Plans and Goals for 2009

Last year, I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions, or even an end-of-the-year post for 2007. The ending of 2007 wasn’t very monumental for me and I had enough school assignments and wedding to-do’s to last me several months, so putting goals on top of that was somewhat absurd to me.

This year will be different. :) Here are the things I want to focus on in 2009.

1. Become healthier. This includes weight loss this year, because my weight is at an all time high since the wedding, but also the broader concept of being an overall healthy person. I want to get in better shape, eat better foods, go to bed earlier, and make sure that I’m taking care of my own mental health while working in a field that can distract you or actively put stress on your own well being. Cutting out bad sugars is first and getting a Wii Fit is second, once those devilish devices become actually available somewhere.

2. Spend more time reading for pleasure. I’ve let tv and the internet start to eat up a bit of the spare time I was once again spending with a book after graduating. I want to revisit that initial enthusiasm for curling up in bed with a page turner, even when my first instinct is open my laptop. I’m making a goal of two books per month, although I’d like to aim for three.

3. Spend more time with family and close friends. I’ve spent a good portion of the fall isolating myself into a quiet place after work because I’m often emotionally drained and overloaded from people and hardcore talking by the time I get home. While I still need to honor that need for quiet and space, I want to make sure that I spend time with people who can rejuvenate me with some fun time. Because I do need more quiet time, I want to also make sure that precious social time is spent with people that I really enjoy and who give something back in the way of support or humor or just understanding.

4. Limit time spent doing things that I don’t truly enjoy. Somehow, graduating and being done with night classes and papers and studying has still left me with less free time than I’d like, and I want to spend my free hours really feeling happy and satisfied, so that I don’t grow to resent the large amount of time I spend at work (which I also enjoy, but in a different and more tiring kind of way). Whatever I go home to should be something that rejuvenates me, much along the lines of my #3 goal.

5. Find my (updated) voice as a blogger and writer. Jumping into and then gradually tiptoeing back out of the tech industry has left me with a jumbled voice, and two years in school has fried my creative writing drive a bit. I want to start rediscovering what I loved about writing and what kind of writing I’m passionate about these days. I’m hoping to try out comic book writing for Script Frenzy this year and I want to blog at least 3x per week, about things that really interest me, regardless of topic or incongruence.

6. Continue to become a better mental health professional. I love my job. I want to become better at it, both through experience and through education. I really want to do some training in behavior therapies, specific types of crisis intervention, and short term therapy. My unit at the hospital is different than the main adult unit and the geriatric unit in that there are fewer beds (14), so I sometimes have time to do a lot more therapy with my patients than my co-workers do, and I want to utilize that time to the best of my ability. I want to be really good at my job, and constantly improving as much as I’m able to will keep me at the top of where I can be at during any given time.
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I know that all of these are broad enough that I won’t feel a need to punish myself at the end of the year for utter failure. I will simply look at how much I accomplished toward each goal, and these might very well be the same goals I have next year… I don’t see any of them happening overnight. :)

So… we’ll see how 2009 goes. :) I had what I hope will be my last truly unhealthy meal and dessert this evening with the in-laws and from here on out I hope to work toward a healthier, happier, more social, better capable me. Even if I am the dopest gal on the block, there’s always room for improvement, right?