Well the new year has arrived.  Somehow switching from 2008 to 2009 was much easier than 2007 to 2008, although it doesn’t make it any easier to see how time flies!
The tradition I started last year was to go against the flow of the “new year resolutions”  and instead take January to reflect on where I’ve been and think about where I want to go.  I liked that and will continue with it this year.  I have reviewed and slightly modified my general “Life Plan” (see here) and will finish commiting my official goals to paper by February 2nd, at which time I will “start the timer”. 

I have already thought a lot about my personal difficulty with completing such challenges and have been playing with the idea of “9 in 2009″.  My plan is to come up with 9 mini-goals (goals that are relatively easy to reach, also known as subgoals or tasks) which I will then simply multiply to attain my larger GOALS.  For example, one of the larger GOALS I want to accomplish is to complete my Maine 2008 scrapbook and a general 2008 scrapbook.  That amount of work looks a bit overwhelming but then I thought about what mini-goals it’s made up of.  For me, to “complete 4 {double page} scrapbook layouts” is doable, so I state that as my mini-goal and simply add a multiplication factor to come up with my larger goal (ie. “x 39 = 156 layouts”).

I like this. It’s useful to break down my goals into more manageable pieces because I can then place those tasks into my calendar each week.  And hey, the “9 in 2009″ is, well, just kinda cute and catchy!