At this time of year, every year since I was 22, I write out my goals. I choose mid October because it’s a calm before the holidays, and feels less forced than easily doffed New Years Resolutions.

Unlike everything else I write, I do this old-school: on paper, with a pen, in a ruled notebook where I can’t press delete.  I pick the top 3 things I want to accomplish the following year,  and set a defined timeline on which I envision them transpiring. When I look back on all those goals over the last decade, I’m amazed at how many of them came to fruition.

Two years ago, I wrote that I wanted to get paid for writing.  It sounded laughable, absurd, I didn’t know how to take the first step… and three months later I landed my first paid blogging gig over at ParentDish.  Ten years ago, I was working for a small professional baseball team, making less than $ 20,000.00 a year as a beleagured receptionist. I wrote that I wanted to obtain a position in sales and marketing making at least twice that.  The following year, I landed a job as a technical education specialist at a blue-chip computer company.  I was floored.  There was something to this.  Every single year, I write three goals.  Every single year, at least two of those three goals happen. It doesn’t seem to matter how pie-in-the-sky the goal: if I write down a timeline and a detailed plan, it works.  I’m not sure whether it’s a combination of positive thinking and sub-conscious effort, but I’ll take it.  I’m not going to stop now.

This year, my goals came fast and furious.

1.) Run a marathon

I’ve been a runner my entire life: track and cross country when I was a child, casual neighborhood running as an adult.  I’ve done the occasional road race here and there, but it’s time to step it up a notch, take advantage of a body at its prime and push it to the maximum heights it can soar.  Run a marathon by August 2009.

2.) Start an enterprise.

Use those writing and marketing skills and contact to either start a book or commence a business endeavor  on my own.  Create something tangible, with my own name on it, that creates income and holds interest and passion, and do it by October 2009.

3.) Meet a man who will cherish me, love my boy just as much.

I know, this one’s a little cringeworthy, but male companionship (in the form of a human over two feet tall) is something I crave everyday, something I miss when I’m making dinner and tucking my feet under a blanket at the end of a long day.  I’m open, I’m ready to put the past behind me and find someone who sticks, to dare to want to become a family again, to maybe even think about a long term future partner.  I want to meet him, by December 2009.

I have a few more, floating: addendums to my top three.  Dedicate two hours a week to a local charity, take steps to be more ecologically conscious in my daily living and shopping.  Those are starred, I don’t want to overwhelm myself.

Now you.  Write it down.  What do you want to accomplish in the next year?