Revisiting my goals from dec 08

Alright, just like every time I post, it’s been a long time since my last post.  I am in my house, and things are going pretty good.  A lot has happened, and I don’t have time to talk about it all right now.  Basically I’ve done a lot of painting, working on the deck, increasing my tool set, debating on what to do next, played a lot of soccer, worked a lot at work work, getting to know Wilber and getting used to living with a dog (not hard for me), and that’s about it.  Katie lives with me now, so that’s a lot better than the long distance relationship.  However, the purpose of this post though was not an update, but more of a reflection on my post made in December last year, and how things are going in relation to that post.

So here is what I wrote then with my comments next to them:

1. Buy a house – Done
f.  Finish closing and move in (Goal is by Feb, preferably Jan) – a little late but was in closing by jan, and closed in march.

2. Be Successful in my career
a. Work hard, and be efficient while at work (daily) – I could still improve on my efficiency, but I do work hard – day and night.

b. Look for opportunities to expand and grow (daily) – this one is something I do need to work on more, I am glad I am reading this.

c. Ensure that my goals are aligning with the goals of the Team (weekly) – It seems like I don’t have as many goals as much as tasks – but the tasks align with the team.

d. Communicate with my manager about my progress and ensure I am performing as expected (monthly) – I am never performing as well as they would want…but what they want is unrealistic.

3. Become Financially Sound
a. Own a house so my money isn’t thrown away from rent (goal 1) – done
b. Get a roommate so I don’t have the burden of all the mortgage (1 month after buy house) – done I have 2 good roommates…now I need to keep them.

c. Save at least 10% of my paycheck for investments (SPP contribution) – SPP reduced to 5% so that’s not as good – I am putting so much toward my house right now, it is difficult to save, I have created a budget, and am more conscious about my money.  I think I have done a pretty good job cutting my eating out expenses, and going out expenses.  I still can improve in this area, but I would rather improve on my money making ability.

d. Look for alternative sources of income.  I haven’t had time to look – maybe I need to make time.

i. Write down a potential source of income and what I did to achieve it every month – NOT DONE

ii. Talk to at least one person a month outside work about making money with them NOT DONE
e. Change my mental state on how much money I should be making a year, should be more than it is now. (immediate) – This is tough, but I do think my mental state of how much money I should have in the bank has changed.  And I noticed that my account balance has been pretty consistant, dispite my spending money on the house a lot – I just switched my spending from bad spending to good spending.   At least a little.

4. Work toward my goals on a daily basis. – I did this in a sort of different way – I got a white board and I wrote all my short term goals on it for working on projects on the house.  I think this helps as I like writing it down, and erasing/crossing it out.

a. Read my goals daily, and reflect what I did well and what I could do better.  – I do read what I should get done on the white board, but I don’t reflect on what I could do better as much as I should.

b. Tell others my goals, and set hard deadlines, so that I work toward them more rigorously. – Oh man, I need to set hard deadlines – I set one on the deck and it helped a lot – didn’t work completely but got me somewhere.

c. Have smaller goals that I can accomplish on a daily basis, eventually big things will come. – I had some good ideas back in Dec, why didn’t I read this more often.

5. Become Healthier
a. Eat less fast food, once a week (this will be easier when I get a house) – still more than once a week – I am good at coming up with excuses – I will eat more in when I have a better kitchen.

b. Work out 3 times a week at least (need to get use of that gym membership) – I play soccer 3 times a week – but that doesn’t count, not the type of workout I want.

c. Work toward fitness goals outlined in Men’s Health, (make blog post on that alone) – I can’t even remember what they were now – but they were good.

6. Expand my Skills/knowledge
a. Learn a new skill outside of work every couple months: Like Scuba, Welding, Building a Calcium Reactor, Microcontroller Projects, etc. – I have been pretty good at this – not so much a new skill as much as a new project that I learn about – aka laminate flooring – staining the deck – wiring the lights – texturizing.  I want to do more though.

b. Read a book every couple months on a topic that will improve me mentally. – Bought a book on tape – listening on the way to work – want MP3 player to make this easier.

c. Travel to see and experience new things, at least once a year. – Tickets to hawaii are really low right now, I wish I had some vacation time to use.  But I admit the drive back to CA from IL with katie was a great experience.  We saw a lot of things I never saw before.  So I can’t complain about it too much.

Ok, so that was all my goals.  Next post should be an updated goals list, and perhaps some deadlines this time.