setting goals

i work for a company that focuses a lot of attention on goal-setting.  i was, as you can imagine, rather skeptical of this. i've been a hard worker and a reasonably high achiever most of my young life, and i thought i was doing just fine without writing down some goals, thank you very much.

rewind three years.  i was working 80 hours, seven days a week for most of the summer.  (once i had a sunday off.  i cried with relief while i walked to the Lincoln Park farmer's market.  and then i cried more that afternoon because i was so stressed i was too checked out.  sick, but i know you know what i mean.)  at some point during august 2009, i wrote out a few lines on a piece of notebook paper and stuck it in a journal.  and it turns out, those were my first written goals.  (i told this story last year.)

this goal-setting thing has become an incredibly rewarding process for me.  i just rewrote my goals again, today.  i got to cross off a few (hosting a get-together in my apartment in nyc? check.  running a half marathon? almost check! presenting an evening-length dance work to over 300 people in new york city? CHECK.  talk about jolt of confidence!)  the editing process is enlightening - it's a chance to sit back and celebrate what i have accomplished, notice where i have fallen short, and find out how my priorities have shifted since those goals were written.  it's interesting - the core 10-years-from-now-i-want-this things have stayed the same in the past two years since i've been writing and rewriting my goals, but the little things change all the time.  (100 mile bike ride lost out to running a half marathon, as pointed out by an ever-inspiring pal. freestanding handstand disappeared, presenting work in new york happened a year and a half before my goal deadline.  having children backed up a couple years...haha.)

and i'd like to share a few of my current goals.  gotta put them out in the universe, you know?

i present brand new work in a dance festival by december 2012.
i choreograph a musical in new york by july 2013.
i pay off credit card debt by october 2013.
i raise a puppy by july 2014.

phew. readysetgo.