Ring Out the Old: Recap of 2012 Goals

Goodbye 2012. You were a fairly standard year and not particularly remarkable. You brought us our first big garden, a partially remodeled shed and a pair of chickens. We continued to expand our cooking skills while our daughter grew from a baby to a toddler.


We stayed in the same jobs but made less money than the last couple of years. We didn't finish remodeling our upstairs bathroom. We demolished the utility room and fought back flooding in the basement, losing carpet in the battle.

Some goals were accomplished, others... not so much.

Do you remember the goals we established for 2012? I mentioned at least two of them here on the blog. I actually had five goals in all. One of them is very personal so it won't be mentioned in this public arena; the others are an open book. To recap, here's what I/we wanted to do this year:


1. Be more positive. Say nice things, think nice thoughts; avoid being judgmental. Be happier and look on the bright side. This was a personal goal, and also my motto for the year: Think Positive, Be Positive. But Nate thought it sounded like a great goal and motto, so he wanted to do it too. It became our family's goal and motto for 2012.

2. Blog at least once a week. Be positive, encouraging, and uplifting. But don't stop writing in my personal journal. 

3. No computers after 9pm. And then be in bed by 9:30pm.

4. Read scriptures every day for about 15 minutes. Finish reading the Book of Mormon. Then read the New Testament. Then Read the Book of Mormon again. 


So how did I do? Let's look at them in reverse order!


4. Read scriptures every day: Not quite. I didn't read every day. I skipped some days here and there, and may have missed a whole week... more than once. BUT when I did read, I read for 10-15 minutes. And most importantly, I did read the books I had planned to read!

I started off in January with a bookmark in the middle of the Book of Mormon, and spent the following two months (through the end of February) reading through to the end. I had also read it twice in 2011, so I was pretty tired of the BoM at that point. So I moved on the New Testament. I don't remember exactly how long it took me; I was definitely finished by August... I think I wrapped up in July? So it took me about  five months to read through the New Testament. When that was done, I hopped back over to the Book of Mormon, which I had finished again by the middle of December. So maybe 4-5 months for the full read through.


3. No computers after 9pm: Moderate fail. Does my Kindle Fire count as a computer? It should. This goal could have worded more clearly; it should have been "no technology after 9pm." I was almost always off my laptop by 9pm, but then the Fire would be on until bedtime, sometimes even long after bedtime. Usually it was just following me around while I cleaned up and got ready for bed, but sometimes it snuggled into bed with me while I wrapped up "just one more episode of _______." (Fill in the blank with whatever show I was hooked on that week -- White Collar, Hart of Dixie, Supernatural, and more). For the most part I did turn the Fire off by 9:30pm and try to get some sleep. I guess that's something.


2. Blog once a week: Mostly a success!

Now, if you actually look at a 2012 calendar and compare it to my blog post dates, I didn't post every single week. As you might recall, I missed all of October. BUT I did put up 58 posts in 2012, starting at the END of January. So if you average that out over the whole year, there was MORE than one post per week of blogging! I am super proud of myself.

The downside? I rarely wrote in my personal journal this year. I dutifully wrote a letter to my daughter once a month on her birthday day, and I put up plenty of blog posts, but I didn't sit down with my deep thoughts and quietly set pen to paper. I'm very glad that I captured our goings on; less proud that it was mostly superficial.


1. Be positive: Fail. We started out well; during the first couple of months in 2012 we were positive little bunnies. But by the time summer rolled around, I noticed that we had completely reverted back to our old habits. (Worst among them is that we heckle and curse other drivers when we're on the road.) Very sad. We tried to get back on track, but didn't try very hard, and again forgot about our goal by the time autumn was over.

I didn't expect to become a completely new and different person this year, but I did want to wake up on January 1, 2013 and know that I was a kinder, less judgmental person than one year earlier. That's what I wanted. It didn't happen for me. It didn't happen for either of us.


So what now? We've got goals for 2013. Those are coming up in the next post...