Tuesday, January 15, 2008

2007 Resolutions: Final Tally

I'm just putting the final touches on my resolutions for 2008. A list which, despite its lateness, will be uncharacteristically short. Possibly only one item long—I'm debating a few others.

But anyway, before I can get to 2008 I need to grade myself on my 2007 resolutions. Let's see how I did:
1. The Year of Nonfiction Writing
So. Not. Happening. More like The Year of Talking about Writing. But towards the very end of the year, as I mentioned last week, I shifted my nonfiction writing focus from travel to personal essay. I'm pretty excited about the new direction, but we'll see how it goes.

2. Start a business with Keith
Check! Bloom Web Solutions is a registered Limited Liability Corporation, we've had several clients (including one that actually pays us!) and our website is up.

3. Read 50 books (8 classics, 6 biographies)
As usual, I surpassed the 50 book mark, and I reached 6 biographies, but my classics fell short of the mark (6 total). Still, if it weren't for the resolution I'm sure I wouldn't have even read 6.

4. Run sub-30 min 5k
Check! I'm pretty excited about this one. After trying—and failing—to achieve this for 3 years, I race a 5k in June and finished at 29:15ish. Even better, I ran a 5k a month later in under 29 minutes, so the first one wasn't just a fluke. I may actually be getting faster!

5. Lift 6 times/month, keeping track on Fitday
Nope. I managed to keep this streak alive until August, when I only did 5 strength training sessions. To be fair, I consciously chose to stop focusing on strength training when I upped my running mileage while training for the November half-marathon. I still think it was the right decision.

6. Visit 12 new places in Cleveland area
Check! Probably 90% are restaurants, but there's nothing wrong with that!

7. Actually stick to a budget for 4 months
Check! I think we actually stayed within budget 5 months, total. The only reason this happened, I'll admit, is because of extra income from my online tutoring work and from our new web design business. So that's a lesson for me: a little extra income goes a long way!

8. Volunteer/give money to charity
I'm a slug. As always, my best of intentions fell victim to laziness and lack of time. This will also be on my resolution list, and someday I'll actually get there. And hopefully, from that point forward it will become a regular event.

9. Visit Sara and Jason in Toledo
Check! We had a great time seeing their house and hanging out with them.

So, of 9 resolutions, I met 5 and sorta met 1 (read 50 books, but not 8 classics). Not the best success rate, but I'm very happy with the things I did accomplish. Now onto 2008!

2 comments:

Jonathan Beckett said...

Excellent post!

Well done on running 5K under 30 mins. I should really look into doing some more running (along with a lot of other things). And reading more. And sticking to a budget.

Heh - your list reads like a list of the things I *should* be doing...

M. Lubbers said...

Thanks, Jonathan! It's nice to hear my goals resonate with other people, and posting them isn't *entirely* an exercise in vanity;) (Of course, what else is a personal blog?)

My list reads like a list of things I *should* be doing, too. I always mean well:) As two soon-to-be-parents, it's hard for us to really make any solid plans for this year, though! We'll just have to see how it goes...