2008 in review

Hi everyone. I hope you had a great 2008 and have started planning for 2009.

What was great about 08?

Well, I spent the first part of the year focusing on physical phitness. I learned a lot about what my body is capable of and leared to plan menus. I struggles with this in the next few months, but was still exercising and planning until mid-summer. Since then...not so much. What have I learned? Maintenance is a continuation of skills you have learned, not abandonment of them. My commitment to exercise in the coming months will be to commit to movement every day - unless I am sick and can't move out of bed. Other than that, there is no reason I cannot get on the elliptical or go for a half hour walk daily. Ideally, I would like to participate in a couple of 5Ks and maybe even a triathalon, but we'll see how 'tings go first.
So, even though I fell off the phitness wagon mid-summer, I got through vacation with minimum damage food-wise and continued to maintain my weight throughout the year. Woohoo.
In case some of you missed it, I began training as a WW receptionist last summer. I worked at 2 meetings/week for my training then took Basic Leader Skills training in September. I moved directly into my own meeting on Monday nights as Terry, my mentor, was looking to move on. It's been a great learning experience for me. One lady made lifetime in November and I have 2 more making lifetime next week. What a great way to start the first meeting of 2009!!

What's on the plan for 2009?

I'm recommiting to strength training in January. Apparently, Corinne has a great running/ST routine that would fit with me for the first part of January. I'm commiting to movement every day and strength training twice a week for 3 months, when I'll re-commit.
As for food, I am going back to my excel spreadsheet each week and pulling my grocery list from that. It was the easiest thing I've done yet for journaling - and very effective.
I will attend other meetings for a few months. I have 4 leaders I would like to watch and will be attending 1 meeting per week to watch and learn for the first while. Unfortunately, I have my meeting on Mondays, so I'll be watching after-the-fact. That's OK though. I would also like to take on another meeting, but I'm not sure when just yet. I may post-pone this for a few months.

Financially - I need to clean up a small balance on hubby's MC, but it's been cancelled. I need to consolidate holiday spending on the Visa and Sears card to the LOC. We are not using these anymore. I'm paying monthly on the LOC and would like to cut it in half by the end of summer.

De-clutter - We've done a lot but have alot left to do. I'm giving us 3 months to fast-track any remaining decluttering, such as building supplies, etc. In 3 months I will be hiring a lady to come in and help organize. We'll also be renovating the kitchen this summer.

I will be reviewing my goals over the next couple of days and doing a SWOT analysis on each of them to pull out the top 3 to work on over the first quarter of 2009. I'll try to get a story board up for Q1 09 as well. I haven't updated it since last spring and it's time to do so.

So, not into planning or goal setting? Let's get ready and make 2009 a year for the record books. Many of us have a vague idea about what we want. Honestly, it's not enough. Fail to plan and you plan to fail. If you have a vision you are ahead of the majority of the population. Write it down and BAM! Your chances of reaching your goal have just sky-rocketed. Next, document what you need to do to reach that goal. Think this is the tough part? Really, it is. Because all you need to do after that is follow your action plan. Hmmm, tougher than it sounds, huh. Remember, "Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." - Alexander Graham Bell

What do you want to accomplish in 2009?