Goals or resolutions?
Norm Spivey I’ve never really made any New Year’s resolutions . Not completely sure why, just really never had time for it. Perhaps it was because, by necessity in my former career, I was required to establish (and achieve) well defined short and long term goals about the things most people normally make resolutions for- tobacco cessation, physical fitness, weight, professional advancement, alcohol consumption, etc.
The featured image for this week’s blog is a portion of the Army’s Developmental Counseling Form, one of the many tools used to keep Soldiers oriented on goals. You can see how it’s simple, to the point design is action plan and goal oriented. Maybe that’s another reason why I stayed in for as long as I did, the military took the guess work out on a lot of things and helped keep my life in order!
Since the profession of arms is behind me now, I feel a bit adrift on how to go about the process of establishing personal and professional goals. While I know I need to make some improvements in many aspects of my life, for the first time as an adult, I don’t have an institution providing tools to assist or well-defined standards as measurements. Nor is there anyone checking to make sure I’m making progress towards these goals. Guess I got to do it myself now!
This year I will set measurable, short term goals for 2021 and do my best to achieve them. I’ve got only my personal will and family’s oversight to help keep me on track! Also, apologies upfront to die hard New Year’s “resolutionists”, I still can’t bring myself to call what are essentially goals, resolutions. Old habits are hard to break! Maybe next year.
Perhaps sharing my goals for 2021 on this blog will provide some additional level of motivation to follow through. So, not that anyone should care, here are three of my goals for 2021. Note, I am presenting these goals using military jargon I’ve been programmed to use for such a task!
- Improve my health. The measure of performance for this goal is to lose a minimum of 30 pounds and get my total cholesterol score under 200.
I exited the service in 2019 possessing better physical shape than many of my fellow veterans. While I have to strap on a CPAP machine every night for sleep apnea, take medication for arthritis pain in just about every joint and have flat feet that hurt like hell in the mornings, I really can’t complain. Like many veterans, I’ve got the joints of an older person with the cardio vascular system of a 20 year old!
That being said, during my first full year back as a civilian, I’ve noticed some things about my health have slipped. While I still am exercising often, it’s not as frequently and intense as it should be. My weight has risen to a level that looks very awkward on my ectomorph body frame. Getting my diet under control and exercising more should do the trick.
My cholesterol has always been my health Achilles heel, even when I was younger. I am not one who eats pizza, hamburgers, bacon or fried eggs on a daily or even weekly basis, yet my cholesterol continually climbed over the years. During my last two annual checkups, my total score was over 250 and my physician recently put me on medication. While I’ve got the cardio-vascular system of a 20 year old for now, I know it won’t last long if I don’t get this thing under control. Lowering my cholesterol should pair well with the weight loss plan!
- Continue to learn and build on my writing. The measure of performance for this goal is to self-publish a second book no later than June and continue to blog every week of 2021.
You may have noticed I like to write. I’ve always enjoyed writing and had to do a lot of it as part of my professional military education and civilian schooling. Now I find writing a cathartic way to express my thoughts and hopefully share some ideas that maybe could help someone else. I also figure it’s sort of a diary that maybe my offspring will look back on some day…if they are interested. Lastly, the more you write the better you get and I know I need some improvement. Definitely want to commit the time it takes to further develop this good habit during 2021!
- Support my oldest son as he applies for college. The measure of performance for this goal is his submission of an early decision application this fall.
It’s hard to believe our oldest child will be a senior in high school this year! He’s got more potential in his pinky than I ever had in my whole body. But he’s still your average teenager, he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Through the years, I haven’t been around as much as I should have to help him out. I hope I can help him this year to figure out the college application process. It is an important milestone in his life and I want to be there for him. This may mean reprioritizing some other life events to focus on supporting him.
There’s most likely a lot of other things that need attention in my life, but these are the three personal goals I want to share here. If the first step of New Year’s resolutions is to set a measurable goal, then task complete. Now the hard part, execution! There is certainly enough going on in the world today to sidetrack us from our goals and resolutions, keep up the fight! Who would have guessed this time last year we would be in the middle of a global pandemic. We’ll see how it goes…
Many may view January as just another month on the calendar but there are a lot of historical events that went down in this important month. Join me for next week’s blog as I reflect on one such event- the 30th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm!
The views, opinions and biases expressed in this blog are my own and do not reflect those of the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense.
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