The Journey for 2011

Here we are again at the beginning of a new year.  What does 2011 hold for me?  What do I need to accomplish? 

Every year I write down my goals and track them daily to monitor my progress.  I remember 2004, the first year that I did this, I was astonished at what I accomplished.  I remember one of my goals was to "Meet my future wife."  As it turns out, I'm sitting here typing this and she's in the kitchen baking a cake for a get together tonight with her family. This year I'm going to do the same, but with one catch, I'm letting complete strangers observe my goals and my progress. 

Setting goals is beginning with the end in mind as Steven Covey says.  It's a powerful tool and one that I have come to respect and enjoy.  As I mentioned, in the past I set goals every year.  I started doing this because a previous supervisor "recommend" it.  It is often said that "He who aims at nothing will hit it every time."  I don't want that to be me.  I want to accomplish things for myself, my family, and my neighbor.  Maybe I'm emphasizing my goals this year because I'm at the beginning of a mid life crisis.  Maybe it's because I don't want to wander without purpose.  It really doesn't matter what the reason.  There is work to be done and it must be organized. 

I came up with this idea after reading an article on Yahoo Finance about making extra money.- http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/111747/ways-to-make-extra-money-in-2011?mod=oneclick . Now, I'm always curious about making extra money, but I've never taken the initiative to try it.  What sparked my attention in this article was the suggestion to start a blog. I thought to myself, "Yea, right! I can't write!"  However, I also thought about what to write about if I decided to did it.  After about a minute of thinking and just having listened to a segment about goal setting on the Dave Ramsey Show, I decided to give it try.  http://www.daveramsey.com/article/setting-goals-that-work/lifeandmoney_goalsetting/ .


I'm not doing this to make extra money, as I really doubt if I make any.  Also, I have to admit, I was about to change my mind when I started this.  I said to myself, "Who cares what I have to say" and "This is starting to  feel slightly narcissistic."  However, as I prepared for this I started to see this as a way to help me strive to reach my goals.  Who knows, maybe there's someone out there that will be helped along the way. 

Here's how it will work.  As I post new blogs each entry will refer to one of the following six goals categories; please refer my pages that will explain my goals for each category.  Some of my entries will address an element of achieving a particular goal and sometimes it might just be a thought.  With that said, here are the six areas where I have established goals:

Family/Spouse        
Spiritual/The Faith     
Financial             
Career             
Health
Intellectual / Self Improvement
Long Term Goals              

Well, here I am at the beginning of the journey. I have a feeling that this exercise will be about just that; the journey.  Let's see what happens.