*I had every intention of having this blog out somewhere near the beginning of the new year instead of 24 days into it, but I began 2015 with a GI virus that kept me from doing almost anything for almost 10 days and sent me to the ER instead, It wasn't a good way to begin a new year, but it is what it was. And now I'm back. Enjoy the post.
Although, it is never easy to know what a new year may hold or what may be around the next turn, I've always been a fan of the idea that a new year is a fresh start because by the end of the year, I'm always in the need of one and although I've never been a fan of the, "New Year, New You", shenanigans that seem to appear on every magazine and news source come January of every year. I could do a whole post on the latter, but I'll save you from that, but just to give you a little taste know that I miss the old me and would love to see a cache of articles about how to get him back and explain just where he's been hiding and what he's been up to, but I don't think they exist and people look at you like you're a lunatic when you bring up anything of the sort. I don't want to get to know or try to shape a new me. I'm not Madonna or Cher or Lady Gaga. I don't want to or need to reinvent myself. I want a lot of the old me back. No, not the past mistakes and no, not the guy who hasn't learned through experience, but a lot of the old me. I want the past energy. The past enjoyments. The past metabolism. The past youth that I'm slowly, but it feels so fast to me, losing. And oh yeah, the full head of hair I used to have. That old me. The guy who had whole afternoons to read or weeks to go hiking. The guy who had whole weekends to date this super fine brunette named, Melicious, instead of a few minutes or hours here and there. I'd like that guy back. But...as usual, I digress. This is a post about my 2015 goals.
And here at the headwaters of this year, I'd like to set a few goals. Unlike years past, I'd like to attempt to set them a little more realistically this year. I know the importance of setting goals and trust me, I know or have heard all the little sayings and read all the little banners about the opposite and to be honest all of those things really give the largest of all tingles. All that, aiming somewhere is better than nowhere and setting small goals is better than having no goals and all of that. That kind of stuff, really gets the best of me sometimes. I'm sure the guy who gets shot from a stray bullet isn't the first one to be proud of the his shooter because, "at least he had the courage to pull the trigger". I know this sounds very pessimistic of me, but trust me, I'm actually an optimist, so much so, that I've been called illogical many times by those closest to me. And for a change, I'll get right to those goals. And even though they'll be in a list, they really don't come in any order.
My 2015 Goals:
1. Join a church and start giving to it emotionally, financially, and with the gifts God has given me. Yes, we miss FPC Macon, but I need to get my wife and my son and my person in church and we need to give back. I miss this part of our lives, a lot.
2. Stop putting things off, or just sort of plan for them and then not follow through with them. But actually put them in front me and do them. Yes, life happens, but there are some things I just have been putting off and there's no reason for it. Take for instance, the shelves, or to be more specific, lack of shelves in our hall closet. All it would take to finish them would be to put paint on one board, make three large cuts, and make a single notch in each of those three boards, and then then nail them into place. This task has been on my list since August. It's time to do it. It's actually far past time to get it done, this and about a hundred other things.
3. I want to read 10 good books. This may sound easy, but I read so slowly these days and I only get to read at night and I usually only get about a page done and then fall asleep with the book on my chest and the light on. Oh, of course, if this were a kid's book, I would have already met my goal quota, but those don't count. FH and I get in about 5-6 a night. I love reading and really have some good books in mind for this year. I hope to get to them.
4. Really get back into running again. I'm not going to put a real number of miles down, but I'm shooting for no less than 1000. This past year, I peaked out at around 450. My lowest total in over six years. Yes, life was crazy and hard and super busy and extremely stressful, but not so much that I couldn't have gone running twenty minutes each day. If the rumors are true, I'd like to follow this up by running the "supposedly-planned" Jeff Davis Marathon to be held about 20 minutes from my house. This may not happen, but I am going to shoot for it.
5. Ride my bike 2,000 miles. I'd love to make this happen and know it will be harder since most of the 1450 miles I rode this past year were due to my almost daily bike commute and then a lot of city miles running errands and cruising the streets with FH, but I have some plans and we'll see how it goes. And one of these plans is a very crazy idea, but I really think I can make it work. Yes, there'll be a post about it.
6. I want Mel and I to really get our financial lives out of the toilet. Neither of us are good with money which isn't good when you don't have a lot of it, but we do have enough of it; especially in our new life here in South Georgia. We've already begun this a little and I'm really celebrating our small successes and Mel's hard work. We're now in the third full month of having a budget and living by it. We're starting to see a little progress. Things are looking up. Now it's time to start taking the very hard steps to rescue our credit score. It's about nine levels beneath crappy. That is mostly my own fault, but I also want it to be our "fault" that it gets much better.
7. I want to start hitting some dates with my bride. This is one of the many things I took for granted before FH was born. We didn't go out enough. We should've gone out 3-4 times a week, but as Mel and I have said since FH was born, we laugh so hard now when we see couples with no kids posting pics or status updates and titling them as "date night" because now it seems that every second when you're childless is a date. I know that sounds stupid, but if you have kids, you get it. Thanks to my gracious in laws and our proximity to them, we've already started begun this and just the few we've gotten to go on has let me know how much we need to go on more. I love my sweet Melissa and don't know where'd I'd be without the love and care she has given me through good times and some very, very dark times. I love spending time with her and have really missed it. She's a great date and I look forward to going on some good ones this year.
6. I want to really get the "farming" side of our lives going again. I loved growing our little garden when we had one in Macon and I loved owning the four little chickens we had and taking care of them. Yes, they all add work, but we live in a great spot for this now and it wouldn't be that much to really start taking advantage of this aspect of our new lives in Fitzgerald. We live in a beautiful place with a lot of good, free land that my father in law wants us to use. As it get closer to time, I'll keep you updated, but there is a big garden in the works and some chickens to be purchased. I'm so excited to see this all take place.
7. I want to keep this place up and running. I love having a blog. I love putting forth the effort and writing these little posts and I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that someone in some place out there is reading them and getting something out of them. I published 14 posts in 2014. I know why. But this is a new year and I'm going to try to double that. And if you're keeping count, this is already post numero tres for this year.
8. I want to go camping. Long before this blog, I loved to go camping and hiking. I still love this, but truth be told, I haven't been camping in several, several years and let's not even bring up hiking. I'm done with thinking there'll be this time in my life when I can set everything down and hike the AT or some other long trail. I'll have to save this for retirement if that's even a thing anymore. But to be even more honest, I don't really want to do anything like that anymore. I don't want to leave Mel and FH behind and go marching off into the proclaimed wilderness looking for something. I'd be just as happy to set up a tent in the yard and build a campfire, cook something on the fire, and then fall asleep in a little tent with them two of them. This is happening even if it can only happen once, I'd still be happy.
9. Begin writing again. I love writing. I have about 15 little Moleskin journals scattered around my house and in my classroom and most them have the tid bits of a story or poem I started and just didn't finish. Each year, I think that this just may be the year where I suddenly have all this time to sit down and write the short story collection that I've been mentally planning to do for years and years, but this year, I'm not going to say or even think that. But I will say this, I'm going to finish writing a single story this year. That is my goal. Yes, I'd love the time, energy, and inspiration to sit down and finish all the little stories that I've started, but I know this isn't going to happen. I'm not a writer. That isn't my vocation. I am a mediocre hobby writer at best, but that doesn't mean I don't get a lot of joy out of it. The story I am going to write this year is called, The Server.
10. I want to begin learning some skills that I do not know. First on this list is that I want to learn to fix my bike. I've been looking around and have found a mechanic class and am hoping to get to take it, but we'll see. I know this may sound odd, but if you take a few moments and look around in hope of finding places that teach you skills that you usually pay for, they just aren't around. I feel like this say volumes, but I'll leave the interpretation up to you.
I'll stop with ten for now. I'd like to add a few more and maybe I'll have a midyear review and add them then, but we'll see. Reading through them again makes me seem overly ambitious and not very realistic, but even if I only accomplish five of them, I'd be proud sitting at the end of the year and looking back. Thanks again for taking your time to read. Let me know your 2015 goals. And if you don't have any, maybe you could make one to help me accomplish mine because I'm fully confident I'll need help with mine. Hope your new year is going well.
DAVID
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