30 for my 30th: goals are great

Five or six months ago, my friend in Boston mentioned some goals she had before her 30th birthday.  I was inspired and on the plane ride home I came up with 30 personal goals. 

They have morphed a little bit over the last few months and I still didn’t manage to finish them all, but I’ll just take that to mean that I set the bar high.  It’s been a fun project and I am pleased with what I’ve done.

Self-Discipline Goals
These were hard.  Thank God they weren’t all the same 30 days.

• 30 days without using Facebook
• 30 days without eating added sugar
• 30 days without watching TV
• 30 days without with buying anything (other than food…)

Community Goals

• start volunteering – [link]
• make a charitable causes plan and give [link]

Physical Goals
Some of these were also challenging.  I had 21 weeks for these and after you factor in a week or two out of town, being sick once and feeling lazy here and there I ended up doing A LOT of swimming and Y classes in the last month and a half.  A few years ago I injured my wrists and arms while biking and am really happy to say that I now can swim and bike with no (or at least minimal) pain now.

• do 10 hikes – [link]     (150% achieved!)
• swim 2000 yards in one workout  - The most I’ve done now is 2300 yards.
• swim 30 times
• go to 30 classes at the YMCA (95% achieved)
• bike 130 miles
• do a 30 mile bike ride – I rode around the south end of Lake Washington with Porter.

Kitchen Goals

• make a Sachertorte – [link]
• cook 30 new recipes

Intellectual Goals

• read 5 books I already own – Most of the books I buy are non-fiction, so my reading list was a little dry.  I’m looking forward to reading some great fiction now.  Here’s what I read, in order of most recommended to least recommended:
• In the Garden of Beasts – Nazi Germany in 1933, read aloud with Jack
• Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea – engineering genuis finds and recovers shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexicon
• Mothertongue – Bill Bryson’s book about English
• Omnivore’s Dilemma - food, agriculture and eating in America
• Insider’s guide to Seattle  - I learned some good stuff and mentally corrected the author a fair bit.
• visit 3 local museums –
• Burke Museum – disappointingly kid-oriented
• Wing Luke Museum – good and informative but sad and a little alienating
• Frye Art Museum – pretty good
• write 30 blog posts – This is number 30.
• define 30 hazy technical concepts (20% done)
• learn the Devanagari alphabet (10%)

Miscellaneous Goals

• get rid of 30 possessions -   This is just the tip of the iceberg …
• visit with 30 friends
• fix my bike odometer
• make a timeline of our lives graphic – It represents where Jack and I have been during our lifetimes.

• write a graduation limerick -  [link]
• find a primary care doctor
• make a Grand Adventure video (20%)
• make a digital Grand Adventure photo album (30%)
• make a physical Grand Adventure album
• embroider the names on my family tree project (80%)
• document my family tree
• make more goals for the next 6 months…  but not 30 this time :)