You can go hard or you can go home

I've been thinking a lot about what it is that I want to accomplish in 2012.  If I look back at 2011, it was a year full of ups and downs.  It wasn't the greatest year for me in my professional life but health wise I think I did a good job.  I had set three goals at the beginning of the year and I accomplished 2 out of the 3.

1. Get a new job - I lost my job & have been unemployed for 9 months so that's a fail.
2. Health & fitness - I am happy with my results for the year although I know I can do better. 
3. Needs vs. wants - being out of a job has definitely made me evaluate my needs vs wants.  I don't spend my money as foolishly I as used to but that's solely because I don't have the income that I had at the beginning of the year.  

I've been thinking a lot of what I want to accomplish this year.  Some of my goals are obvious (find a job & lose weight) while others are up to my own interpretation (take more risks). I've decided on 4 goals/resolutions which will be my focus for this year.

1. Get a job - I will admit that the month of December I was very laid back in my job hunt.  From family visiting to preparing for the holidays to well, it's just a bunch of excuses.  I haven't been as diligent as I was in the previous months & I need to work harder.  I need to treat my search as if it was my job.  Dedicate more time and try to find different ways to network.  Perhaps start volunteering in hopes that it leads to a possible job or a reference.  
2. Continue working towards a healthy lifestyle - I lost half a pound this week bringing my total to 80.1 pounds.  I will continue with WW.  It has worked for me.  I have lost 80 pounds in 15 months and that to me is incredible.   However, I could do better.  In the last three months of 2010 I lost 27 pounds which averages out to 9 pounds a month.  In 2011, I lost 51 pounds.  It's still a great loss but losing an average of 4.25 pounds a month in 2011 is not good enough for me especially when I can lose more than that when I set my mind to it.  I managed to lose 11.7 pounds just this past month.  My goal for 2012 is to lose 8 pounds a month.  It sounds like a lot and it is but if I can continue to be motivated and keep working hard then I know I can do it.  
3. Run - now that is a scary three letter word. I will continue to work on my half marathon training guide and as I keep losing weight, I will start to jog and my hope is that at the end of 2012 I can run a 5K without stopping.  I know that this won't happen overnight.  I know that I have to keep going to the gym and working hard.  But I will be running at the end of the year.  
4. Take more risks - one of the things I've discovered is that the only thing that holds me back is myself.  I never thought I could lose weight.  I never thought I could actually walk 5K.  I almost let my fear of the unknown hold me back from going to the Do Life event in July.  If I hadn't gone, I wouldn't have discovered such a great community and I doubt that I would be working out as much as I am now.  I never thought I would go to a blogger meetup where I didn't know anyone.  I have met some great people and if I had let my fears rule how I deal with life I would've missed out on a great support system.  Sounds simple but I am going to put myself out there and work on being fearless. 

I guess the theme for 2012 for me is "you can go hard or you can go home".  When I set my mind to it, I have proven that I can do things I never thought I could do. So what's stopping me from doing them?  If I am going to give my life a half ass attempt, I might as well give up.  But what kind of life is that?  That's not living and doing life.  It's just existing.  I don't want to just exist any longer.  

I started out 2012 by going on a walk in San Francisco.   I had hoped to walk the Golden Gate bridge but there were so many people that parking was a mess. I decided to walk along the water and just be in the moment.  It wasn't my fastest or farthest walk but for me that wasn't the point of it.  I was out there living life.