2012 New Year’s Goals

Another new year brings another blank slate of possibilities. What will happen in 2012? Part of me has no idea, because 2012 is a year of scary new possibilities. But I still have goals, and at the beginning of this fresh shiny New Year, I like to write them out and post them. That way I'm held accountable.

So once again I'm going to break up my goals into three categories: Engineer Goals, Writer Goals, and Christian/Personal Goals.

Engineering Goals:

1. Do well at my job.
   

   We actually have a ton of goals at my job, but it's not necessary or appropriate to hash them all out here. We're hoping to make a lot of changes in how we run and do things in the 2012 year. But my goal, as an engineer, is just to do well. This is my first long term, real job. And I want to do well at it. So during my work hours I plan to do a better job of not being distracted, of devoting myself to my work, and at excelling at what I do.
   

Writer Goals:

1. Make the FINAL revision on Spirit Riddled.
   

   This is a goal that has rolled over from 2011. I really want to get Spirit Riddled done, to stop ignoring it, and to get in a shiny, beautiful final draft that I can be proud of and hopefully query.
   

2. Revise The Descent of Chris Chappell.
   

   I've actually already started working on this. I revised the first chapter and let me tell you—it completely changed. I basically threw out the original first chapter and rewrote the entire thing from scratch. And I think it's much stronger. I have no delusions that this revision will be the final revision. This is Descent's first revision. (Unlike Spirit Riddled which is on revision number six I think). But I don't want this WIP to just languish. I want to continue to work on it and make it better.
   

3. Start querying.
   

   Considering Spirit Riddled is in revision six and Descent is on revision one, you would think I could rewrite this as "start querying Spirit Riddled." But as improbable as it may seem, it's quite possible that in my new life as a non-student, I'll be able to get through several good revisions of Descent this year and bring it up to a querying par. And considering I'm in the middle of my Descent mojo, I may put off Spirit Riddled for a long while. So I think I'll be satisfied as long as I start querying something this year.
   

4. Not be a slacker critique.
   

   I actually think I'm off to a good start on this one. I critiqued someone's first two chapters in a timely and orderly manner over Christmas break. So yay!
   

5. Not be a slacker blogger.
   

   Since I'm not a student anymore, I have no excuse to let this blog die middle of the semester. Hopefully, it'll be like the summers have been in the past, where I blog nearly every day. But we'll discuss this more next week when I discuss the future of this blog.
   

Christian/Personal Goals:

1. Actually have a regular quiet time.
   

   This is another goal that has rolled over from last year, but I'm confident that now that I'm not a student I can actually have a normal schedule in my life. The kind of schedule that doesn't involved people calling me at 9:00 PM to ask me if I've started the Orbital Homework and if I would like to come over and work on it with them. I just need to find a time and stick to it. Though, I think I'll be a bad Christian and not do it first thing in the morning. All I want to do first thing in the morning is take a shower, eat breakfast, and get to work. So it'll probably be an evening quiet time.
   

2. Be fit enough to survive a zombie apocalypse.
   

   This goal is all about getting in shape. Now that I'm not a student, I can actually work out without feeling guilty. I would like to lose weight as well, but that's such a superficial goal, I feel like. I don't want to just lose weight. I want to be healthy. If the zombie apocalypse happens, I want to be able to outrun a zombie. I want to survive.
   

3. Start cooking real meals, weekly.
   

   Seriously, for the past six years I have survived off of microwave dinners. It's kind of disturbing. This sort of fits into my previous goal of wanting to be healthier, but I didn't want to cram it into that goal. This goal is its own thing. It's not just about being healthy. It's about learning to cook delicious things that I'll want to eat. I'm sort of a picky eater and I would like to find recipes I love and love to eat.
   

So those are my goals! And I guess another goal is I would like to beat my 50% rate of meeting goals that I got last year.

Anyone else out there have some big goals for the New Year?