away and we have yet to have a butterbeer.
    
19. Pull down ivy and repaint side of the house--One side of our house was covered with ivy when we moved in. I started to pull it down and it down and discovered it is going to do a number on the paint job. This is going to be a very involved project that needs to be done.
    
20. Travel to New Mexico and attend a Centennial event--New Mexico is my home state and is celebrating its centennial this year. We try to make it to NM every year at least once. I want to be able to participate in this once in a lifetime celebration while we are there.
    
21. Learn how to use the car radio--I got a new car back in May and, sad as it is, I still have not figured out how to set my own favorite stations. Time to get out the instruction manual.
    
22. Install solar lights in front yard--A few years ago, we received some decorative outdoor garden lights as a gift. They are still in the box. 'Nuff said.
    
23. Organize digital photos--We have numerous photo cards with numerous pictures of our boys on them. We have an iMac with lots of storage capacity and a wonderful photo program. Time to bring the two together.
    
24. Memorize Twas the Night Before Christmas--One of Julie's family traditions growing up was to read this story on Christmas Eve. We have kind of adopted it and we have a small collection of different versions of the story. Caleb found one of them and he and I read it numerous times at bed time over the last year. I know most of it by now...might as well go the rest of the way. (This book will not count toward #9.)
    
25. Discard two crates of magazines--You're going to see that a number of these goals are focused on organizing and decluttering my life and space. There was a time when I impulsively subscribed to several magazines. Many of these magazines site in a closet in milk crates unread because I have some hoarding tendencies. I intend to go through some of these magazines and eliminate them from my house.
    
26. Buy a lawnmower--Right now I rely on a weed eater because my yard is small. I have had problems with the weed eater lately, so the last few times the yard has been cut by a friend that I paid. Fortunately, the grass does not grow very fast right now. This will change soon. This will likely be one of the first goals crossed of the list do to its urgency. Not a glamorous goal...but necessary.
    
27. Blog once a week--Well....I'm already behind on this one...but it's my list and my blog, so I'll pretend it didn't happen. But since these goals are aspirational and about making changes going forward, I commit to this from this point forward. It's about the habit and will-power to do it.
    
28. Attend Attorney Trust Officer Liaison Conference--This is a valuable CLE resource in my practice area and I didn't make it last year. Now that I am on my own, it will be more expensive for me to attend, but it is the best way I've found to stay on top of current trends. Plus, I figured I needed a least one or two professional goals.
    
29. Organize print photos--More organization. We have a box full of photos that need to be put in albums or frames.
    
30. Digitize filing system/go paperless--I've begun scanning most of our files into a digital filing system. One part of this goal is to get rid of as much paper by the end of the year as possible. The other part of this goal is to get the proper backup system in place.
    
31. Have dinner guests in our home once a month--I want to be more hospitable. By making this a goal, now I have to follow through. This goal goes hand in hand with my desire to declutter.
    
32. Go to a wine tasting--Something we used to do before kids. I want to do it again.
    
33. Go on a picnic--See #32.
    
34. Learn how to shoot a gun and go hunting--I've always had a desire to hunt. Why not this year?
    
35. Go fishing--See #34. So many opportunities in South Florida. Must take advantage of them.
    
36. Watch a rocket launch at Kennedy Space Center--When we moved to South Florida, I said I wanted to go see a Space Shuttle launch. We procrastinated. NASA announced the end of the Shuttle program. I looked into it. Tickets were in such demand, they were having lotteries for the tickets. We had the chance to go to the next to last launch. For reasons I won't discuss here, we didn't go. Big regret now. I hear other rocket launches are pretty impressive. This moved up high on the priority list because of my regret over the shuttle.
    
37. Have my teeth cleaned--It's been too long.
    
38. Make a homemade romantic dinner--I like to cook. I don't do it often enough.
    
39. Fix the turn signal on my car--My car recently indicated one of the turn signals is out. I need to do this before I get a ticket.
    
40. Engage in a fast--This is a spiritual discipline that my faith tradition has encouraged or talked about much. I want to learn more about it.
    
41. Copy and send family records to family--I have a family bible in which I found notes written by my great grandmother. I intend to type them up, scan the notes and distribute them to my family.
    
42. Organize and update financial records--Another organizational task to work on.
    
43. Go horseback riding--I haven't been on a horse in years. Julie loves horses. I think this will be a great date opportunity.
    
44. File taxes by the end of February--I procrastinate. I've requested an extension our taxes the last two years and then filed at the last minute. This usually causes problems because I can't find a piece of paper. I've imposed a deadline this year to get it done.
    
45. Write a thank you note for every gift received this year--Handwritten notes are becoming a lost art, particularly thank you notes. I intend to show my gratitude this year in this personal way.
    
46. Find/Recruit a ministry replacement--I have several ministries in which I work in my congregation. Our elders are pushing us to involve more people. I'd like to find someone to take over one of my ministry areas.
    
47. Copy the key to my car--This is another silly goal. My car only came with one key. Julie has said she feels strange not having her own key to my car. This should be easy to take care of...but I have done it yet.
    
48. Take a pro bono client--The Florida Bar requires supporting pro bono work either by actually doing the work or making a donation to an organization that provides pro bono services. I've fulfilled the requirement with donations so far in my career. This year, I want to actually work with a client in need.
    
49. Work with a bar committee--Another professional development goal. The purpose is to get to know people in my field and hopefully generate some business.
    
50. Organize the closet in the second bedroom--Cluttered and messy. Definitely in need of some organization.
    
51. & 52. These last two goals are intensely personal goals that are not appropriate to share here. I know this seems to violate the accountability part of this project. I assure you the people involved have been made aware of these two goals and will have the opportunity to hold me to account. I'll let you know when I work on them or cross them off.

There you have it. My goals for this year. Some are one time events. Some will require some work and time to complete. And some will require weekly and daily diligence and I won't be able to cross them off the list until the year is done. If you know me well, you will know these are some ambitious goals. I look forward to working on them.

Wish me luck and good luck with your own goals this year.