2014 was not a good year for uber list accomplishments. I only achieved 8 out of 20 goals, although I got partial credit for a few others. It wasn’t that I didn’t do anything in 2014. Some achievements like being in the cast of Listen to Your Mother were awesome but could not have been anticipated on the uber list.
As a reminder, an uber list is a list of goals (small and large, easy and challenging) for the next year. I didn’t make this up. I stole the idea years ago from my friend Megan who used to post hers on LiveJournal. Uber list goals must meet the following criteria:
- Uber list items should be things I probably wouldn’t do without a list prodding me.
- Uber list items should be specific and measurable (as opposed to saying I’ll do something “more” or “be better”)
- Uber list items should be within my control. For example, I can make goals about applying for jobs but “getting a new job” isn’t entirely up to me.
I also try to have uber list goals that span different areas of my life, so that is how I will organize them this year.
Family & Friends
- Go to at least 25 playgrounds. One of the cool things about Chicago is that there are so many parks. Whenever we drive by one my son asks, “Can we go to that park someday?” This year I want to make good on my “Sure, honey” responses.
- Visit Pittsburgh. I haven’t been back to Pittsburgh since 2012. That’s too long to be away from a place where I have so many wonderful friends.
Career
- Get my CISSP. Becoming a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) involves a lot of studying then paying money to take an exam. I always figured doing that wasn’t that important since I have a master’s degree in information security (which meant I already studied and took a lot of exams). Unfortunately, hiring managers with job postings that say “CISSP preferred” seem to disagree. Fine. I’ll do it.
- Build my personal website. Having a blog is great, but I really need a portfolio site as well. I bought my domain a year ago but never did a thing with it. I need to fix that.
- Write a new one- act play and at least outline a new full-length play. I miss playwriting. I need to make time for it. No excuses. As Sarah Ruhl reminds me, “one must not think of life as an intrusion” on writing.
Health
- Go to yoga 12 times. I really miss yoga. I know that only trying to go once a month is a pretty lame goal, but if I achieve it that will be 12 more times than I went in 2014.
- Lose 10 pounds. Last year’s goal was to lose 15 pounds. I only lost 5. Time to finish what I started.
Home
- Tackle the back office sublist. I have a bunch of small things I want to do to streamline my bill-paying and record keeping that I just never get to: creating reminders for recurring tasks, setting up autopay for the mortgage, creating a shared calendar for the nanny. None are hard. I just need to get them done.
- Organizing the office and basement. Every year I make progress on this. Every year something happens and I backslide horribly. This year I will defeat them. I must believe that.
Do you have any goals for 2015? For more ideas check out Julie from Hammervision’s great 2015 to-do list. The kid’s book thing she wants to do is genius.
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Kim Z. Dale 