2013 Goals: So how did I do?

Well I set some lofty goals for myself in 2013. I acknowledged from the beginning that my list of goals was more about recognizing priorities than actually aiming to full achieve everything. I think overall I did pretty well with myself this year! Let's recap, shall we?

My word for 2013 was invest -- and I aimed to make specific professional, social and personal investments.

Professional Investments

- Develop my professional network: Hmm, this happened in a passive way. I definitely was not as active as I would have liked, but am realizing that I will never be one to "work a room" and I think that's okay!

- Attend more networking events: once every other month: Definitely failed here, I started the year of strong but totally lost focus as my workload grew.

- Look into nonprofit board membership: Did not do this at all. 

- Find an organization outside of work to get involved in: Sad to say while I spent a lot of time thinking about this I didn't find an organization to focus on.

- Volunteer: once every other month, reissue Boston Cares membership: Nope. Sad. I feel guilty!

- Be more vocal and confident at work, in general: I actually did well with this one, but I'll know for sure once I have my annual review.

Social Investments

- Make time for old friends and family: schedule monthly/every other month phone calls and visits to NY: I wasn't as consistent as I would have liked with this, but I definitely improved from the year before. I made sure to stay in touch with some old friends and family members and have really seen my relationships with those people grow and change.

- Continue trying to make new [REAL] friendships: Ugh, why is it so hard to make new friends as an adult? Fail.

- See college friends in Boston at least every other week: Success! Especially since a few of my friends moved downstairs :)

- Allow endings: There weren't really any endings I needed to allow, but I did start to accept that some old friendships have changed and maybe that's just part of life. 

- Continue focusing on open communication in all relationships: Check! Still something I can improve on but being conscious of communication has proved successful over and over again in almost every one of my relationships. (I totally SUCK in bringing this into my professional life).

- Show gratitude for the people I love: I can always be better at this, but I think I did pretty well with being grateful this year. If not, thank you and I love you select reader friends :)

Personal Investments

- Focus on diminishing one bad habit: pen chewing, gross I know: Oh my gosh, guys, I have almost kicked this habit! I can't believe it! Every once in a while I'll discover myself chewing on a pen but overall it's at like 5% the level it used to be. So awesome! Also, I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of being diet coke free! That wasn't part of my specific list but I can't believe I'm no longer a diet coke drinker. Crazy town!

- Get serious about my skin: consider topical/oral medication, stop getting frustrated, see a dermatologist: This is a fun one. I tried to see two different dermatologists this year and have had my appointments canceled on me/trouble with insurance. I plan to get to a dermatologist in early 2014 but I've taken my skin issues into my own hands. Here's what I tried in 2013: I started using baby wipes instead of face wash, I stopped using baby wipes and face wash and simply used water every night and morning, about a month ago I started using neutrogena ultra gentle daily cleanser in the morning and night. Nothing has worked wonders for my skin. With all these attempts my face cleared up for a few months then went back to its monstrous self. Currently my face was looking alright, but after a week in NY it's not looking great (no clue why that happens every time I go home). I will continue to work on this but am happy I at least made new attempts instead of just doing the same old thing.

- Make travel plans (near and far): Yes! I traveled to Europe, St. Louis and San Francisco among other closer trips!

- Read 30 books: Oh so close!! I am currently on my 30th book. Not too shabby! Here's the list:

The Language of Flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
The Magician King - Lev Grossman
The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker
The Twelve - Justin Cronin
Gone Girl - Gyllian Flynn
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
Delirium - Lauren Olliver
Pandemonium - Lauren Olliver
State of Wonder - Ann Patchett
Tell the Wolves I'm Home - Carol Rifka Brunt
Born to Run - Christopher McDougall
Requiem - Lauren Olliver
The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult
The Kitchen House - Kathleen Grissom
The Light Between Oceans - M.L. Stedman
She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight - Alexandra Fuller
Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver
Where'd You Go, Bernadette - Maria Semple
First They Killed My Father - Loung Ung
MaddAddam #3 - Margaret Atwood
Ender's Game #1 - Orson Scott Card
And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Housseni
Allegiant - Veronica Roth
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed
Sharp Objects - Gyllian Flynn
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - Mindy Kaling
We Are Water - Wally Lamb
The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling

- Write 100 yelp reviews: Completed! Seriously have no idea how I did this. Luckily I had lots of places to review from San Fran, Philly, etc.

- Run the Tufts 10K in around the same time at 2010 (66 minutes): Boo. I didn't do this. I ended up being in San Fran during this race but too be honest, had no plan to actually run it.

- Run at least 5 races: Close but no cigar. In 2013 I ran the Tory Row 5K, the Jim Kane Sugar Bowl 5k, the Great Urban Race (yes, I'm counting this!), and the Cambridge 5K Yulefest. I had planned on running a Turkey Trot but couldn't get anyone to drive me to the race, so instead I completed a 5K on my own. I also did this on Christmas Eve. Maybe those 2 fake races can = one real race? Teehee.

- Develop a food shopping plan and stick to it: Yes! I pretty much shopped at Foodies once a week the whole year. For the most part I planned my meals and stuck to them. Of course I went through some short periods where I'd get off this plan, but for the most part I was very successful!

- Make monthly personal goals: Nope, started off strong but totally stopped doing this.

- Lose weight (still considering my plan for this, but this is a major 2013 goal for me): So far in 2013 I've lost 15 pounds! I started keeping a food journal in October and have been tracking my food every day since. I also started seeing a nutritionist on October 3 and have consistently exercised a few times a week for months now. I'm on track! 

- Unplug more often: keep my work e-mail off my phone unless necessary, read before bed instead of watching TV: Sort of did this. I definitely did more reading at bed time but I certainly didn't unplug from TV. Instead I added new shows to watch. I did keep off my work email unless necessary, so that was good!

- Discover or rediscover a fitness activity I enjoy (zumba?!): Yes! I have been loving light weight strength training for the past few months (high reps, using 3-12lb weights). I take a class every Monday that I love and do lots of at-home workouts of this style.

- Continue to write in this blog!: I did pretty well here. I wrote 100 posts in 2013, but it's definitely skewed toward the first half of the year.

Overall I give myself an A for effort. It's exciting to know that I made strides in prioritizing my life and took at least some solid steps in investing in myself, my relationships, and my career. 

I'm still thinking about setting goals for 2014. Catch ya on the flip side!