2012 Resolutions

I can't believe I'm sharing my New Year's Resolutions on the blog for a third year! That's a feat in and of itself. I think my work here is done.

KIDDING!

In 2011, I invested my money, won a kickboxing fight, appeared on Breakfast TV (three times - though the first time was not posted on the Internet for all of eternity *phew*) and in Calgary's Child magazine, said "No" to Pub Golf and had commitment-free weekends every month (though many times it was not on purpose!)

I also read six books, have tried at least one recipe from all (but one!) of the cookbooks I own and drink at least 1 L of water every day I'm at work.

I still only sleep about six hours a night and had to give up on blogging more, let alone start a new creative/reflective project, but that's ok.

I was originally planning to write this lengthy, reflective "year in review" like I did last year, but I just read the post again and a lot of the stuff that I wrote about goal setting and New Year's resolutions still holds true. So if you are making your own resolutions, I think it's a pretty good read (if I do say so myself!)

Now onto the goals - this year I actually listened to my own advice and kept the list short!

Clear my plate
Don't worry, I'm not going to join the Clean Plate Club! I meant this plate:

This is what a typical weekday looks like. Most days I spend about 12 hours away from home, commuting to work, being at work, then going to kickboxing straight after. Add on the usual home stuff (I'm lucky Mama T cooks dinner for me!) and I'm left with the magical turquoise wedge of about 3-4 hours a day of "Me" time (less if I'm actually getting enough sleep! The graph is based on only 6 hours), which is sometimes taken over by the work I do from home (don't get me wrong, I love it, but it takes my time away) or just by plain brain-dead, sleepiness - no wonder I didn't blog as much this year!

It's funny how at the end of last year I was fretting about having one job with no guaranteed hours and two contracts from home. Of course that job with no guaranteed hours has turned into a 0.9 FTE (hooray for my "paydays off"!) and of course I've filled all other free time I have with kickboxing. Last year, kickboxing only took up two hours a week of my time... then up to three, possibly four hours a week when I started competing in around November. Then in the summer my instructor asked us to come to class (twice a week) an hour earlier so that we could go for a run - another two hours. I've cut back over the holidays, but before, there were some weeks where I spent eight hours a week at the gym! It's hard to cut back though because I think I would like to keep competing, but if I want to compete even more, it would mean even more time training (one of the girls I train with took time off work to train for a fight!) Some people would say that it would be an easy choice between kickboxing and say, this blog, especially since I probably have so many years (if that) left where I can fight, whereas I can pick this blog back up again whenever I want. But I must admit training feels more like work than blogging, so it's a tough choice!

I have given myself a head start on this resolution though - I recently dropped one of the aforementioned contracts. It didn't take up a lot of actual time, but it felt like a chore every time I did it, whereas even though everything else in my life takes up way more time, I enjoy every moment of it. It's going to be a battle!

Be a tourist in my own city
When B. and I were in NYC for my birthday, we did *so* much - we ate at lots of different restaurants (including the very cool wd~50, though I would say Xi'an Famous Foods was the most memorable restaurant for me), saw a Broadway show and went to all these touristy sites.

Why don't we do that in Calgary?

There are so many restaurants (and food trucks!) here that I have yet to try, let alone the touristy stuff of going to the theatre, going to concerts, doing the zipline at COP, strolling around in Inglewood and Kensington, etc.

I got a headstart on this resolution too - last night we checked out Zoo Year's Eve, which included Zoolights and fireworks!

I also have a few things lined up already! On Friday we're going to High Performance Rodeo's 10-Minute Play Festival (for the third time!) and next Thursday, my friend Kristi and I are going to check out Adults Only Night at the new Telus Spark! Mama T also got B. and I a gift certificate to Rush that I'm super-pumped to cash in! Maybe on Valentine's Day?

Drink at least 1 L of water on non-work days
Thanks to my CamelBak (that sadly, does not fit in the cup holders in my car), I am now pretty consistent in drinking at least 1 L of water a day, and more when I'm at the gym. But for some reason I don't have my CamelBak by my side on my days off! So to try to drink more water all the time, I'm going to try to have my CamelBak with me at all times and keep better track of the fluids I do drink when I'm not at work.

Get at least 7.5 hours of sleep per night (i.e. 10:30-11 PM bedtime)
Boo. You again. I've been working on this goal for two years and still haven't made much improvement. I think I need to take a page from my own advice and try to break this goal down into smaller steps. For January my goal is to simply get back to tracking on a calendar - that way I'll be able to see where I'm at, and maybe (just maybe!) the Hawthorne Effect will kick in a little.

Add more to this list!
I know it's better to keep things short, but I hope that I will be able to progress enough on these goals throughout the year that I'll be comfortable adding other things to this list. Let's see how it goes!

Happy 2012!