My 'Year of Reduction'?

I normally do an annual review and set goals for the coming year.  I never got around to it at the end of 2012 because of a bad cold that kept me from doing almost anything more than I absolutely had to, plus this introspection is hard for me to do while I have a house full of guest staying with me for the holidays.  So I'm a little late in getting around to it but you'll see more about this in the next few days and weeks.

From one of my favorite bloggers, JD Roth at More Than Money, I found a link to Chris Guillebeau's The Art of Non Conformity and his guide to doing an annual review.  I plan to take some time and follow his approach - its not just setting goals but doing a meaningful plan to accomplish them.  And as he says, people tend to understand what they can accomplish in a year.  Planning can make it happen.

His review consist of a Review of the Prior Year - looking back what worked, what didn't work, and Outlining of Goals and Focus for the New Year, and finally Make Decisions in Support of the Goals and Focus.  My question mark on the post title is because I'm jumping to the Year's Focus already - year of reduction - without having done the other steps.   He warns that it is better to work through the process and see what goals you are excited about before you set your focus and push goals to fit it.

So I'm knowingly jumping the gun, but I'm expecting I'll develop goals for health (with weight loss being a reduction), goals for decluttering (ie, a reduction in stuff), possibly a reduction in mortgage debt (obvious reduction goal).  These are areas that have been on my mind and active in my todo lists so its reasonable to think this will dominate my goals for the year.

The other key goal, that doesn't fit so well into this theme, is working with Zeus.   Things have improved tremendously between us this year, but there is still so much to go.  Let me be up front about this - the problem is more with me than it is with him!  He is a very sweet and well behaved dog.   The problem is he is a dog.   And dogs take time and effort that cats do not.  I don't yet know how to live with a dog and still do the things I want to - for example, today the Ice Age Club was hosting a snowshoe hike through Laphem Peak State Park - something I would love to have joined.  But it was from 11 am to 2pm with socializing / bring your own lunch afterwards - so I would not have been home till about 3pm and then needing to leave almost immediately for a Rose Bowl party.  If I had a cat pet, then no problem.  I could have easily make these times work for me.   With a dog, not so much.  At somepoint in between those I need to feed him and walk him.  And actually getting out of the house this morning was delayed by two walks cause not all the bathroom business got done on the first walk.  It's not overwhelming and certainly other people have much bigger problems (in life and with their own pets) but its inconvenient and I have not yet adjusted my thoughts and actions to take living with a dog into account.   Some of this is my own doing - I haven't trained Zeus to go out by himself and I don't have a fence installed to allow it.  So I envision some goals and major actions on my part to make this better for both Zeus and me.   It needs and deserves some focus - this is the area that is keeping me from being happier.  It brings me down often so need some serious review and planning for 2013 to be better, especially because this has long term impact as I expect Zeus to live another 10 years or so.

Another potential goal that doesn't quite fit into a year of reduction is to blog post more - I'm thinking 50 post this year. Fifty sounds like a lot - last year was only 39 and a good 10 of those were directly related to the New Mexico trip and storing directions and links.   I feel compelled to have a goal like this to help push me to get both more open about sharing things and also to help maintain good writing skills.   I have that vague ideal job of being a movie critic so posting more seams to moving in the right direction.

Guess I will have to go through the process and see where my focus and interest really lay - because while I started with the what's been current on my to do list - with all those reduction items, at first glance I think I'm more focused and excited by these last two goals which don't fit the year of reduction.