2012 Goals: 2 months down, 10 to go!

For those of you just catching up now, here are my 2012 goals broken up into 8 categories of the 24 things I am going to (HAVE!) done in 2012.

In February, I:

• Went to Saturday morning yoga on two more occasions with future plans to continue this.
• Discussed with Kelsi her options for an awesome plan B (AKA suggested that she move to a variety of locations, all of which I happen to want to visit!)
• Only went on two coffee dates! Hooray saving money!
• Updated my Professional Development Plan that I need to complete in order to keep my Wisconsin teacher licensure updated. While I do not have any plans to teach in the state of Wisconsin right this moment, I would like to keep up with the things I need to do to renew the license in two years in case I need a plan b.
• Updated my resume in preparation for applying for jobs soon! I also completed all the paperwork jumped through all the hoops set up by the Minnesota Department of Education in order to obtain my licensure in the state of Minnesota. 
• Tried Murphy's Red (yes, weird that I have never had it before) & Bogota Beer Company's Zipaquirá Abadía (LOVED this one - fruity, spicy, unfiltered & based on a Belgian recipe)
• Revisited my monthly goals!   

In March:

• There is one Saturday when both my yoga buddies have to be at school for the Destination Imagination tournament - what better day to take myself on a solo date/force myself to go to yoga even without someone to go with.
• I will figure out what I can do with some of my savings to actually invest it in things and not just have it sit in my account. Because apparently, this is what adults do. Even though it terrifies me in an irrational way since really, I am good with numbers. I know it's weird. 
• Summer plans!!! There is absolutely nothing I love more than planning to go back home for a Minnesota summer and this one promises to be absolutely fantastic!! Already on the calendar: a family vacation to Colorado (AKA my birthplace and home of mountains/happiness), Brothers in the Sun (Kenny Chesney & Tim McGraw) stadium concert at Target Field with the boy & the brother, a bachelorette party/college friends reunion weekend in La Crosse, and a Pedal Pub for my quarter century birthday

Stick around, friends - 2012 is already shaping up to be quite the fabulous year... and there is so much yet to come! 

2012 Goals: 1 month down, 11 to go!

Remember how I have this list of 24 things I'm going to do this year? After one month, I have accomplished a few 2012 goals, have plans for more, and need to wait on some others.

In January, I:

• Got a tattoo - Hooray!
• Kept up my routine of working out 3x per week.  In January, I (re-)tried a new Saturday morning yoga class that I love. A new kick boxing teacher started at our gym. He knows our names and is very quick to call us out on being slackers, so that is helpful/the worst thing on the planet. Simultaneously, of course. Also, some of the teachers started getting together to play flag football a bit, which initially caused me a lot of pain due to the fact that football involves lots of running/changing directions, but is now much more fun.
• Kept up 1x per week phone dates with friends. While I don't talk to all my friends every week, I do talk to several friends each week, thus being able to keep up with most of them every two weeks or so.
• No more than 1x per week solo coffee date. I think this is the biggest accomplishment of January because it involved saying no (at least once!) to Starbucks AKA land of happiness, which has since been left behind in Argentina, not to return to my life until I get near gate D10 at Miami International in June. So, you know, will power - for the win! 
• Re-visited my goals.
• Figured out how much money I need to save in the next six months to meet my goal of how much I wanted to save each year in Colombia.
• Tried 1 new local beer - Quilmes in Argentina. Which is actually terrible, but hey, now I know.

In February:

• Kelsi is going to get accepted to grad school in Boston so that we can start planning my visit there to coincide with fall in New England/her 30th birthday. Obvio.
• I'm going to treat myself to a lovely Valentine's date because this boy doesn't live here, so...self-love dinner date. 
• I will update my professional development plan to renew my Wisconsin teaching license (back-up plan if I cannot find a Minnesota teaching job....).
• ???? 

How are your 2012 goals going? New Years resolutions? Do you still remember what they are??? ;)

New Year, New Goals, New Word

Thanks to a kick start to goal-setting for the new year a la this blog, I set my travel buddies about creating 2012 goals for themselves when we were endlessly delayed in Iguazu, Argentina. We sat around the table, mostly independently writing, sometimes sharing aloud to gain perspective or to keep ourselves accountable for writing definitive, achievable and worthwhile goals. Since that night about two weeks ago I have thought even more about my goals and now I finally have 24 that I am pretty excited about!

The idea is pretty simple - start with a word that you want to define your fabulous 2012 year. For me, this word is going to be presence. In 2012 I want to focus on the joy of day-to-day things. Not get lost in the busy nature of life. This year will have dramatic changes as I transition from life abroad to life back in the US. From teaching abroad to teaching (hopefully) somewhere in the Midwest. While those transitions will come with lots of planning, I don't want to get lost in the moments. In the appreciation for what is happening right here and now. I don't want to get stuck always planning for what's next, but rather be 100% present in this moment. Ironically, having yearly goals is kind of the opposite of not planning things, but whatever...life is weird.

After my word I came up with eight categories of important aspects of my life. For me these categories are travel, health, finances, interpersonal, intrapersonal, professional development, skills and just for fun. After that I came up with three specific goals for each category, thus resulting in 24 (hey, math!) goals for 2012.

A few of my favorites are:

1. Visit Papa in Seattle (maybe via train?)
2. No more than 1x per week solo coffee dates
3. Attend a math conference
4. Get a tattoo
5. Take a photography class

For the complete list of my 2012 goals (and quotes for inspiration!) check out my Google doc here.

Happy goal-setting! :)

Looking Back on 2011 - My Eff Yeah List

I'm baaaaack! The Argentina re-cap posts will be coming shortly, as soon as I figure out the madness of my 600+ photos as well as the photos from my four fellow travelers. In the mean time - it's 2012! To kick off the new year I made some goals for myself, but before we get to that, here are some things that made 2011 fabulous.

I'm stealing this idea from this blogger, because in preparing for another year, why not think about the things that rocked in 2011.

Eff Yeah List from 2011

• Slept in a treehouse.
• Visited Anna & Andy in Wyoming. (life list FTW!)
• FINALLY scrapbooked (Shutterflied?) all my pictures from studying abroad in 2007.
• Enjoyed a second year of teaching and building relationships with some great students. 
• Put down my guard enough to (re)meet this boy. In summary, I think I accomplished: "In 2011 I need to approach this idea of love or dating or whatever with an open heart...and an open mind."
• Threw a super fun & successful surprise 50th birthday part for my mom.
• Went on my first Boundary Waters canoe camping trip with Allison & assorted family members.
• Visited Katie, Lisa & Joe in Wisconsin, land of friendship, beer & outdoor music.
• Tried and loved some new shows on TV, like New Girl & 2 Broke Girls.
• Attended three beautiful weddings for my fabulous friends.
• Learned to make my own pumpkin puree.
• Made my own Halloween costume.
• Visited wine country in Argentina. (more from the life list!)
• Had a blast with visits Colombia from Anna, Katie, Michael & my mom!

What were your favorites from 2011?

Bring It On 2011

I am not really that into New Years Resolutions. In fact, I haven't really made them in a long time because it seems like they are just ideas that get tossed aside by Valentine's Day. Instead of New Years Resolutions I typically make a list sometime around my birthday of all the things I am going to accomplish at that age. However, I didn't do that this year either... Oops.

Anyway, this January I have been reading all these fabulous posts from other bloggers with great ideas for what they are going to do in 2011. I still didn't feel like actually taking the time to think about my goals or intentions for this year. Then I read this. No, these aren't specifically goals or intentions for 2011, but they are awesome ideas and a number of them are things I would put on some sort of resolutions list of my own.

So, without further ado, here is the complete list of 30 Tips for an Extraordinary Life from the Stratejoy blog with the five things that I am going to focus on in 2011 in bold.

1. Practice radical acceptance towards yourself and others.
2. Stop trying to control everything.
3. Laugh. A lot.
4. Balance your input (reading, watching, learning) with your output (creating, giving, leading).
5. Take amazing care of your body: eat clean, floss, practice yoga, don’t smoke, breathe deeply, be mindful of alcohol, visit the doctor, eat less, move more, sleep 8 hours, get massages, and learn to listen to your inner signals.
6. Celebrate your successes. Celebrate others’ successes.
7. Embrace your strengths and stop worrying so much about your weaknesses.
8. Tell the truth. Even at work. Especially with those you love. Most importantly, with yourself.
9. Set boundaries with your time, energy and money. Respect them.
10. Be colorful.
11. Create meaningful connections and nurture the heck out of them.
12. Save a chunk of your money and give away another chunk. Use the rest on things, adventures, treats, and necessities that truly please you. Be a conscious consumer.
13. Stop freakin’ comparing yourself to others.
14. Speak up, sing loudly, and raise your voice if something needs saying.
15. Don’t be afraid to love with abandon. Love is a renewable resource and yes, your heart is resilient.
16. Go outside and play.
17. Ignore the haters. It’s your life, your legacy, your choice.
18. Explore your spirituality. Connect with something larger than yourself.
19. Share your story.
20. Get clear on your top 8 values. Honor them daily.
21. Find your balance of deliberate action and spontaneous fun.
22. Challenge the status quo.
23. Be a hero to someone.
24. Practice kindness.
25. Stop taking yourself so seriously.
26. Take your dreams very seriously.
27. Act with personal integrity and be quick to admit mistakes. Clean up your own messes.
28. Cultivate mindfulness.
29. Seek and spread inspiration.
30. Fall in love with yourself a little more each day: treat yourself kindly, protect your passions, allow yourself space to grow, believe in your gifts, tend your gardens. Fierce love, baby, fierce love.

Basically, I chose these five because (#1) I am a judger AKA I judge way more frequently than I enter a situation with an open mind. More often than not this probably closes me off to really cool people, situations and experiences. Then, (#2) I am a control freak. Somewhere between being the oldest of four kids, teaching for a living and just being my mother's daughter I like it when things are under my control. As a result I stink at delegating and generally prefer to do things on my own cause I know other people won't do them the same way I will. In 2011 I need to just get over it and go with the flow. (#12) It's not like I have no money, but I am certainly not raking in the big bucks as a teacher and in 2011 I will need to start to adapt to saving more money and not spending on the little things. Eventually I plan to transition back to living in the U.S. and things will cost a bit more than they do in Colombian Pesos so I better adjust sooner rather than later.

As for (#15) love without abandon? I don't do it. Period. I mean, I think it's fine when other people fall in love and get married and want to have babies and live happily ever after, but right now that kind of terrifies me. Terrifies me a lot. I feel like I have all of my own stuff to handle without some guy getting in the way of that. Relationships are inevitably messy and if I cannot figure out what I want how am I supposed to factor what someone else wants into the equation? Also, whether it is living in Colombia where disloyalty is pretty common in relationships or a still very distinct memory of ridiculous college boys, I don't always think the best of men's intentions. In 2011 I need to approach this idea of love or dating or whatever with an open heart...and an open mind.

My life list is written and posted on this blog, but how much progress am I making with it from day-to-day? Sometimes it feels like none. 2011 is my year to live out some of these (#26) dreams by doing whatever I can to make them happen. This is the year I will go visit wine country in Argentina. This is the year I will hold side crow pose in yoga. This is the year I will scrapbook all my picture from studying abroad in Spain during the summer of 2007. This is the year I will get a tattoo. This is the year I will meet Joe Mauer. (Hey - it's going to happen...don't kill my dreams :))

So in summary? It's going to be a fabulous year...stay tuned loves :)