Progress thus far

So I just looked over my goals from my New Year's post. Want a progress update? Here it is: No progress. Yep, it's not even February yet and I've failed. I didn't even have the stamina of the New Year's exercisers who cause Steve to avoid the gym until they fizzle out.

On the bright side, here are some things I have accomplished since that post:

• Spent an inordinate amount of time on Facebook, mostly looking at pictures of people I never talk to anymore.
• Watched last week's episode of The Office THREE times. My priorities are in order, yes?
• Rented Mama Mia from Redbox and consequently did a lot of singing in my kitchen (for the record - Soundtrack: yes! Movie: not so much. As Steve said, "James Bond, how far you've fallen.").
• Stalked my favorite blogs approximately 500 times a day, just to make sure I hadn't missed an update. (I hadn't - it's like some kind of blogging famine struck.)
  
• Talked to Hannah on the phone about studying for the GRE. (Hey, talking about it is at least a step in the right direction...right?)
• Realized it's been a VERY long time since I took a math class and that I had forgotten the meaning of the word "hypotenuse." (Do YOU remember? I took a random poll at work and most people didn't.)
• Wikied "hypotenuse." (That's sort of studying...right?)

But failure is the first step to success, right? And who wants to be trendy and jump right on all their goals in January anyway? February is the month for me, I can feel it. Look out standardized testing, here I come!

Resolute

I realize I'm a few days late with the whole New Year's resolutions thing, but that's life. I was freshly inspired to make some new goals after we talked about self-improvement today in church. Elder Richard G. Scott of the LDS church has encouraged taking the following inventory:

• What are my highest priorities to be accomplished while on earth?
• How do I use my discretionary time? Is some of it consistently applied to my highest priorities?
• Is there anything I know I should not be doing?

I think I am (for the most part at least) clear on my priorities, but the part about discretionary time stung just a little - I'm pretty sure "What Not to Wear" isn't doing much to further most of said priorities (although I am a firm believer that indulging in a guilty pleasure from time to time is healthy). So, here are my "discretionary time" resolutions (#1 should probably be Find more discretionary time - seriously, I don't have much these days so I'll be careful not to be overly ambitious). I'm not posting them to intentionally bore anyone who might read this, but because there's nothing like a little public accountability to motivate me to actually KEEP my resolutions. Feel free to check up on me throughout the year - I can usually use a kick in the pants with stuff like this.

1. School for the non-student: read one non-fiction book each month...or at least every other month (nothing like hedging your goals to guarantee success, right?).
2. More school: study for the GRE. I'm not sure where the next couple of years will take us, but I'd like to go back to school eventually and I want to keep my options open.
3. TAKE the GRE this year. It's been a long time since I took a test. Also, I don't tend to respond well to disappointing scores. Um, yikes.
4. Start WRITING for real - I need to put together a portfolio to apply to the program I'm interested in and I don't think blogging counts. Darn.

That's probably enough for now - I suffer from what I'll call Overwhelm Paralysis. Basically, if I feel like I have too much to do, I just don't do anything (except maybe garner fashion advice I can't afford to follow from Stacy and Clinton or spend way too much time learning about football from my sports-savvy hubby).

I have other goals too - you know, the normal spiritual/exercise/nutrition/budget kinds of things pretty much everyone else wants to do too. I'll post those on my fridge or something and hope that's public enough to keep me on my toes.