and a few of the goals that I will be focusing on in 2010 and a brief breakdown of how I plan to achieve them with you to try to make up for it.
1) Defend my dissertation and become Dr. de Moda. Obviously, this is a goal that cannot be achieved overnight. However, I've been revising my dissertation chapters over the past few weeks and will continue to do so. I've set a deadline to finish revisions by January 20th. This is a later date than I had initially intended, but I've been hacking my brains out for a week, the new term starts on Monday, and I'll be away at a conference next week. I accept that I'm only human, but if I devote six to seven hours a day to revisions the next three days, I should be on track by the time the term starts. That will give me the week of my wedding away from the dissertation and then writing the intro and conclusion and taking care of any revisions that come back on a second round in February and early March. This should put me on schedule for an April defense.
2) Successfully complete my 2.5 month shopping ban. As I outlined in an earlier post, I will not be doing any clothes shopping during the months of January, February or the first half of March. The way I plan to achieve this is to use my own style blog and those of others to find ways to creatively remix the pieces that I already have. And whenever I feel an uncontrollable urge to shop for something, to write down what that thing is, how I'm feeling, what might have brought on the urge to shop, and then shift gears and either do some work on the dissertation or hit the running trails or my yoga mat. When the ban is over, I will continue to dress stylishly and within budget.
3) Run 3 half-marathons. In 2009 I ran a 10k, a half-marathon, and a full marathon. While part of me wants to be ambitious and run another marathon in 2010, I'm also well aware of the fact that my dissertation and teaching a new course next term will be extremely time consuming. Training for a marathon is mentally, emotionally, and physically draining. There's a chance that if things work out and I land a tenure track job that I might consider training for another marathon in the fall, but in the meantime, I've decided to set the goal of running 3 half-marathons in 2010. The first of these will be in March in Virginia Beach. So over the next week as I feel better I'll be easing back into a running routine. Upon my return from my trip to the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, I will be running four or five times a week, and following a half-marathon training schedule. (Even though I'm not a novice, I like the flexibility of this program. I might train more intensely later in the year.) Since I am much better at running in the morning, I will commit to getting up early and getting my training in first thing, except for those days when I'm running with a friend.
4) Write another scholarly article. Once my dissertation is turned into the graduate school, I'd like to spend some time in the late spring and summer working on another article for publication. I have an idea and have done a teensy bit of preliminary research for this article, but obviously I won't be able to focus on it until later in the year. I don't want my brain to get dusty right after the dissertation is completed, but I also know that after three years, I need a break from that project before I start thinking about revising it as a book manuscript.
5) Be more mindful in general, but also spend more time on the yoga mat in physical asana and meditation. I need to connect with my mat and shut up my inner monologue for atleast a few minutes every day. When I do this I feel better, and I know that. I also will eat all of my meals at the table, including breakfast, even though that might reduce the amount of time I spend blogging/reading other blogs.
6) Read atleast one poem everyday. In my opinion, everyone should make time in their life for poetry. Enough said.
7) Help to keep the house cleaner. I have been tremendously guilty of only cleaning up when I know people are coming over for the past two or three months. M. has done more than his fair share of washing dirty dishes and sweeping up Bailey hair. If I want my marriage to be an equal partnership, then I better start pitching in more with the household chores again. My plan is to spend a couple of hours cleaning this afternoon. Then I will spend about 10-15 minutes a day during the week and a couple of hours over the weekends picking up, dusting, sweeping, organizing. I know that having an orderly house makes me feel more at ease, so I should invest the time in keeping it cleaner.
8) Continue to be patient with growing out my hair -- at least until June. This is the longest that my hair has been since 2005, and I'm only just starting to re-learn how to style longer hair. I want to use this period to learn how to do a few updos and hopefully my hair will get long enough to actually put it in a side chignon. Although I doubt I'll ever get the hang of more elaborate updos. Speaking of updos, these are a couple that I'm trying to pick between for my wedding:
I would put get a tenure-track job on the list, but I decided that these goals should be things that I essentially have direct control over. What do you hope to accomplish in 2010? Do you break your goals down into more manageable mini-goals and come up with a game plan? How do you set and achieve your goals?
Oh, and fear not. We'll be back with more outfit posts, open forums, and guest lectures in the new year. Have a safe and very happy New Year!
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