There are a couple of constants nowadays when it comes to writing in my blog – my Year in Review and my goals for the upcoming year.
Real quick for those of you that are like my Dad and need everything the length of a Twitter Tweet please scroll down to the bottom of this entry to find my Five Goals for 2012. I think that was within 140 characters. Yah, Dad mentioned that I write too much but that’s OK, I kinda know who I’m writing to and know that Dad doesn’t end up in my demographic.
I wish I could write more often but sometimes the days are too short and when they aren’t too short it’s because I’m trying to catch up on sleep from the days that were too long.
That was random … I guess I wrote that because I’ve been meaning to write my five goals for 2012 but just haven’t found the time to sit down and write. Since it’s snowy out and I’m not about to drive anywhere to do anything, then I thought it was a good time to sneak in my annual Goal entry.
If you’ve missed out on previous years and the Goals that I have wanted to accomplish but more often than not I failed to, you can click on “Goals” on the sidebar under Categories. I’ve been trying to update all of my blog entries so that they are neatly found in one of the categories on that sidebar. This isn’t a goal of mine, just a little bit of Kevy Nonsense. Brought to you by Spotify, because that’s what I’m listening to right now. Booyah!
As I mentioned briefly in my 2011 Year in Review I believe (or hope) that 2011 was the “prequel” to a successful 2012.
But before I get into all that let’s recap my Goals for 2011 and see how I did.
2011 Goals:
Increase Church Involvement
GRADE: A
Let’s see… I do scripture reading. I’m a leader for our Youth Group. I help teach the teenage boy’s Sunday School class. I’m now the so-called Events Coordinator for the church, organizing events that will hopefully get the community involved. I’d like to think I passed this Goal with flying colors. There’s still much more for me to do so it doesn’t get a plus after the A but … stay tuned.
Find My Inner Handyman
GRADE: D
I mentioned fixing the fan in the bathroom. Oops! I also mentioned fixing up the garage. Ha! Like that was going to happen. I did help Erik hammer in the flooring for the Tree Hut he built for the kiddos and I did get up on the roof and watched him pressure wash my roof for me. My water heater nearly busted so I drove Dad to Home Depot to pick out a new one for me then held a flashlight for him as he fixed it. Lis painted the inside of our house and I got up really high on the ladder before freaking out leaving it unfinished. Uh … let me stop now as I’m totally emasculating myself.
Get Snipped
GRADE: A+
I took care of this in May. Nice, quick, harmless procedure. My first stitches EVER. You can read that in a post I wrote on May 22 titled “My First Stitches”. Unfortunately I didn’t follow that post up with how I recovered from my procedure. Well when the doctor (and your friend) tells you to take it easy – take it easy. I sat around for the weekend, thought I was fine and headed to work. Turns out I probably could’ve used one more day off and a little more ice. I was sore. I haven’t been in as much pain as I was on May 25, the day after our anniversary. 
My stomach still gets a pit in it when I think about it.
Clear Out the Negative
GRADE: B
The only easy way to do it was to not put in your life or make it a norm in your life. I cleared that out, along with fewer social drinking moments. I realized that depending on who I was with the social drinking usually ended up leading to more negative. Church and my wonderful church family helped with this a lot. I love the family that we worship with. They are real, normal and caring people and often times I have more fun with them than anyone else. I guess that’s what happens when you have the same foundation of beliefs. I also began to not worry or care about the things that would bother me. We’re all negative at some time but I’ve done a better job than I had in prior years, thus the B Grade.
Become an Insurance Person
Grade: B+
Trust me, I tried to NOT become an insurance person. Things got so chaotic at work that I tried to find something else out there. I applied everywhere. I had six interviews and three were outside of the insurance industry, however, nobody wanted an insurance agent. But I’m different than the others! Uh sure! I finally gave up and decided that this is what I’ll be doing as my career. I’m an insurance person. I’m an insurance person. I’m an insurance person. Oh sorry, just reminding myself.
2012 Goals:
I couldn’t come up with a solid five so I had to bring back an old one that I promised would be gone forever and toss in an extra one for funsies. Once again, as I mentioned in my Year in Review, there were a few things that I felt were gaining speed as 2011 ended and were leading up to 2012. Four of my goals will deal with that.
Get the L’s to Brazil!
It will be three years in February since Lis last saw her family (video chatting, though helpful, doesn’t count). For some one that is very close to and loves her family that’s a long, long time. We made trips in 2004, two months after Lukas was born and in February 2009, five months after Lia was hatched. Levi is now nine months and we have yet to visit the land down under. Sure it’s like taking out another mortgage now with three kids but she needs to see her family and I need to get her there. Donate to our cause at www.sixweeksofbachelorhood!.com. I’m kidding, that site doesn’t work. I don’t think.
Lose Weight! Seriously!
Last year I said I would never put this back on my list of goals. I’m setting myself up for failure right? I hope not. Things are a little different now. We have a membership to the Y and for weeks after we got the membership I was shooting hoops twice a week, going swimming with the kids every Friday night and keeping myself active. And then the holidays happened. And busy work and snow and all of a sudden I’ve played hoops once in six weeks. Not good my friends, not good. Our hoops season starts up this weekend. I’ll try to continue to go every Wednesday night and Friday night and I’ll do my best to stop snacking after 8pm. Now that I’ve written it down I have to do it right? I’m at a little over 230-pounds (we’ll call it 233). I’d like to drop at least 20. I’m going to be in front of a lot of people in the next few months and I don’t want to look all multi-chinned so … wish me luck!
Taking Relay for Life to Another Level
As mentioned in my Year in Review I’ve decided to take the next step and become the 2012 American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life of Monroe / Sky Valley‘s Event Co-Chair, teaming up with my buddy Jerry “Big Dog” Dixon. Jerry and I both had doubts as we entered the morning of the 2011 RFL. I just wasn’t feeling it anymore. My team was a disappointment. My heart didn’t feel in it. But then the event starts and you – using Jerry’s theme for this year’s event – “Think Back” on why you are there, why you spend so much time doing it, why you love doing it and who you are doing it for. It’s – using my theme for this year’s event – my favorite day of the year and I knew that if I wanted to make others feel that way, and get myself reenergized for the event that I needed to take the next step and become and Event Chair. I mentioned it to Jerry on the morning of the RFL and he said, “If you do it, I’ll do it.” Well it took some convincing of the ACS to allow us to do it but they did – thanks Kelly! It’s not often that two dudes are the Event Chairs, actually we might be in our district’s record books. Anyway, Jerry and I have set lofty goals. Goals above what the ACS has given us. I want to reach close to 300 Survivors, our event record is 121, that’s not very many considering we had 53 teams last year. We want to be close to $200,000 in money raised, our high is $156,000. I don’t think that goal is unattainable either. We also want to give people a reason to stay the entire 24 hours. To come for Opening Ceremonies and stay for Closing Ceremonies, which means upping the entertainment value. This is a goal I know we can reach. I’m looking forward to obtaining this goal. It will be a lot of fun and we’ve already gotten a ton of positive feedback. I’m hoping this time next year you’ll see a A-plus grade.
Church People ARE Cool!
I love my church family. I love them because they are good people, real people, people that don’t fit the stereotype of Christian churches. We don’t have cliques. We don’t have hypocrites. We don’t think we’re perfect. One of our members mentioned that he liked this church because the people were real. I joked that was because we were the ones in high school that either nobody knew or just ended up eating lunch on our own. We’re the outcasts and that’s why we all get a long. Anyway, I became the so-called “Events Coordinator” at our church last year. It’s something I wanted to do because I wanted people to know that they can attend church and still have a good time. Erik and Stephanie were our first victims realized this as they started to attend on a regular basis. I hope through throwing fun events that don’t scare people will bring people into church and introduce them to ol’ J.C. (that’d be Jesus).
Get Settled In
I spent a lot of time last year getting frustrated with work, attempting to find something else to do, nearly quitting, being told that they wanted me to stay and deciding to – after reading last year’s goal entry about becoming an insurance person – ultimately remain where I’m at. Now it’s time to get settled in, to figure out what I want to do and where I should be. I don’t know if that means remaining where I’m at or, like the RFL situation, deciding to do something I’ve thought about for years – starting my own agency.
Dad’s Cliff Notes Version:
2012 Goals:
- Get My Family to Brazil
- Lose 20 Pounds!
- Reach RFL Goals!
- Get People (Like YOU!) to Church!
- Get Work Figured Out
