2016 Goal Setting and Accountability

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, blah blah blah. We all know how it goes. Either we make them, we don’t make them, or we secretly make them and maybe don’t stick to them since no one really knows.

We all know that you can make changes in your life at any time of year. Back-to-school season always feels like a good time to do that to me, but when the calendar turns a new year, it’s natural to reevaluate your life to make some changes.

This year I am inspired by fellow Boston blogger Molly, who wrote a great year-end report on her 2015 resolutions. I hope to be back here in 360 days or so to report that I’ve reached all of my goals.  Or perhaps, in looking to reach these goals, I will discover new ones. I had a really great 2015, and I am so excited for what 2016 has in store! Please feel free to let me know your resolutions or goals in the comments.

1) Run six races in 2016. Racing makes me incredibly anxious at the beginning and absolutely elated at the end. At the end of 2015, I ran a half marathon that I hadn’t trained for (photo of the beautiful race course in Gloucester and Rockport above), and I LOVED it. I have been hard on myself when it comes to running and times in the past, and in this one I ran with friends for some and rocked out to a great playlist and gorgeous scenery during the rest of it. Despite no proper training, I was really proud of my time and finished smiling. So in 2016, while I would love to say six half marathons, I will just say six races so that I can welcome opportunities for 5 and 10k races as well as marathons.

2) Secure a new wine industry client. In 2015 I got to work on Sonoma Wine Country Weekend, which was so great and let me work finally in a wine region I love so much. My client plate is pretty full right now, including with one wine client, a travel client, and some retail clients, but there is room in my heart for more wine work and learning, and I would like to make that happen.

3) Visit two new places. Travel will always be a priority to me, and while I don’t know that I can top my 2015 travel (though I really have the wanderlust bug again, despite saying I wanted to sit still in 2016) I want to see new places. We may even skip our annual Sonoma trip to make room for a new city or country. Hopefully two places won’t be too difficult. I look forward to sharing my travel experiences!

4) Send more cards. I occasionally sent handwritten cards throughout 2015, and the response was so positive and happy that it makes me want to do it more often. You never know when someone could really use a piece of positivity in the mail, and I find that I am so much happier by making others happy.

5) Take an honest look at my diet and exercise. I’m not getting any younger, and while multiple dinners out a week, filled with wine and cocktails might have been fun and do-able when I started blogging many years ago, I am starting to realize that they aren’t doing me any favors these days. I need to eat more vegetables, to eat less sodium and meat, to drink more water, and yes, sadly, to drink less wine. My face is feeling puffy and not looking so great, and I know if I just make some small changes I can both feel and look better.

6) Better organize my work day, make plans, and stick to them.  When I left my in-house hotel job in June, I had already been working on the side with two clients and basically never took a day off after. Instead I dove straight into the work, adding more clients as I went along and saying yes to everything. This often meant cancelling doctor’s appointments, lunches, exercise plans, and more so I could be available at all times. Sometimes that’s necessary, but it’s not sustainable long term. More plans and fewer pop-ups in 2016!

7) Get paid by the scamming plumber and close that chapter of our lives. Long story short, we have been in a legal battle for almost two years with a real gem of a plumber who scammed us, threatened us, did property damage, and more. We’ve been to court more times than I can even remember, and being the slippery  slimeball he is, he just keeps getting away. Hopefully 2016 will be the year we can get paid what we are owed and then file away this guy as  a really bad memory and a lesson to be careful who to hire. If you are in the Boston area and looking for a plumber, feel free to contact me so I can tell you who NOT to hire!

8) Move more. I have a plan to do three 40 minute cardio sessions per week, whether it be hiking, running, or spinning, along with two yoga or barre sessions and two weight sessions. Each week, I will write all of these down and cross them off as I complete them. Index cards on my desk are my best friend when it comes to accountability!

How do you stay on top of your goals?