Goals, Goals, Goals

B2B W7: 165/250, ****, 8 stairs

Last night I was an evaluator at my Toastmaster's club after being away for over 6 months. As the meeting proceeded, I kept thinking to myself, "Why don't I do more of this?"

On Monday I met with a friend for lunch and we were discussing what I'm going to do with my life. She asked me what happened to my blog (Balanced Life Center). I said I stopped writing over 6 months ago. She asked why, and for the life of me all I could conjure was the pitiful, "I don't have time" excuse.

Every morning when I go to the gym I come home feeling exhilarated and infused with energy. For about a year I walked to work and back, a 1 hour round trip. I loved it. Why did I stop?

I could blame the relationship that I started with amazing DBF around the time of the pauses. Or I could blame it on the continuing education classes that I'm taking in preparation for ministerial school. I can blame it on my job. In the end though, what it boils down to are my priorities.

A few years ago, I broke myself out of the habit of saying that I don't have enough time or money. What I changed it to was that at this time I choose not to spend my time/money that way? It was a very empowering switch. It caused me to examine what I was choosing to spend my time/money on, and in many cases I simply stopped doing what was not beneficial and started doing what was. I also started to do high yielding activities.

For example, I started walking to work instead of carving out time to "exercise" because I wanted to get active in general. I wanted activity to be a part of my life. I also reaped tremendous mental capacity and wellness from walking to and from work. I felt like I owned the city. I became more extraverted. And I got the bonus of exercise.

I can manage a lot if I leverage my time and do the things that I enjoy. Instead of feeling drained and exhausted by mindless, tasking activities, I feel refreshed when I do the things that I love. I dedicated this year to working on my body, almost to the exclusion of everything else because I recognize that it takes focus. However, I won't put my life on hold for one aspect of it. There are a few things I need to accomplish in the next few years and even more that I want to accomplish.

Things I Want to Achieve by December 2010

1. Develop a healthy, lean, flexible, svelt body that weighs 135 lbs
2. Run a half marathon
   
3. Complete SEE classes
   
4. Achieve Toastmaster's Advanced Communicator Bronze
   
5. Achieve Toastmaster's Competent Leader
   
6. Generate 30,000 pageviews/month on Balanced Life Center
   
7. Maintain zero balances on credit cards
   
8. Save $10,000
   
9. Visit 2 US cities that I've not yet visited
   
10. Visit one country I've not yet visited
    
11. Go to Trinidad for Carnival
    
12. Become a US citizen
    

In addition to the above list of goals, I would like to:

• Express and experience more God
  
• Teach one spiritual education class per quarter
  
• Enjoy authentic, loving, soulful relationships
  
• Attend a New Thought or BlogHer conference
• Fix my teeth
  

What does all of this have to do with weight loss? Well, in short, I am getting clearer on the direction I'd like my life to take. I have found in the past that as my body shrinks, my life gets bigger. I gain confidence and assuredness (not certain that's a word). I become steadfast. As I am able to meet any commitment that I make to myself, whether it be eating healthy, or exercising, or meditating daily, I begin to trust myself to make bigger and bigger commitments. My life opens up. This is a wonderful side effect of the year of the body.