January 2017 - New Goals!

Every year I set a handful or two of goals for myself. A list of things I want to have accomplished in a calendar year. Last year, some of them were easy and fun (traveling!) and some of them were a little challenging (eating something from my garden - I have a heck of a black thumb) and some of them were left unaccomplished by the end of the year (save more money...)

For 2017, I am making my goals more specific. For 2017, I am holding myself accountable!

Pay off credit cards.
Got to the gym.
Look into more schooling.
Eat less meat.
Do little things around the house.
Read 20 books.
1. Pay off credit cards. Yea, that's right. Plural. I became a sucker for getting credit cards that offer points or cash back or "get approved now and automatically get a $___ credit"). I very much enjoy having a credit card for emergency purposes (we'll talk about this in a second) and I very much like having a credit card for some automatic payments (cell phone, gym membership) - I have been victim to the decimal being put in the wrong place by a computer glitch and 10x the amount due is removed from my account. Call me crazy, I'm sure there are much smarter people than me out there who think credit cards for any reason are a horrible, horrible idea. I just need to pay them off immediately or only use them to buy gas for my car. I had some shit happen in 2016 (some necessary, some unfortunate, and some irresponsible) and now I am paying for it. Literally. (Having a "convenient" way to pay for things when you don't quite have the money is nice. But now I am inconveniently working my butt off to pay them off. Lesson learned the hard way.)

2. Go to the gym. I know. I can hear it, "but Rachel, you had a gym membership for all of 2016 and look what happened!" That's why it is a new goal for 2017! I want to go to the gym (or do some sort of physical activity - walking the dogs on the trail, riding my bike, etc) twice a week. I know that isn't super lofty of a goal. But maybe if I dig it and I'm having a great time and loving physical activity, I can update my goal and increase my days. All I know is I don't like buying new pants. So if it means sweating it out and eating less potatoes, I guess that's what I'll have to do. (I'm going to go ahead and say that stuffing my body into a pair of pants that are *a little* too small is definitely learning it the hard way.)

3. Realistically research a Masters Program or a Graduate Certificate. The thing about school is - I really don't hate it. I currently work in a hospital that provides me with a tuition discount. Even if I look into these programs and decide I don't have time or don't have the money or whatever, I need to actually look into programs and admission requirements and make a decision rather than just hide from it. When I first started college in 2003, my parents went on and on about how if you didn't have a Bachelors Degree, you were pretty much fucked in getting a decent job. Then I graduated and had the letters behind my name and it still didn't matter because I didn't have the *right* degree in the *right* subject. So I had to get a degree in something that I could use to find a job. My Associates in Nursing found me a job paying twice as much way quicker than my BA ever did. (Another lesson learned the hard way.) To move up in the nursing world, I have been wrapping up my Bachelors in Nursing (Graduation Date: May 14, 2017). And now that I am almost done with that pesky thing, my colleagues tell me how I should really get a Masters. And since some of my colleagues are really smart and have lived full careers in nursing, I should probably STFU and listen to them. Before I have to learn yet another lesson the hard way.

4. Eat a pescetarian diet. ..once a week. Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down. I'm not going all veg. I could do it again, so I can't say that I *can't*, but I don't *want* to stop eating meat. BUT I think it would be good to challenge myself one day a week to not eat meat (but I can still eat fish. What can I say, I'm a bit of a cheater.) It will be good for things like my health and cholesterol levels and stuff that I have to think about now that I am in my 30s. The absolute last thing I want to learn the hard way is getting an avoidable health problem because I love cheeseburgers and steak too much.

5. Do the little things around my house. I have a list of things I need to do around my house that I just never fucking do. I will sit on my phone looking at the same 5 apps over and over and roll around the couch thinking about how bored I am. But I sure as hell won't make a new kennel cover for the dog kennel. Or order pictures for the empty frames in my "office" (heeeeey, maybe if I start doing a Masters or whatever I can ditch the quotation marks around "office"). Or replace the burnt out light bulb in the oven. Or clean all of the air vent registers or replace the boards on the deck or repaint the front door or or or. I just need to shut up and do it.

6. Read 20 books! in 2016, I initially set a goal of 13 books (I think) and revised it to be 16 because I was chugging along so well. I am going to read 20 this year. Logan got me a couple books for Christmas and I have quite a few book lists I have pinned to give some suggestions. I really like reading. I like lounging around on the couch or outside when it's nice outside and getting lost in a good book. I need to make more of going to the library again and less of buying books. My little bookshelves are bursting at the seams - maybe one of my "little things around the house" will be cleaning out the bookshelves. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

So those are the six goals of 2017! I may add some as I think about them more, but I am looking forward to what I've jotted down so far!