Over the Shoulder and Straight On Till Morning

It's that time of year to look over one's shoulder at the year now past while stepping, hopefully confidently, into the new one. I posted my resolutions for 2010 here and offered an update here, on my birthday that falls halfway through the year. Now it's time for the final tally of the 2010 list sitting here beside me.

Lose weight (for real this time). It's not that I needed to lost weight. I am not overweight and though I haven't computed my Body Mass Index lately, it's probably quite good for a woman my age. Still, some jeans that fit me comfortably two years ago, or even one year ago, are getting uncomfortably snug. The grammarians among my readership may note a tense change there, from past to present. I accomplished nothing toward this goal in 2010, and a variation of it tops my list for 2011.

Exercise five times weekly. I achieved this and more, though I was not compulsive enough to go through my workout calendar and count just how many times I did work out. If I was in town, I did six martial arts workouts each week, ranging in length from 90 minutes to three-plus hours. Several days a week I also did cardio and/or weights in the morning. In July, I did the equivalent of an Ironman Triathlon, though spread out over the entire month. Yeah, I can check this one off as done.

Create more. I am not sure that I actually made more quilts, did more knitting, felted more bags in 2010 than in 2009, but I'm satisfied that I created enough. Besides getting my studio set up, I did projects in some areas I hadn't done before or hadn't done in a long time. While it would always be nice to have more time for my creative interests and passions, I don't feel I short-changed this one this year.

Finish The Fifty. The Fifty is a list of 50 things I wanted to do to mark my 50th year of life. I didn't make it. I still have seven to finish, including "write 12 poems." One poem a month should have been easy, but I guess I'm not a poet at heart. Several of the ones still to do are to visit or re-visit some place ... Monticello, Montpelier, Colonial Williamsburg, a winery.

Learn material for second dan in Myo Sim Kendo. This is another one I can check off. I don't consider myself ready to test for my second degree black belt yet, though that's a decision actually more appropriately left to the instructors, but I know the material I need to work on.

Better organize my kendo notebook. While it continues to be a work-in-progress, it is better and more organized than it was last year, so I am comfortable considering this one accomplished.

And the list for 2011? I must have been over-caffeinated when I wrote it, because it's so much longer than the lists of past years. Without a lot of detail, here's the new list, conveniently organized into three spheres.

The Physical
(1) Lose five pounds and keep them off.
(2) Ski, cycle, row, swim, run, walk, or otherwise cover 700 miles to nowhere. This can include the miles needed to complete another Lazyman Triathlon in July.
(3) Remember the Food Pyramid. In other words, eat more fruits and vegetables and give the starches more of a pass.
(4) Drink more water. In other words, drink less caffeine. (This typed as I have a cup of coffee out of my Journeys mug.)

The Mental
(1) Do one craft devotional, drawing lesson, or similar short creative activity weekly.
(2) Keep a journal in the same volume(s) for one year.
(3) Put up one blog post weekly. In other words, write more.
(4) Learn as much Vietnamese as possible. Perhaps try to study it five hours weekly?

Somewhere In Between
(1) Learn all the material for Myo Sim Karate Blue 5, the rank I'm currently working toward.
(2) Finally finish The Fifty.
(3) Concentrate on needs not wants. In other words, spend less money and save more.
(4) Find something for which to be grateful daily.

I hope I have not been overly ambitious for 2011. The above goals are written on the first page of what I hope will be my 2011 journal. The second page holds another list of goals that didn't make the cut or that got subsumed into the larger ones that did. I don't know where working on all these will take me in 2011, but Ill let you know if the road to hell really is paved with good intentions.