New Year Goals

Most people make resolutions for the new year, I have decided to make goals. Resolutions, goals or whatever you want to call them are more obtainable when they are specific, realistic and have a time table. For example, it is better to set a goal to "Lose 10 lbs by March 1st" than to just set a random goal of "Lose weight". According to the experts the best goals are those that are backed up with a specific plan, such as "Lose 10 lbs by March 1st by keeping my calories below 1,500 a day.

I can be a bit obsessive, especially when it comes to list making. It would be quite easy for me to sit down and write 3 pages of goals I want to accomplish, until it turned into a huge and overwhelming "to-do" list. For those that live on a farm, we all know those are never-ending and that isn't what I want to accomplish here. So I decided to keep my list as short and specific as possible while still being able to make big changes in the New Year.

These New Year goals of mine need to be about the important things to me, the things that will really help my family, myself and our farm. I have come up with my following goals for 2009.

1. Continue my education by taking more college classes this year.
2. Improve my health and save money by drinking no more than 1 can of pop per day and at least 8 glasses of water per day, starting now.
3. Plant a large garden this year to save money and improve health with lots of fresh veggies. (This is something I have always done each year and did not do last year, a mistake I want to correct this year.)
4. Finish the repair and remodel of the old farm house so we can move into it this year.
5. Build a chicken coop and keep a small flock of chickens to be more self-sufficient.
6. Reconnect with family and friends I have lost touch with by calling at least one person or writing one letter per week. Do not let being busy get in the way of doing this.
7. Build up a soap inventory, update my website and write out a business plan to be able to better sell my soap and lotion this year.
8. Go to at least 2 farmer's markets per month throughout the summer to help promote our farm products.
9. Less is More: Sell or Freecycle items (clutter) that has not been used in the past year.
10. Learn at least 3 new, important skills this year (will get more specific on this one later).

This may not be a complete list of my goals for the new year. I plan on putting more thought into this and adding to my goals as needed, but this is a good, basic start for hopefully a great year in 2009. So what are your New Year's Resolutions for 2009?