Resolutions

For the almost 15 years we've been together, my husband has always been the one to take time in the new year to set goals for himself personally and professionally, and review his accomplishment toward of the previous year's objectives (or lack thereof) in a very systematic way. I have never been so disciplined, but instead stuck to what until now have seemed pretty generic "life goals," such as "this year I want to get pregnant" (1996 and 1999), "this year I want to go back to school" (2006), or "this year I want to finish Eagleman" (2007). On the whole, I guess my resolutions were achieved without what seemed like an inordinate amount of work on my part: I guess you could call me fertile-Myrtle on the pregnancy front; I was pretty confident that I could get into grad school again; and training for Eagleman in good company and with good coaches made it possible for me to finish.

Now it's 2008 and I do have two major goals looming on the horizon for this year (thus the blog for one of them). However, I feel there are several important aspects of my life that could use some improvement. I hope that by declaring those goals here I will not lose sight of what's important in my pursuit of either my MFA or an M-dot tatoo. To it, they are:

• To be a good friend, head cheerleader, and active listener to my husband, children, fellow grad students, and TriGirls. There is more of me I can give to them, despite the every day issues (school work, grocery shopping, etc) that can take over my life.
• Over the past year I have lost touch with or become distant from friends that don't fall into the "grad student" and "TriGirl" categories. Many of these women have seen me through some hard times and I miss them. I feel that I could lose their friendship entirely. I haven't figured out how to fix this yet, but it is something that bears working on.
• I have always been one to skate through school and still manage decent grades. The first half of this past semester was a bit of a wake up call on that front. This spring, I have the opportunity to push myself academically. Maintaining a light race schedule is only the first step, much harder will be to become more disciplined with my time in the studio.
• And finally, to apply myself more to my athletic training. Like the beautiful Susie Q, I need to take joy in what my body can accomplish, but also ask what more I can do. I need to face those workouts without whining and without complaint (which will take some of the fun out of it!), but with a serious sense of purpose and a "what can I learn from this?" attitude. Anything less and I may not earn that tatoo.

Per TriGirl40's blog, our coach has asked us to think of a word to motivate us and help us attain our goals for the coming year. I think mine will be "persevere," which Webster's defines as "to persist in any purpose or enterprise; continue striving in spite of difficulties, etc."

Happy New Year!