La Bene Vita

SATURDAY and I Am Such a Writing Snob

"There are some cities, however, that have experienced such severe hardship and decline that their populations have actually decreased significantly." Yahoo, you actually disappoint me significantly with your Adverb Soup. Are you paying your writers by the word? </writingsnob>

Happy New Year! I resolve, despite associated commercialism ("Not That There's Anything Wrong With That," says the small business owner), to set the following 2011 goals and stick to them:

1. Count points every single day, regardless of whether I am actually meeting point or weight goals.
2. Reach 300 private-lesson-equivalent students by December 31, 2011.
3. Develop a customized business database by December 31, 2011.
4. Dedicate weekly family time. Frequency TBD and flexible, but will probably conflict with Goals #1 and #7.
5. Potbelly: Add one repertoire song per week.
6. Messiah Lutheran Church: Give some kind of special attention to this job.
7. Read. Frequency TBD and flexible, but this will involve my new Kindle!
8. Write. Frequency TBD and flexible, and will include fiction, nonfiction, and songwriting goals.

To be fair, my biggest 2010 goal was to leave my corporate job and start my own business, which I accomplished with a vengeance. 2010 may be hard to beat, since that business blew past growth expectations. 2011 at the music school will include successful summer programs; the additions of lab attendants, receptionists, and a full-time office manager; sufficient profitability to start paying down my business loans by month 18; and the addition of a site manager position sometime in 2012.

Goals 7 and 8 are lowest in priority. Only occasionally do I regret my lack of recent attention to these loves, since deep down, I see my future self wildly successful and retired sometime between ages 40-45, earning residual income off of my well-established, profitable, self-managed business, and embarking on a new writing career, taking advantage of the pseudonym that is already gaining local celebrity. For 2011, #7 will be easier than #8, because I only need break my addition to way funmind-numbing, time-wasting video games and reallocate that time to reading. But I will try to schedule a regular writing time, just to keep my skill set up. At a minimum, I would like to keep up with daily entries at this blog and weekly entries at MichelleTuesday.com  .

So, without further ado, here are my progress against goals for 2011, Day 1 (Saturday):

Reach 300 students by 12/31/11: Set intermediate goals.
Rough draft:
(1) Update business plan and reanalyze advertising budget allocations. Deadline TBD.
(2) Set website updating goals. Deadline TBD, except that I am removing 2010 pricing today.
(3) Develop a Q1 promotion plan by the end of next week and coordinate with advertising plan.
(4) Develop a summer program plan by Spring Break. This will involve a January staff meeting and delegation to those I feel have future management potential. I sent an email seeking available times for the meeting.

Customized database by 12/31/11: Set intermediate goals.
I had a breakthrough a week or two ago, when I stumbled across how to make MySQL tables. Now, I need to experiment with them.

Weekly family time:
Hangin' with the fam today. I played with Abby and her new hamster, Smoky, and I promised Blaine I would play Donkey Kong Country Returns with him this afternoon.  At a minimum, we usually go out to dinner on Sunday nights.

Potbelly: : Add one repertoire song per week
No progress.

Messiah: Meet one TBD goal per month: Goal: Sound system work day.
In progress. I sent an email today inviting everyone.

Reading: Goals TBD: Goal: Finish Around the World in 80 Days by 12/9/2011.
In progress. It's been easy while on vacation, but I may need to schedule reading time when work starts back up next week.

Writing: Goals TBD: Set goals.
(1) Blog at WDC daily. DONE
(2) Blog at MT.com   weekly. PENDING
(3) Set fiction writing goals. PENDING
(4) Set songwriting goals. PENDING

Count points:
I maintained a weight and daily points goal throughout 2010 and failed miserably. In fact, I actually gained weight and rarely ever met my daily points. I obviously need a change. I blew off the points because (1) I often ate out and didn't know what I was eating, and (2) I sort of gave up due to lack of progress. So I am keeping this goal simple for 2011 by just committing to keeping track.

SATURDAY:
1:00 Toast with turkey and cheese (3) and coffee (1)
3:00 String cheese (1.5), granola bar (2), and coffee (1)
5:00 Spaghetti (5.5) and coffee (1)
6:30 Varied chocolates (5)
9:00 Ice cream (3)
TOTAL POINTS: 23