Saturday, August 16, 2014

Check-In on New Year's Resolutions

Over half of 2014 is over! I feel like it is cliche to remark here, 'where has the time gone?!' but the year really does seem like it is flying by.  Given that we have passed the halfway mark, I feel like now is a good time to go back to my New Year's resolutions and see how I am doing.  I keep a google doc for myself with ALL of my goals that I update each month and then think about on what I should be focusing for the next month, but I did promise to try to update here too. 

I have gathered two lessons from looking at this list so far.  One is adaptability: sometimes, things do not work out as planned and the ideal situation does not happen.  Other times, an equally ideal situation happens instead of the planned situation.  In these situations, sometimes it is best to adapt your goals to fit the new situation, instead of beating yourself up about not completing what you set out.  The second is persistence: there are some goals that frankly need much improvement.  They are still realistic goals, so I do not need to adapt them, I just need to persist in the determination that I will be better.  I may never reach the ultimate goal, but I should strive each day/week/month to get a little better at the goals that are harder for me.

So, without further ado, here are the goals I set out in January and how I am doing so far:

Work resolutions: meet billable hours requirement, publish 5 articles/blog posts
-Billable hours has been a REAL struggle for me.  I am finally coming to terms with what that means in actual time worked, and it is a lot.  The second half of the year is definitely more focused on this, and the last couple of months have already seen an increase in hours billed.
-I have written or co-written three articles so far so I am well on my way to five this year

Health resolutions: cook for yourself on weekdays (Paleo), half marathon, Nerd Academy
-The half-marathon is in September so I should be training for that right now.  I ran a ten-miler in May so I definitely have a semi-long-distance runner somewhere in me, but I have not been training well since then.  I got a slight injury after the ten-miler and found a whole lot of excuses to not run because of/in addition to that.  This is definitely a focus for the second half of the year.
-I really enjoy doing strength exercises.  I am happy to say I am on the 3rd level of the Nerd Academy bodyweight routines, with only a few modifications.  I do this at least once or twice, or optimally, three times a week.  There are two different workouts per week, that you are supposed to rotate.  The basic structure is three sets of: arm exercise, leg exercise, arm exercise, leg exercise, ab exercise, :30 of cardio.  Then there are some additional "level-ups" on the end.  My goal is to get to a real pull up soon!
-I signed up for a CSA - community-supported agriculture -- where I get a big box of veggies each week, some fruit, and some eggs.  This is all organic, sustainably farmed, hippy dippy, etc.  I do not cook a meal for myself EVERY day of the week, and calling it "Paleo" is really cheating.  However, I think it is forcing me to make healthier choices at least 50-75% of the time.

Social/personal resolutions: reach out to a new couple/a new female friend a month, keep up with hobbies (tap, guitar, tennis)
-This goal is my least successful, but one that I have found the opportunity to adapt.  I have been able to keep up with old friends, due to many planned reunions, weddings, bridal showers, etc., but being out of town on the weekends so much makes it hard to make plans with others.  It also makes keeping up with hobbies harder, if I do not have the weekends to catch up on work/errands, then I need to do them on week nights which eliminates much of the time for hobbies.  I did play tennis for a little bit but that fell by the wayside after a few weeks.  This week starts my renewed vigor for tap, after seeing Philadelphia Dance Day with performances from all types of classes.  If those women (mostly) have time to fit a class in here or there, then I do too.  This is my focus for the second half of the year.

Recap: I have made some improvements, but need to focus on: billing, running, cooking, and hobbies. My overall goal is to keep pushing a little harder every day! How are your new year's resolutions looking?

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