Goals for 2008

I have been contemplating my goals (not resolutions) for this coming year. You may think these are coming a little late, but I've decided to run on the lunar calendar starting now, so technically, I'm early (for those of you who don't know, the lunar new year is next week, February 7th - it's the year of the rat! Ick!).

I don't believe in resolutions because they sound so hard and fast; when you break a resolution, it's as if you have done something horrible and you feel bad about it. Goals are easier for me to wrap my mind around. If you don't reach a goal, no big deal, try again tomorrow, or next month, or next lunar year!

My large, all-encompassing goal of this year (and my whole life really) is just to find happiness and be content with myself. Therefore, all my smaller goals below are part of the bigger picture:

1) Get my first novel published - this is the year I am going to finish my novel and then get a literary agent to believe in it. No big deal.

2) Quit smoking - for real this time, I mean it!

3) Travel (already partly accomplished by going to South Africa in January!) - I want to visit all the friends I've been promising to visit for years domestically, as well as see more places around the world.

4) Enrich my mind - I have sadly neglected my reading in the past couple years, but that is no more. I want to join a book club, see plays, go to museums, participate in all the things that Manhattan has to offer but I've been too lazy or hungover to do.

5) Form better relationships - this does not apply (solely) to boys, but to my friends and family as well. I really want to build a solid network of supportive people in my life, so that I feel each and every one of those people contributes something positive.

6) Find true love and get married.

(Just kidding about that one.)