Fab Five Goals for 2012.

For the New Year's Eve service at church, members and guests were asked to come with a list of their top five goals for 2012.  Below is the list I created.

FAB FIVE GOALS FOR 2012

1.  GOD

• Strengthen my commitment to and my walk with God. Discover His purpose for my life and start living according to His will.
• Develop and strengthen my prayer life.
• Take the new members class at New Life Worship Center and begin serving in a ministry.

2.  FINANCES

• Educate myself about money management and apply the principles to my life.
• Reduce my personal financial debt by at least 1/4 this year.

3.  HEALTH AND WELLNESS

• Develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle, by exercising regularly and making a conscious effort to reduce junk food and eat nutritiously.
• Get to a healthy weight by the end of 2012.
• Develop and strengthen my thought life.  Write in a journal regularly.

4.  ATTITUDE

• Count it all joy in 2012.
• Learn to live life each day with a spirit of gratitude.
• Learn to respond to disappointment, frustration, and other negative emotions with grace.
• Fill my heart with love, faith, patience, courage, kindness and joy.

5.  RELATIONSHIPS

• Commit to making relationships with family and friends a priority in 2012.
• Strengthen existing relationships and actively pursue new relationships.

What are your goals for 2012?

To go, or not to go....

Recently I was invited to a New Year's Eve party through Facebook by an acquaintance from college, whom I will refer to as Double H. I was both surprised and flattered by the invitation, seeing as how I have not spoken to him in over six years (and before you ask, no, he did not merely invite everyone on his friend list). While it could be fun to go to the party, let's face it - I am not nor have I ever been socially savvy. I am more than a bit nervous about showing up to a party by myself where I know a single person that will be in attendance, and barely at that. To make matters slightly worse, I noticed today that one of the invitees is a guy I winked at on match.com, whose response was "thanks for the wink, but I don't think you are a good match for me." Thank goodness he is currently listed as not attending the party, as I can only imagine how awkward it would be to run into him should he recognize me! (I shudder at the thought.)

All possible and likely embarrassing catastrophes aside, attending the party could result in several positive scenarios. First and foremost, I would be venturing outside of my comfort zone, which I feel is important for me to do if I am going to continue to grow as an individual. I mean, I could actually have fun! Not only that, but it would provide the potential to cross off the following two items from my 30 Before 30 List:

27. Hold a conversation with a stranger.
30. Make a new friend (one not connected to someone I already know).

Knowing I will most certainly chicken out at the last minute if I plan to go by myself, I have thought about emailing Double H and simply being honest about my apprehensions, and asking if he or anyone else would like to meet up before the party and arrive together. Would this be completely and totally lame? Another option would be there is an Indiana Ice hockey game that evening, so I could ask Double H if he or anyone else would want to catch the game before heading to the party. What do ya'all think? What would you do if you were me?

New Year's Irresolutions.

It's that time again. The countdown to a new year has begun. Normally on this day, I would be scrambling to compile a list of resolutions for the coming year, a list that would no doubt be filled with items identical to my resolutions from the year before - exercise, eat healthy, yada yada yada. While my intentions are good, I know in my heart that the likelihood of me keeping all of my resolutions is slim to none (case in point being I make the same resolutions every year). Instead of once again setting myself up for failure, this year I have decided to forgo my traditional list of New Year's resolutions, save one - and that is to work diligently throughout the year of 2009 on my 30 Before 30 List. So, without further ado, Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all much joy and happiness in the year ahead.