So as Part 3 of my End-of-the-Year wrap-up, here are a few of the things on my list for 2012…

2012 Goooooals:

• Grow savings to $X
• Sublet condo for 1-2 months
• Apply to at least one new credit card for airline miles (only did 1 in 2011, but for 80,000 miles)
• Make more money
• Plan an iPhone app
• Work remotely (not in Portland) for 1-3 months
• Roll over 401k
• Run a 5k
• Continue 3-5x week fitness plan
• No alcohol for 1 month
• Volunteer again
• Travel to South America or Portugal
• Visit NYC, San Francisco, Boston or Savannah (essentially: another US city).
• Attend 12 new Portland things (this one gets more difficult every year!)
• Go on a quarterly getaway trip with boyfriend (Oregon/Northwest etc)
• Find a mentor
• Sew/craft something again (it’s been way too long since I’ve used my sewing machine!)
• Find more girlfriends (with my best friend moving to Hawaii, I’m recognizing that I’m going to have to be a bit more proactive about getting closer with current friends and making more friends in 2012).

And to kick things off, January is going to be some kind of hybrid “be healthier and cook at home” goal + no alcohol. And with that, Happy New Year!

Part 1 – Yearly Goal Setting Template
Part 2 – 2011 Year-End-Review: So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu…
Part 3 – My 2012 Goals

What’s on your 2012 goal list?

Yesterday, I shared my yearly goal setting template. For me, setting yearly goals is slightly similar to the dreaded New Year’s resolutions, in that they’re things I plan to do in the coming year, but way different in that my expectations are different. It’s not about guilt or “omg, I didn’t finish this” at the end of the year. Unlike resolution type goals like “lose weight” or “stop drinking”, these goals are more about specific accomplishments and at the end of the year, even if you only finish 70% (or 30%!) of your items, reviewing them is fun and yeah there might be a couple in there that make you think “well, I could have tried harder for that one”,  it’s generally a time to sip a latte or a glass of wine and clap your hands about all the cool stuff you did this year.

So as a follow-up to that, here are a few things I’m proud of starting and/or finishing in 2011!

2011 Goals Completed:

1. Reviewed my car vs no-car plan to see if it makes more sense to purchase an old car or continue my Zipcar/public transit/biking in summer plan. Decided to buy a new bike!
2. A new job title: Product Manager
3. Started a tumblr, and then abandoned it for Pinterest
4. Added $X to my savings (no big international trips this year, but hey, look, I saved money!)
5. Successfully listed/rented my condo on Airbnb
6. Tried Crossfit
7. Donated $572 with my Forkover Friday project
8. Traveled to Maui, New Orleans, and Florida for play and Vancouver, BC twice for work.
9. Northwest trips to Oregon wine country, biking the San Juans, camping at the coast, Seattle for Bumbershoot
10. Took a cooking class at Sur La Table
11. Hosted a dinner party (2 actually!)
12. Made an effort to go dancing with boyfriend
13. Went to about 250 new restaurants, coffee shops, bars. (maybe a 2012 goal should be to eat at home 250 days/year)
14. Did 12 new Oregon or Portland things: McMenamins Grand Lodge, OMSI After Dark, Willamette Valley wine visit, tubing on the Clackamas River, joined a Pedalpalooza group ride, musical at Keller Auditorium, Backfence PDX, 80s dancing at Crystal Ballroom, box seats at a Blazers game, rollerskating at Oak’s Park (Thermals show), Waterfront Park on July 4, Movies in the Park, soap box derby on Mt Tabor.

And a few things I didn’t accomplish….

2011 goals that kicked my arse:

1. Running a half marathon
2. Getting paid more moolah
3. Volunteering
4. Traveling to South America
5. Finding a mentor
6. Starting a book club

Next up, setting 2012 goals!

Part 1 – Yearly Goal Setting Template
Part 2 – 2011 Year-End-Review: So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu…
Part 3 – My 2012 Goals

What are you proud of this year?

Since I’ve been asked for a bit of the process behind my personal planning, I decided to share an example of my Yearly Planning spreadsheet this year. (After downloading this Excel file, you can import into Google Docs or just use Excel or OpenOffice to use the template for your own goals).

Download the Goal Setting Template:

Tips for doing an Annual Personal Review:

Accountability
I like the idea of posting all of my goals for the world to see for accountability, but some are also personal, so while I’ll mention a few here on my blog, I keep a Google Doc with all my goals. Whatever your system is, share it with someone (start with your BFF!)

The Grand Picture
Some of my yearly goals tie into my 30 Before 30 list (which is now a 31 Before 31 list), some were new goals, bigger goals, smaller goals, BHAGs, etc.

Pick a theme
I’ve seen some people have a theme for their year or a one word description, which I’ve done in the past but I decided to do a quote this last year. 2011 was “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do” — Rumi. This quote really covered the different areas of my life from work to personal to fitness, and I added it to my chalkboard inspiration stripe in my bathroom to remind myself all year.

Categorize!
I like to break out my goals into broad categories. In previous years, I’ve done really specific categories (eg. job, fitness, learning, money, family, blog etc), but this last year I decided to go a little wider with the general themes of: Health, Wealth, Happiness. They all go together, yes, but then I could stick the usual sub-categories under each, like “Health” has Fitness & Learning, and Service & Spiritual etc.

What by when?
Just like typical goals, I try to follow the GTD method to my year-end personal planning. I will… {do what?} {by when} and the {next action step} is. With a  {quarterly review area} and {final review}.

Example: I will put $5,000 in my IRA for 2011 contribution by April 15 (tax time). Next step: Transfer money from my savings account to my IRA account.

A more fun example: I will list my condo on HomeAway or AirBnB by June 1. Next step: Look at current studio listings in Portland for ideas.

An even more fun example: I will take a cooking class in 2011. Next step: Look at class options and schedule at Sur la Table.

Part 1 – Yearly Goal Setting Template
Part 2 – 2011 Year-End-Review: So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu…
Part 3 – My 2012 Goals

Do you do an “annual review” of your personal life?

Prompt #17: It’s easy to be passionate about travel, but does that passion permeate the rest of your life? Do you live and work with passion? Why or why not?

“There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life.” –Federico Fellini

Passion. Purpose. Living consciously. Ten years ago, ‘passionate’ is probably not the first word you would have picked to describe me. I had interests, I enjoyed my life. I had fun. But I didn’t give much thought to living ‘consciously’.

Rewind 12 more years, and this is a book my mom bought me, about my “passion”…

Yes, growing up, I had a bit of a problem with my temper. Ok, I still do. I’m stubborn. Details matter to me. I’m impatient. Design matters to me. Efficiency matters to me. Independence matters to me. I’ve been known to mind vomit.

Fast forward 17 years, and I was sitting in one of my one-on-one meetings with my adviser for my Masters program. She told me several things that I tried to shrug off, but knew were true — essentially that faking it isn’t my forte and that I need to find something that I’m passionate about. That I needed a cause. (She also wore wooden bead necklaces and drove a Prius so I chalked a bit of her advice up to… well her being a touchy-feely hippie I guess?). I realized she was right though when she told me “you need to crank it up a notch, you’re not giving [it] your all, you’re holding back.” Aaah… kumbaya.

Blogging helped me find my passion.

It gave me a place to document and explore my interests and realize trends in what makes me happy. It’s my little sandbox for ideas and projects, it’s my land of serial hobbyism, a place to verbalize my goals, which eventually helped me to make the decision to quit my job for a career break.

These days, I have a job that is a mix of work + play. Being in an industry that I’m passionate about makes work 100x more rewarding and fun. I’m one of those sick people that likes to work. I really like working. Even when I was in an industry I had zero passion for, I still enjoyed my work, I just enjoyed a different aspect – doing good work, and improving things. While I might have experienced the Sunday Night Dreads quite a bit, I still loved working and doing a good job and kicking ass. So it took me a while to realize that I needed a change. And for that, I thank travel.

Oh and these days my “God, I need to talk to you about my bad temper” book of choice is The Four Agreements– which is based on four phrases:

• Be Impeccable With Your Words
• Don’t Take Anything Personally
• Don’t Make Assumptions
• Always Do Your Best

I like that “Always Do Your Best” is the last one, because I mess one of the first three up every day.

Do you work AND play with passion?

Join the 30 Days of Indie Travel project and share your story.

I started this proper list of things that I love about fall, last year, just to remind myself… So here’s the 2011 updated, with 77 things this year. Epic!

1. leather boots
2. crunchy leaves
3. scarves (a serious weakness)
4. cozy striped socks (and argyle! Of which, Target has $5 argyle over-the-knee socks right now. Amazing)
5. English tea w/milk
6. apple orchards
7. Hulu
8. rain boots (looking forward to wearing my Converse-style rainboots! & bees!)
9. coffee
10. Powell’s bookstore
11. reading
12. cooking over-elaborate meals (this 3 hour soup comes to mind)
13. snuggling (kittehs or boys)
14. hikes
15. tights & skirts (cable knit!)
16. live music/Doug Fir
17. soup
18. fall-ish tunes
19. change/fresh starts
20. duvets
21. yellow
22. baking
23. chai lattes
24. plaid
25. wine
26. shooting guns (Don’t judge. I’m from the country.)
27. movies/beer/pizza/Cajun tots at McMenamins (tasty!)
28. home goods stores
29. pretending to love shopping
30. argyle (see #4)
31. learning
32. pumpkin everything, (including pumpkin spice lattes)
33. apple sauce (planning a canning party. I’m so almost 30)
34. hoodies (cozy)
35. Thai food
36. cities
37. cinnamon
38. whiskey
39. planning winter trips (last year Iceland. This year??)
40. planning 1 winter escape (somewhere warm & cheap! February? March?)
41. skinny jeans tucked into boots
42. pretty maps (yet another serious weakness)
43. layering
44. dreaming of Barcelona
45. popcorn
46. the air
47. food carts with heated seating areas
48. baths
49. colors
50. crying to Sigur Ros or Beck’s Sea Change (no explanation. It’s not 2 hrs and 14 min/week worth though, clearly I need to listen to more Sigur Ros)
51. corduroy
52. massive breakfasts
53. geocaching
54. making out in the cold
55. trains
56. watching people be excited about college football
57. spin class
58. yurt camping
59. finding new music
60. yoga pants
61. long dinners
62. storms
63. writing
64. flannel sheets
65. indoor workouts (Bar Method!)
66. even more indoor time: a new cooking class
67. board games
68. mashed potatoes
69. lazy weekend mornings catching up on my Google Reader in bed
70. carbs
71. rocking sudoku
72. sucking at crosswords
73. seasonal ales
74. dark nail polish (OPI Over the Taupe)
75. museums
76. the words ‘crisp’ & ‘cozy’
77. sweaters…

photo set on flickr

What do you love about fall? Share in the comments!

This week:

-Bumbershoot! My third year since since I first crossed it off my list: #50 Go to Bumbershoot in Seattle in 2009. The line-up wasn’t too great this year, but the weather was fantastic. Loved: Little Dragon (as usual), staying at the Heathman (snagged it on Jetsetter in May), the Trey McIntyre Project (modern dance set to The Shins’ Oh, Inverted World), Best of SIFF 2011 short films (North Atlantic was the most memorable for me), orchestra-ish music in the Experience Music Project, the SBUX Insider Lounge (ie. free coffee drinks all weekend), and playing tourist going up the Space Needle, which I hadn’t done since I was a 5-year-old.

-Seattle food. Seattle, land of my birth, you have excellent food. [ahem, Portland is still better] :)  I could have eaten two of the Margherita pizzas at Serious Pie. Also enjoyed the huevos a la Mexicana at Hi Spot Cafe, and the delicious Puerto Rican food at La Isla in Ballard.

-Flatstock I always try to reserve day 1 of Bumbershoot for taking pics and considering my options, and buy something day 2. This year, I bought the Weapons of Mass Creation poster for my kitchen.

-Movies in the Park – One of the final Movies in the Park this year was North by Northwest in Elizabeth Caruthers Park in South Waterfront. Banh mi takeout from Bambuza + a bottle of rosé + a pile of pillows and blankets + Cary Grant on the big screen = perfect summer evening.

-Musicfest NW – After spending three days at Bumbershoot, I wasn’t too excited for Musicfest NW. We did end up catching one show on Friday night — Glass Candy. There were giant balloons. I took of video of said balloons.

Listening: Little Dragon.

This week:

- Now that I’m an expert at laying about in an inner tube on the river, I decided to write a post about my new favorite past-time — Tubing in Portland with the best float options in town. :)

- Finally went up to check out the new Hopworks BikeBar on N Williams last weekend. I love the outdoor seating options out front so you can watch the world go by. And of course a visit within 2 blocks of Pix Patisserie requires a stop-in for a lemon tart. Nom.

- I also went to karaoke for the first time in Portland (I’d only ever been while traveling), at Voicebox. Watching other people sing is great entertainment, but yes, I did join in a few times (just not solo, because I’m ‘fraid!). Boyfriend also sang me a Guns N’ Roses song. Yep, I liked it. I shall now refer to him as Mr Patience. And if you’re into sake, Voicebox also has awesome options.

- I managed to snag a ticket to the Portland launch of dishcrawl on Twitter last weekend from Molly, and had a great time meeting more Portland foodies and trying out four new places in town.

- Listening: The Raveonettes keep popping up on one of my Pandora stations, which means I need to stop ‘thumbs up’-ing them. I know, I know, their new album has been out for a while now. Anyway, I’m really liking Ignite.

What are you up to this week?

This week:

- We took at a mini vacation to Oregon wine country last weekend. It was lovely. Highlights were: biking 6 miles around the North Valley Rd area of Newberg near Bergstrom Winery, the coziness of Brick House Vineyards, the view (& picnicking at Penner-Ash), sunsets from the rooftop bar at Hotel Oregon, and hammocks (hammocks!) at Anne Amie Vineyard… A nice little break, indeed.

- I made Gingered Blackberry and Black Plum Shortcakes [recipe] with whipped cream for breakfast last week. Super quick and delicious.

- Finally went river floating on the Clackamas River on Sunday. After all the stores being out of tubes last weekend, we bought them all on Amazon (Amazon prime win!). Such a fun day. I’m hoping for another H-O-T hot day in August or September so we can head out to Estacada again. Hopefully by summer’s end the price-per-use of my innertube will be less than $18.

- Listening: Gorillaz (featuring Little Dragon) – To Binge. This song surprised me. Love Yukimi’s (from Little Dragon) voice.

What are you up to this week?

This week

- Watched the Portland Twilight Criterium bike race around the North Park blocks on Friday. More cowbell!

- Let’s talk about my container garden. It’s amazing… and so tasty. I made a tomato salad this weekend which included: tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and more tomatoes.

-We were going to go berry picking at Sauvie Island on Sunday, and ended up spending so long at the beach (no, not the nude beach!) that we missed the U-pick hours. So we ended up buying berries from the stand instead. Next time!

- I got a silly email from Gilt Groupe telling me “good news, your Hype Silk Naomi Strapless dress is now available”, meaning it had sold out ages ago, even though I really had no intentions of buying it. And I had a $20 off any order special coupon and so it ended up being $59 instead of ummmm… a $175 dress. Yay!

- Just started listening to Liam Finn’s new album FOMO. This video is ridiculous and kind of adorable. Those kiwis.

-Portland Soap Box Derby was also this weekend on Mt Tabor. We arrived kind of late, but it was still fun to sit on a blanket, and legally drink beer in the park. Also, there was a tank with some kind of potato gun cannon. Next year, I’m going to wear a derby hat.

What are you up to this week?

This week…

-Reading: The IKEA Effect – “when we make stuff with our own hands we like it more than the pre-fab version” via Sarah Wilson

-Reading: Travel is Not a Contest (& Other Reasons to Embrace Slow Travel) on BootsnAll

-Reading: Living In: Midnight in Paris – Design Sponge cute!

-Biking: Biked down to Sellwood this week, and discovered a path that continues under the Sellwood Bridge and connects to the marina. There were blackberries. I absolutely adore August in Portland.

-Breathing: I never get tired of wandering about Mt Tabor and talking about life. And picnicking at Council Crest. Our summer picnic menu: avocado/Tillamook cheddar sandwiches, avocado/corn/tomato salad, La Vieille Ferme wine, chocolate chip cookies, Kettle chips, cherries.

-Gardening: cherry tomatoes, golden tomatoes, cucumber, and sugar snap peas this week! Woo!

-Listening: Puro Instinct – Californian Shakedown… seriously beautiful

What are you up to this week?