Revisiting Goals for 2011

Remember last January when I shared 20 goals for Twenty Eleven? Let's look back and see how we did. I can tell you now, there are some that were achieved and some that were a big fat FAIL.

Ringing in a New Year with wonderful friends in the new house!

Goal #1: Read at least 20 books.
I don't honestly know how many books I've read because my Kindle battery has been dead for the past three months because I haven't read a single book in the past three months. I did read a bunch of books in the beginning of the year though and some favorites included: Let the Great World Spin, The Help, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, The Hunger Games Trilogy, Animals in Translation and A Dog's Purpose. I'm pretty certain I didn't make it to 20 though.

Grade: C

Goal #2: Run 1011 miles in 2011 (Cary).
Ha! No.

Grade: D-

Goal #3: Volunteer somewhere. More than once.
I officially volunteered once this year by taking pictures for the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven. I unofficially volunteered on a few occasions to take pictures for friends and family as well. All of these were a great use of my time because I got to help others out and work on my photography skills!

Grade: A-

Goal #4: Change up our fitness routine.
I would say I definitely changed up my fitness routine this year. And by that I mean little to no running in favor of swinging a hammer and lifting heavy objects, which resulted in surprisingly large arm muscles. I also took up yoga and am finding that I really, really enjoy the change of pace.

Grade: A-

Goal #5: Stop biting my fingernails (Cary).
Ha! No. Stubby, half-gnawed nails are still in full effect. I blame it on stress.

Grade: F

Goal #6: Go vegan for an entire month (Cary).
Yahoo! A goal accomplished in full. Remember my month of veganism?

Grade: A

Goal #7: Declutter. This applies to our lives as well as our basement.
Technically we are currently in full declutter mode. As we make the permanent move to our new home, we are weeding out all the "excess" stuff that we don't need to bring with us. So, in that way, the physical things in our life are being decluttered. The rest, well, there hasn't been anything in our lives this year to declutter because all of our time has been devoted to homebuilding.

Grade: B+

Goal #8: Participate in a bike race (Cary) and a 5K road race (James).
Big Fat Fail on all accounts. Maybe in 2012.

Grade: F

Goal #9: Complete an ultramarathon (Cary).
Riiiiight. I barely made it to the Turkey Trot this year.

Grade: F

Goal #10: Lose those five pounds that came with 2010 and do it without dieting (Cary).
I haven't had the time or inclination to weigh myself in more than six months. I lost five pounds starving in the first two weeks of my vegan diet, but that doesn't count. Really, I'm over it and what's five pounds anyway? The good news is I didn't GAIN five pounds this year either!

Grade: B

Goal#11: Find a new date night activity.
Technically, we nailed this one. But, unfortunately, that date night activity was a regular Friday AND Saturday night trip to the Home Depot. Yes, seriously.

Grade: C

Goal #12: Restore a piece of furniture. This one is in progress. Remember those thrifty furniture finds? I'm working on them as we speak and I'll be sharing them soon!

Grade: Incomplete

Goal #13: Be smarter about our finances.
Technically, we spent more money this year than we ever have in our entire lives. BUT, I was able to save a TON of money by shopping smart. My two favorite ways to save online: Ebates and our Discover Card cash back bonus points. Check out how much we saved just in the last few months. Also, we purchased a lot of new furniture for the house and didn't pay full price for a single piece of it by taking advantage of all of the holiday sales and coupons. Woot, woot! Can't wait to share our finds with you soon!

Grade: A-

Goal #14: Reinvest in relationships. Honestly, we haven't had a lot of free time to spend date nights with friends and family (unless we happen to run into them at the Home Depot). But, I'm as close as ever with my BFFs and one of them even moved back to CT this year with her hubs and baby. It's been great having them both around more often and has given us an opportunity to grow even closer. We're also really looking forward to life living next door to my brother and his family. It's so great to be neighbors!

Grade: A-

Goal #15: Dress up more.
I think I did a fairly good job with this one. True, there were days where I skipped a shower or showed up to work with brushing my hair, but on the whole, I think my style ranking notched up a little in 2011. James on the other hand...

Grade: A-

Goal #16: Participate fully in the house building process.
Oh. Yes. We. Did.

Grade: A+++

Goal #17: Add three new "green" routines to our lifestyle.
Ummmm...no comment.

Grade: D

Goal #18: Open an Etsy site to promote (hopefully sell!) some of our creative projects.
Nope. Didn't happen in 2011. I'm hoping this is a highlight for 2012.

Grade: F

Goal #19: Practice patience & Communication.
I honestly don't think James and I could have gotten through this year in one piece and our marriage intact without a lot of patience and constant communication. Home building is HARD. Especially when you submerse yourself in it like we did. It's stressful and exhausting and all consuming. I think we did good on this one. Much better than expected actually.

Grade: A-

Goal #20: Reduce stress.
In hindsight, this wasn't a good goal for a year when we were taking on so much. There were times when my stress level was so high that my hair started falling out. No joke. But, I'll be rolling this one over to my 2012 goals. I'm going to make it happen!

Grade: D

Overall, we could have done better but considering the year we had, we didn't do as bad as I expected. I'll try to come up with a list of goals for 2012 soon. You'll probably see a few repeaters on there but writing them down seems to help keep us honest. What are your goals for 2012? Are you a resolution keeper or breaker?