How’s it going with those New Year’s Resolutions? Three-quarters of this year is still left. If you made goals you really care about, giving up isn’t going to help. You’re not a quitter, you just need to figure out a more specific plan. It also helps to have check-in points throughout the year to assess and reevaluate. The equinoxes and solstices work for me; I also use my birthday and New Year’s Eve. This year, I resolved on a list of stuff. I made a slide with these goals and saved it as the lock screen on my laptop. I pause to look at it before I log on. I started doing this two years ago, and it’s fairly effective. How am I doing? The first resolution, my Most Obvious Thing, is to earn more money and expand my coaching business. I have indeed earned money and new clients, and I fully funded my IRA for 2015 this quarter. (It’s like going back in time! Magical!). This is a work in progress, something I have no intention of crossing out. The second goal was to join Toastmasters and work on becoming a competent public speaker. I joined and I’ve done my icebreaker speech and won a couple of ribbons. While I’m still nervous, I no longer feel like my legs are going to collapse under me. It feels like the practice is already starting to work. I’m making friends and learning to focus on specific speaking skills. My experience so far has made me want to promote the club to everyone I meet. Seriously, if it works for me, it will definitely work for anyone. DO EET. My next resolution was to work on cross-training. This is a broad, “gathering string,” research-based sort of goal. I leave these goals open because it’s more important for me to learn a lot and “level up” than it is to cross a specific task off a list. I now understand how cross-training works and I have a plan for what I’m going to do. I’m joining my husband’s gym as soon as we get back from our trip. We’re going to weight train together and he’s going to teach me to swim. I’ll try out some classes. I’ll continue to walk as my main form of transportation, and hopefully I’ll be able to start running again soon. I have no worries about implementation because I like going to the gym and I feel like I’ll be doing my honey a favor by joining him. We’re both looking forward to it. I had a goal to order business cards. I am working on the design. I never really go anywhere, so my sense of urgency about this extends mainly to a conference we’re attending in August. I’ll probably do it before our next trip, though. I had a goal to start a newsletter for this blog. This has happened. I’ll refine it and improve the design as I go. For now, it functions. The sign-up box works and the newsletter goes out. I understand how the templates work. All that’s left is to keep producing and improving it. I have a specific one-shot goal to get a micronutrient blood test at an independent lab. While this has not happened yet, I have a location near me and I know what to ask for. I’ve done a bunch of research on recommended daily allowances and how to meet the trickier ones through diet. (Not everything is tracked in MyFitnessPal). I’ve started to get so interested in the topic that I’ve also researched a few options for certification as a nutritionist. I may pursue that later this year. The last two major resolutions touch on the same area as my work on public speaking. I have a goal to do a language exchange and a wish to make a new friend. I am a very shy person, though I am an extrovert, and it is a BIG DEAL for me to try to strike up a friendship with someone new. What if I like you more than you like me? What if I want to exchange contact info and you don’t? *snif* I’m trying to lower the stakes. I have had a brief conversation in Spanish with our favorite waiter (a captive audience), and he was really nice about it. He seemed to understand everything I said, too! My comprehension is better than my speaking, so this was a pleasant surprise. We had a ‘couples resolution’ to have a set dinnertime every night. We are doing this, and it’s been a great success. We wanted to put in a garden, and that’s done, although my husband has done all the work so far. We also had a lifestyle upgrade resolution to eat outside on the patio when it’s warm enough. We have done this, although not on every possible opportunity. What has quickly become a habit is that we’re sitting on the front porch in the evening, Spike is making some dog friends, and Noelle is giving out a lot of beak smooches to the neighbors. We were going to go camping for our quarterly review. Something came up and we weren’t able to do the camping trip for this first quarter mark. If I had reserved a campground, we wouldn’t have been able to use it. We went out to lunch and had our discussion instead. We’re doing well on our couples goals, we’ve been having a lot of fun planning a trip together, and my husband is making great progress on the single goal he chose for this year. I wanted to work more on interior design. We got a new couch and rearranged the living room furniture. We set up the porch area. That’s about it so far, but the results have been encouraging. I made a ‘stop goal’ of not freaking out when I go through TSA secondary screening. So far this year, I have a 100% success rate of not having to go through secondary search at all. Hmm. I also have a ‘stop goal’ of not beating myself up physically on furniture, door frames, etc. I currently have two blisters from different events, and a bruise on my ankle from… tripping over a metal fire pit, falling forward, and catching myself by putting my hands on the possibly hot lid. Fortunately it had cooled. This is still a work in progress. My new rules are to quit walking around in the dark and to go and find my friction stick for blister prevention. That’s my first quarter of 2016. Some goals complete, some in progress, some not really touched yet, but plenty of time in the year to finish. How is your year going so far? Comments are closed.
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AuthorI've been working with chronic disorganization, squalor, and hoarding for over 20 years. I'm also a marathon runner who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and thyroid disease 17 years ago. This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesArchives
January 2022
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