Goals update

"If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans."

-Woody Allen

Last year, I made a list of 30 things I wanted to accomplish before my 30th birthday.

I've crossed several of my goals off the list so far, and I'm on my way to crossing off several more. However, at some point this year, I realized I was, perchance, a *tad* ambitious in making my list.

Sure, it's probably possible to plan a wedding, travel abroad, start a business, learn a new language, regularly do yoga, train for a half marathon, learn to sew, perform stand up comedy, purge your house of unnecessary items, learn to play a musical instrument, work a second job, be a good friend, sister, wife, daughter, and aunt, take care of your house, dog, houseplants, and self, and do all the other things you enjoy doing, all while (oh yeah!) looking for (and then starting) a new job because you've just been unexpectedly laid off.

It's just not possible for me.

For one thing, I'm not addicted to crystal meth. For another, I'm a very easily distracted person. (Sure, performing stand up once is exciting. You know what's better? Finding out that it's one of the most incredibly fun things you've ever done and deciding to make it a permanent hobby.) Flexibility is one of my core values.

With that in mind, I decided to update the remaining items 30 before 30 list. I decided to give up on some of the goals for now (does "postpone" sound better?). Honestly, I'm already a little sad about turning 30; I don't need to create an additional list of regrets for myself on my birthday.

Here are the items I'm giving up on (for now):

7. launch an Etsy shop I thought about trying to sell little birds/dogs/etc, but I don't know if I'd really be adding unique items to the Etsy universe. I also created some 3D cookie cutters (unicornz! they sit on ur coffee cups!), but again, I wasn't sure they were unique enough to justify opening an Etsy shop.
14. learn to sew I just didn't have time.
22. go to the dentist (twice) This isn't going to happen, unless I go in the next couple of weeks and have to go back immediately to have extra work done. I'm a terrible person. I have no excuse.
25. learn to play 30 songs on the ukulele I found a guitar school that gives ukulele lessons; I may take lessons next year.
26. learn to drive a stick shift Achilles drives a stick shift, but his truck is on its last legs. I don't want to be responsible for dealing the truck its death blow.
27. attend 30 yoga classes I love yoga, but this goal was stressing me out (ahh, irony)
28. complete savings vs. lottery experiment I couldn't keep up with winning lottery tickets long enough to cash them, so I decided the experiment was a failure and ended it early. (Actually... maybe I could mark this one "complete"...)

So that I end on a positive note, here's my list of goals that I've either accomplished since my last update or that I'm still going to work on (even though I might modify them somewhat):

1. meet 30 new people DONE! Amazing how a new hobby and a new job will take care of this sort of thing for you.
2. read 30 (non-self help) books Thanks to joining a book club at my new job and a reusable grocery bag full of mystery novels from my mom (whatever... beach reads totally count - I love you, Stephanie Plum!), I think I'll finish this one up this month.
3. watch 30 of the IMDB Top 250 films DONE this summer! Thank you Netflix instant streaming and summertime under-employment! (I will post a list of my favorites at some point if people seem interested.)
6. run a half marathon I may have to give up the "run" on this one, but I think I can still run/walk the half marathon I'm registered for and finish in the required time.
8. try 30 new foods DONE! I finished this a while back. When I actually started tracking new foods I tried, I realized I'm actually a pretty adventurous eater. I'll even try unusual meats (gator, snake, other weird game). I think the confusion about my so-called "picky eating" was a result of my inability to eat habanero peppers. (For the record, I have decided that the rule is that you're picky if you refuse to *try* new foods, not if you try them and don't like them.)
9. save $5000 DONE! When I found out I was going to be laid off at the end of the summer, I went into Big Saver mode and knocked this goal out (and then some).
10. volunteer at least 30 hours of my time I don't think I'm going to make this. Still, I have a couple months, and since this is a worthwhile goal, I want to make as much progress as possible.
11. every 3 months, donate 30 items to Goodwill or Salvation Army Still trucking... An acquaintance who saw my list of goals commented that I must have "a lot of stuff." He was a single guy who had never moved in with another person, been given a bunch of duplicate (non-returnable) wedding gifts, or stayed up too late watching a Hoarders marathon. It's easier to accumulate stuff than he thinks.
12. sell 30 items on Craigslist or Ebay Despite accidentally leaving my Half.com account on "vacation mode" since the wedding, I've sold over 20 items. I'll get there, if I'm aggressive.
16. be able to do 30 military style push-ups I'm going to start to work seriously on this, I think, if only because having a deadline may make this one more fun. But I don't think it's going to happen.
19. go on a road trip DONE! I did this two days before I got laid off. I never got around to posting about it (wonder why), but we took a road trip to Dublin, TX.
20. win a contest of some kind I can't think of any contests I've won this year. I suppose I could say I won the "most likely to be laid off" contest at my last job... Still, this is so open-ended, I can't give up on it yet.
24. learn to make a daisy chain
29. make a list of the top 30 things I'm most happy to have already crossed off my bucket list
30 skip at least one item on this list DONE! In fact, I knocked this one out of the park!