Semi-Annual Planning

Each June and each December I allocate a fair amount of effort into defining six finite, measurable projects that would advance me if I actually did them over the following half year.  Usually only one has a real deadline with an inevitable end point.  That one always gets done, whether it be celebrating a milestone anniversary or arranging a child's Bar Mitzvah.  Most other things don't exactly end up getting procrastinated but never arrive at the pre-determined end point either.  I always fall a couple of publications short of my usual goal of four, my finances get turned over to an expert but I never actually complete the estate planning that I had intended, some physical ailment crops ups that gives me an excuse for not meeting my exercise targets.  Still, it is good to have a tangible measurable goal with a deadline to better enable some form of direction and prod to get there.

Usually it is not hard to get to six, some like repackaging intentions for better health or less random financial management in some form.  For the past six month block, I started my new job, got my name in print only once but got three medical opinion pieces onto the electronic journal.  My future financial needs of estate planning and long term care insurance will remain undone by New Year's Day.  My weight is a few pounds above where it was in July and as in past years, my treadmill has become one more flat surface to put stuff on.  There is usually a home upgrade on the list, this time to create a sanctuary for myself in my bedroom.  The semiannual home upgrade project almost never gets done, whether dependent on me or a contractor.  I tend to waver back and forth in its process, much like approaching anatomy, which can be taught either regionally or by systems that span several regions.  I can either make my bedroom sparkle or I can rid the house of clutter wherever in the house unneeded stuff happens to be.  I've tried both, neither effective.  And by the end of the half-year, the sixth project has escape my immediate consciousness but is easily recalled by a glance at the 3x5 index card that I keep with the page marker of my Franklin Planner.  Oh yes, it was to have a blog that other people might want to read.  The postings are regularly implemented, the readership spotty.

So what do I hope my life will be upgraded to by Independence Day 2011?  I will weigh less by intent, though the process for getting there still needs to be worked out.  Upgrading rooms has been a sufficient failure that I will need to do something regionally this time.  Now that I am earning a very substantial wage without the intrusion of running my practice, it is time to set a higher priority to this than I have been doing.  There is always some form of mental advancement project that I really work on.  The time has probably arrived to get some modern electronics such as iPod or iPad or Smart Phone to better enable this, though I've encountered a fair number of people who I think are not smart even though their phone is.  What has not been on the intermediate goals in a while is some form of Jewish advancement.  Slouching in level of observance would make for a good topic for one of the three essays I intended to write but didn't.