March 2012 Goals

Sherman and a well-timed yawn.

I write and post goals (almost) every month because I am a flawed person.  I don’t do it to show off, or to force content for this blog.  I do it because I am flawed.  I am flawed.  Were I perfect, I wouldn’t need or want to write these goals.  I would already have everything under control; I wouldn’t need to remind myself to do this or that; I wouldn’t skip, ignore or struggle with any of my plans or hopes.  But I’m about as far from perfect as one can get without perhaps being actively set ablaze.  I am flawed.

While I may not start fires, I don’t always succeed in putting out existing ones — especially in the absence of little reminders.  And that is why I write these goals for myself.  So that in the mundane details of vacuuming up cat hair, visiting the post office, preparing meals and folding my underbums, I don’t forget where I would like to be, where I plan on going, where the unflawed version of me would already be right now (with a cat-hair-free drawer full of perfectly folded underbums, to boot).  Because the cat-hair-covered version of me could use a reminder.

I also write them to connect with you (hi).  Because I have a feeling that even though sometimes it seems I am talking to the void, you and I aren’t that different.  And perhaps knowing why I do what I do might inspire you to embrace your layer of cat hair and fight to be better, too. :)

My focus in March is a complete self-assessment — a scarily honest and honestly scary task.  With the help of a good friend and business mentor, I am taking the first steps to pull apart my business and put it back together, piece by piece, in the right order, in an order that better reflects WHY I do this, WHO I am, and WHAT exactly I do.  If you’ve never sat down and frankly assessed your strengths and weaknesses, on paper, for another human’s eyeballs to read, I recommend it.  But only if you’re willing to take the resulting exhilaration, disgust, hope and excitement and do something worthwhile with it.  For me, March will bear the first steps of that journey.

March Goals (February holdovers in italics):

• Finish my self-assessment on paper
• Read “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek
• Order a print I’ve been eyeing for my office
• Organize my office so it makes me less sad to sit in there
• Spend good quality time with my husband (who was out of town for more days in February than he was home)
• Finish and send some thank you cards I’ve been procrastinating on
• Bust out my adult version of a kids’ chore chart and begin the implementation of a refined schedule by getting my house in shape! — I performed so-so on this (our kitchen and bathroom are clean, our floor still has that cat hair I mentioned on it), so I’ll leave it up
• Schedule a physical — I am avoiding the doc like the plague (which, thankfully I don’t think I have)
• Finish painting the interior of our house (office, bathrooms, closet)
• Reupholster our couch
• Blog about our wedding!

Completed February Goals:

• Begin each weekday morning with either 45 minutes of reading or yoga — If given a choice, apparently I will pick reading over exercise almost every time.
• Finish “How To Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
• Embrace my newfound vegetarianism and explore my options

What are your greatest strength and greatest weakness?  Can you write them for another human’s eyeballs to read?