A girl can dream: my goals for 2010

I have goal-achievement envy. I keep reading all these bloggers' year-end recaps detailing the goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the year and how they fared in their achievements. Why am I envious? Because I don't even remember what goal(s) I set for myself for 2009, let alone if I achieved them. One of them was probably something like, "Don't fail at my freelancing business," which, I'm happy to say, I achieved. Here I am, still self-employed and not crawling back to my old employer or begging my parents for mortgage money. So yay for that, I guess. But I'm getting off track. My point is I'm going to throw my goals out there for everybody to see so that I can be properly shamed if I fail to meet them by 2011.

Goal #1: Stick to a daily schedule. This means no more getting up at 9:30, going to bed at 1:00, and waiting to eat until I'm so hungry I could rip my arm out of the socket and start gnawing on it. No, no. I will be a woman who lives by a schedule (specifically, the schedule I made two weeks ago in anticipation of this goal).

Goal #2: Shower and get dressed at least six days a week. I'll be honest, if I don't have to go somewhere or have someone coming over, I have very little motivation to shower and get ready. Even I think it's disgusting. How will I achieve this goal? By sticking to my new schedule where I have allotted shower, hair, dressing, and makeup time (see Goal #1).

Goal #3: Use my treadmill. Twenty minutes per day, six days a week, to be precise. I didn't realize the havoc working from home would wreak on my body. I get little to no exercise and it's just not healthy. I'm sure walking twenty minutes a day will do wonders for my health and help keep my unmedicated depression at bay. Huzzah! (also included in Goal #1)

Goal #4: Stop spoiling myself. I'm pretty sure this goes against everything American media is telling us, but seriously, I'm way too indulgent with myself, and I'm sure it's to my own detriment. If I want something, I buy it; if I want take-out, I get it. The problem is it's making my bank account skinny and my butt fat(ter), and I'd actually like the opposite to happen. By not giving in to each and every little whim and fleeting desire, I'll be able to save money. Plus, self-denial is fun, right? RIGHT? Hmm, this goal might not be specific enough. Let's say I'm going to limit my I-want-it purchases to one a month, and eating out alone (because I'd die if I didn't get out for lunch with friends every now and again) to twice a month. I think that sounds stingy enough for now. "Walk before you run" and all that...

Goal #5: Increase client base. I won't bore you with the details, but I need to increase my income. To do that I either need my current clients to give me more work or I need to get some new clients. Now that I think about it, I was actually pretty good at this in 2009. I got two new repeat clients and three or four one-timers. For 2010 I'm going to shoot for one two new repeat clients and three one-timers. Imma make that happen with increased, regular marketing (time already allotted in daily schedule from Goal #1) and a spanky new website (currently under construction by Make My Blog Pretty).

Goal #6: Work on financial preparedness. At one point I actually had six months' of living expenses saved up. Yeah, not anymore (see Goal #4). So this is actually a two-part goal; get six months' worth of living expenses saved back up, and, once that's done, open a retirement account, transfer my two 401k's into it, and start contributing 10% of my net income to it. This is mighty ambitious of me. We'll see how I do.

Goal #7: Get Milo 100% house broken. He's already 90% of the way there, so this shouldn't be too hard to do. As soon as I'm satisfied that he's all the way there, I will have the carpet professionally cleaned as a reward. (Lest you think I've been walking on pee-saturated carpet, please know I have been diligently and regularly cleaning my carpets. I just think a professional cleaning will handle the deep cleaning my little cleaner can't.) (I hope this doesn't violate Goal #4...)

And there you have my seven goals for 2010! Lucky, most of them are just smaller parts of a larger goal, but they're all important and I think will ultimately be good for me.

Oh, how I hate things that are good for me.