Goals: 2009 Summary

nehal : Feb 3, 2010

So I’m a little late in getting this posted, but I finally did it.

  • Financial
    • Earn $5K from sources outside my primary income
      • I sold stock options, but I hardly count that.
    • Give more to charity this year than I did last year
      • Yep.
    • Finish building and maintain a 6-month emergency fund
      • I think I have about 6 months now (probably a bit more). I think I need to continue extending this to a 12-month cushion in this economy.
    • Save $10K for our 2010 trip to Africa
      • Sitting in the bank account, but it’ll likely mean dipping into the cushion.
    • Limit spending on dining out
      • Could have been better
  • Travel
    • Plan our trip to the UK (already paid for airfare in 2008)
    • Organize the Africa trip for 2010
      • Planning to head out at the end of July. Waiting for airfares to come down (crossing fingers)
    • Visit Mom & Dad in Chicago
      • Went home to Chicago again in June, but unfortunately not for a pleasure; Dad passed away on June 24.
  • Friends & Family
    • Call someone I haven’t spoken to in a while once a week
      • This one was tough to keep up with. A valiant effort, but fell to the way-side
  • Work
    • Re-assess my career goals at my current employer
      • Job = $. Period.
      • The year ended pretty much the same way. A 5% pay cut didn’t help (though we got it back as a bonus at the end of the year).
      • Trying to decide if I want to go for a promotion.
    • Re-establish discipline in day-to-day task management
      • The daily deluge of email and being pulling 20 directions took its toll.
  • Health & Fitness
    • Stay on the Zone diet and track my progress using FitDay
      • Never got this going. Doing better now.
    • Perform 30 pull-ups without rest
      • Got to 26 during a workout!
    • Run a 5K in under 23 minutes
      • Didn’t hit this one
    • Perform 1 muscle-up
      • Getting close; need more practice
      • Still needed more practice
    • Perform Fran as prescribed in under 12 minutes
      • It was tough at 85lbs, but still managed to do it in under 10 min then
      • Tried it with 95lbs. Still tough. 16 minutes-plus.
  • Learning
  • Photography
    • Take one photography-specific trip (could be anywhere)
      • does my trip to India count?
    • Sell 5 stock photos
      • Did not happen

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Mid-Year Goals Update

nehal : Jul 9, 2009

  • Financial
    • Earn $5K from sources outside my primary income
      • Not much yet
    • Give more to charity this year than I did last year
      • On track
    • Finish building and maintain a 6-month emergency fund
      • Been doing some extra spending lately. Hopefully this will settle down. Plus I think I need to extend this to a 12-month cushion in this economy.
      • This is going to take a little bit longer. We just bought a new car
    • Save $10K for our 2010 trip to Africa
      • Just bought a new car, but I think we’ll make it
    • Limit spending on dining out
      • Could have been better, but coming down slowly
      • Trying to eat out only 2 meals (1 lunch, 1 dinner) per week from mid-June to the end of July
  • Travel
    • Plan our trip to the UK (already paid for airfare in 2008)
    • Organize the Africa trip for 2010
      • Still going to be a while before we get this really rolling
    • Visit Mom & Dad in Chicago
      • Went home to Chicago again in June, but unfortunately not for a pleasure; Dad passed away on June 24.
  • Friends & Family
    • Call someone I haven’t spoken to in a while once a week
      • Falling behind on this one
  • Work
    • Re-assess my career goals at my current employer
      • Job = $. Period.
    • Re-establish discipline in day-to-day task management
      • Getting there. Still tough with the daily deluge of email and being pulling 20 directions
  • Health & Fitness
    • Stay on the Zone diet and track my progress using FitDay
      • Have not started at fitday yet
    • Perform 30 pull-ups without rest
      • Got to 26 during a workout!
    • Run a 5K in under 23 minutes
    • Perform 1 muscle-up
      • Getting close; need more practice
    • Perform Fran as prescribed in under 12 minutes
      • It was tough at 85lbs, but still managed to do it in under 10 min then
  • Learning
  • Photography
    • Take one photography-specific trip (could be anywhere)
    • Sell 5 stock photos

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February Goals Update

nehal : Mar 2, 2009

  • Financial
    • Earn $5K from sources outside my primary income
      • Not much yet
    • Give more to charity this year than I did last year
      • On track
    • Finish building and maintain a 6-month emergency fund
      • Been doing some extra spending lately. Hopefully this will settle down. Plus I think I need to extend this to a 12-month cushion in this economy.
    • Save $10K for our 2010 trip to Africa
      • Getting there
    • Limit spending on dining out
      • Could have been better, but coming down slowly
  • Travel
    • Plan our trip to the UK (already paid for airfare in 2008)
      • Plans are falling into place
    • Organize the Africa trip for 2010
      • Still going to be a while before we get this really rolling
    • Visit Mom & Dad in Chicago
      • Done! May plan another trip later this year
  • Friends & Family
    • Call someone I haven’t spoken to in a while once a week
      • On track. Spent an hour catching up with Jay this weekend.
  • Work
    • Re-assess my career goals at my current employer
      • Job = $. Period.
    • Re-establish discipline in day-to-day task management
      • Getting there. Still tough with the daily deluge of email and being pulling 20 directions
  • Health & Fitness
    • Stay on the Zone diet and track my progress using FitDay
      • Have not started at fitday yet
    • Perform 30 pull-ups without rest
      • Need to work on grip strength
    • Run a 5K in under 23 minutes
    • Perform 1 muscle-up
    • Perform Fran as prescribed in under 12 minutes
  • Learning
    • Read 12 books
    • Catch up on, and stay current with, my magazine subscriptions
      • Stack is still huge
  • Photography
    • Take one photography-specific trip (could be anywhere)
    • Sell 5 stock photos

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January Goals Update

nehal : Feb 12, 2009

Here’s my update for January

  • Financial
    • Limit spending on dining out
      • Doing (sort of) okay here. Trying to limit lunches to 2x per week. Still needs improvement
  • Travel
    • Visit Mom & Dad in Chicago.
      • Trip is planned for Dad’s Bday weekend
  • Friends & Family
    • Call someone I haven’t spoken to in a while once a week.
      • Been doing okay on this one
  • Work
    • Re-establish discipline in day-to-day task
      • Getting there. Kind of hard to keep up with so many fires and interruptions.
  • Health & Fitness
    • Stay on the Zone diet and track my progress using FitDay
      • Have not started tracking on FitDay yet, but I need to
    • Perform Fran as prescribed in under 12
      • Made one step in this direction. Did it with 75lbs and only lost about 14s vs. my time with 65lbs
  • Learning
    • Read 12 books
      • 2 down so far
    • Catch up on, and stay current with, my magazine subscriptions
      • Not much progress, but I’ll be spending some time on a plane, so there is an opportunity.

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