2009 Personal Improvement Plan

I have finished my goal planning for 2009 and would like to share them with you.  Publishing has really helped me feel more accountable.  I hope you will improve with me in 2009!

HEALTH:  Lose 50 pounds via Weight Watchers plan.  I have already signed up and love their new Momentum plan and the fact that there is a great mobile ap for my Blackberry to track and find points.

FAITH:  Find a new church home.  My wife and I are looking for a new church to be planted in.  

RELATIONSHIPS:  Make it a point to have a date-night with my wife once a month.  We focused on this last year and loved it so we will do it again!  

RELATIONSHIPS:  Invest in our friends.  Life gets busy and stressful, but our friends are important to us.  We will be more specific in our time to ensure our friends are included.

EDUCATION:  Read at least 12 books.  I used goodreads last year to track what I read and have already started to build a list of seven books I want to read.  Let me know if you recommend any other books or if I should avoid one on my list.

EDUCATION:  Continue my PMP exam prep.  I am primarily using Cornelius Fichtner’s awesome Project Management PrepCast and await his update for the Fourth Edition of the PMBOK.

FINANCES:  Save an additional minumum of $1000.  Have more liquid moolah in the bank!

FINANCES:  Pay off one of my credit cards.  Pay it off and close it out!

COMMUNITY:  Teach a business skills class in my local area.  I need to find out where I can teach a class and then try to find a curriculum.  I strongly feel I can help people help themselves through encouragement and teaching useful skills.  

HOME:  Get storm windows.  Seattle winter this year is telling me how cold our house can be.

FUN:  Enter my Star Wars collection for display in this years Puyallup Fair.  Sharing my dorkiness with one of the largest fairs!

FUN:  Take pictures more frequently.  Continue the habit from 2008 to take more pictures and capture more memories.

Subscribe to Improve With Me via: RSS | Google Reader

Follow me on Twitter 

Advertisement

I finally joined Weight Watchers

I joined Weight Watchers Monday night and need to lose 53 pounds.  I was successful at WW before and reached lifetime when I hit my goal 5 years ago.  I gained it all back since I quit monitoring my food and thought I could do it all “in my head”. I am going to do it right this time and keep it off!

I hope this inspires anybody like me that made it a new years goal but haven’t started yet.  New Years resolutions can still start near March!

Related Post(s)

• 2008 Accomplishments (Claiming Victory Before The Year Starts)
• Bring It On Home – WW Shopping

To Do … Or Not To Do

Ever toss and turn at night knowing you forgot to finish something or your mind races with items you want to do the next day (which you hope you remember the next morning?)

I usually am pretty good with the worry about forgetting to finish something.  I have accepted the fact that I have not mastered quantum time where I can travel to the past to fix my mistake so I don’t lose sleep over it.  I can’t change anything at 1:30 AM anyways.

I do toss and turn over endless loop planning for the next day in my head.  Now that I write this blog, creative ideas pop into my head when I would rather sleep.  About six months ago, my wife forced me to leave a pad of paper and a pen next to the bed. 

This has helped tremendously.  I find if I wake up, I jot it down and put it into my todo list when I wake up.  I am able to go to sleep because I know my idea or thought is captured

Dustin Wax wrote the following in How to Use a Todo List to Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever:

“…the main reason most people fail, get overwhelmed, or drive themselves to the cardiologist with worry and stress is that they don’t have a good grip on what they need to be doing. So they wake up in the middle of the night (if they can sleep at all) in a panic over whether they did everything the needed to do that day, or they look over the piles of clutter around them and wonder how they’ll ever reach the bottom. “

I highly recommend Dustin’s post for tips on how to use todo lists effectively.  These tips can help you achieve your new years resolutions and make a great 2008!