found drama

2009 has come and gone.  Every year I make some commitments to myself–be those to improve myself in some way ot simply to challenge myself–and at the end of every year, I take stock of those accomplishments.  2009 was the third year that those goals were featured “full disclosure” style here on F_D.  Where did I land for each?

1. Write at least three hours per week. The good news:  I started to really ramp up again at the end of the year.  The bad news:  it wasn’t until the end of the year.  My “per week” average wound up being 2.3821 hours (almost an hour shy of my goal!) and most of that was due to participating in NaNoWriMo ’09.  But that said, I “won” NaNoWriMo this year, so I have another draft of another novel ¹  And now for the year-end graph:
   
2. Read 36 books during 2009. I knowingly set the bar very high for myself this year.  “Knowingly” meaning, I knew that a toddler is like a deli slicer for your discretionary time.  I wanted to read 36 total books (not necessarily new) this year and to read 12 specific books.  The 2009 total came in at 25:
   
   Which wasn’t too bad, all things considered.  It’s 23 fewer books than ’08, but it’s only ² 6,850 fewer pages ³.  Three lessons learned from this year’s reading goal: (1) I really don’t read enough non-fiction; (2) this is the goal most likely to be sacrificed for any other ⁴; and (3) pushing myself to read specific goals, while admirable, also means that I can find myself “trapped” with a book that (after starting) I don’t really want to finish.  But in the case of Foucault’s Pendulum this year, it just never really got started.  Eleven for twelve on my “specific books” sub-goal:
   
3. Walk at least 10 miles every week. Did pretty well through June…  Then we moved.  Averaged 43.8 miles per month until we moved; then I averaged zero.
   
4. Climb at least once each week. His this one about half the time.  But a new schedule/strategy for next year bodes well…:
   
5. Finish up my Ortho theme for WordPress. I said: I’ve been done.
6. Get outside more often. Uh… not bad? Let me get back to you on that.

1. That makes… what?  Four “completed” drafts?  Five?  Does high school-era novel-length fan fiction count?[↩]
2. Only?[↩]
3. That’s like reading Infinite Jest six times (and the footnotes a seventh time).[↩]
4. Except maybe the “walking/running” goal, which gets sacrificed all the time; and except maybe the writing goal, which I sadly let slide (vide supra).[↩]

About Rob Friesel