2007 didn’t go quite as I would have liked.

• I fell off the exercise and diet wagon, leading to
• I gained back about half of the weight I had lost in 2006
• I didn’t do as well as I wanted in my multilevel modeling class, which is an issue since that is the technique I will be using for my dissertation
• My job situation took a turn for the worst
• I got nowhere near as much reading done this summer as I needed to get done

I’m sure there was more.

All wasn’t bad, and it worked itself out in many ways, but for now I need to focus forward, on 2008.  Making resolutions seems overwhelming since I have so much to do between now and July when I stop working and focus on my dissertation, but here are some goals:

• Exercise 4 or 5 days per week, either at home or at the gym.  More Bike time would be good.
• Improve my eating, although I don’t think I can go back to the strict calorie counting I was doing until July.  (I eat to deal with stress, and my schedule for the next few months will be highly stressful.  I can try to improve over that timeframe but I don’t want to set myself up for failure by committing to the strict counting I’ve done in the past.)
• Live frugally; like a grad student; that means no shopping trips, no big gifts, etc.  We need to pay off those credit cards and get a chunk of money in the bank before I stop working, and that means living frugally.
• Comps completed by August 2008
• ABD by the end of 2008 so that, if we can’t find money to pay me for a post doc here I can at least go into spring job interviews with a straight face and say I’ll be done before starting a job in fall 2009.
• Get something published under just my own name.
• Keep up with work for all 3 classes; the graded one, the ungraded one on funding on which my future somewhat depends, and the ungraded one that I will be teaching as an adjunct starting next summer.
• Find more adjunct slots for next summer/fall so that I can take my time on everything else

What that all means is that I have to FOCUS.  Watch less TV, goof off less (not that I do much of that now), get up earlier (ugg) and struggle through the next 6 months. 

I can do this.  I WILL do this.  And it will be worth it.