Somehow we only have four months left in the year. The weather for August was rainy (which is unusual for Oklahoma), humid, hot, and then cool for a couple of days before the summer temperatures returned. Classes have started, Labor Day weekend is coming up, and then by the time we blink I swear it will probably be either Halloween or getting close to Thanksgiving. Time is moving at it’s own speed, and I wish that it would slow down when I need it to and then speed up when I need it to. Depending on how you divide up the year, there is either one month left in the quarter, or there is just a third of the year left. Currently I’m going with quarters, so I’m not totally panicking (yet).

 

In terms of the goals for August, lets look back at what I set as goals and how I did with each one.

 

 

So my goals for August included:

 

At least 434,000 steps (truthfully could be lower, but I started the year saying 14K/day, so I’m going to stick with it).

Shakeology daily (breakfast or dinner)

Reading (or finishing) at least 3 non-fiction books & writing (and posting) the reviews

Writing & posting the reviews for all other non-fiction books I’ve read, but haven’t reviewed yet (currently at five).

Packing my lunch daily and trying to include more healthy snacks.

Getting new boxes and trying to repack at least three or four boxes in the storage unit.

Walking around Boomer Lake at least once on the weekends (early morning; weather permitting)

Keeping a money log & having at least two consecutive no spend days

Continue working through the various e-courses that I’ve bought

Continue with LIIFT4 (try to work up to holding the bear movement for thirty seconds)

Continue working on my transition plan

Networking & adding value to my online connections; though trying to be strategic in doing so.

Restart my photography challenge (daily posts to instagram & twitter; then I will do a weekly recap for my blog and facebook pages)

How did I do with each one?

 

Hitting at least 434,000 steps:

            So I have managed to beat the monthly step goal of 434,000 steps. There were quite a few days that I was under the 14,000 steps (and two days where I didn’t even hit 50% of the steps—so I was under 7,000), but there have been days where I’ve been between 16 and 20,000 steps so it all manages to balance out in the end. The grand total for the month is 462,155 (which is 106% of my monthly goal). So while I’ve had some off days this month, I’m still on track of making sure that I can reach five million steps by the end of the year. I should also still be on track for reaching my 101+ goal of the 14,014,000 steps by September 28, 2020. I’ve realized that at time I just need to get up and walk around the building or something to work off energy and that there are times when the goal step isn’t going to be met for whatever reason (I’m starting to finally listen to my body more).

Having Shakeology for daily (either breakfast or dinner):  I have managed to have my shakeology daily for breakfast every day this week. I do enjoy having it on the weekends when I usually go back out in the backyard to sit for a little longer enjoying the sounds of nature before trying to get started with my day.

Reading (or finishing) at least 3 non-fiction books & writing (and posting) the reviews: I have managed to finish 2 books this month:

The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin is one of the books I’ve read and finished this month. I enjoyed this book because it has helped me figure out what my predominant tendency is—I’ve realized that I’m an questioner who can lean more towards a rebel tendency at times than leaning towards the upholder. I’m planning on writing a review of the book hopefully over the long holiday weekend and getting it posted (the book review is posted on the blog; I just need to shorten it for amazon).

 

The second book that I managed to finish Getting There: A book of Mentors by Gillian Zoe Segal. This was a good book in that it is basically a book of interviews with different successful people and how they managed to get to the point of their careers that they’re at now. There were some that resonated with me, and there were others that didn’t; but there were little nuggets of wisdom in all of them. A review of this one is also hopefully coming over the holiday weekend.

Writing & posting the reviews for all other non-fiction books that I’ve read, but haven’t reviewed yet (as of beginning of August this list is at 5 books):

Well I still have the five books to sit down and write the reviews for; these books include:

Science of Intelligent Achievement by Isaiah Hankel

Self Talk: How to train your brain to turn negative thinking into positive thinking & practice self love by Aston Sanderson

Minimalist Living: Declutter your home, schedule, and digital life for simple living (and discover why less is more) by Aston Sanderson

Rewire your Habits: Establish Goals, Evolve your habits, & improve your relationships, health, finances, and free time by Zoe McKey

Thinking in Bets: making smart decisions when you don’t have all the facts by Annie Duke.

There were other issues that have cropped up this month, which had me not wanting to be on the computer, and therefore I’ve neglected several things that truthfully shouldn’t take that long, if I just sit down and do it.

Packing my lunch daily & trying to include more healthy snacks:

Other than not packing my lunch for the very first day of the month, I’ve managed to pack my lunch every other day (not counting the last two days as I’m taking those days as a mental health break). Also other than the first few days of the month, I managed not to buy any sweet snacks (or coffee) on campus as well. This has probably saved me quite a bit of money, and has also hopefully helped in the weight to start coming off again.

Getting new boxes & trying to repack at least three or four boxes in the storage unit:

            I have managed to get several “new” boxes. So by “new” I mean that they aren’t years old—I’m still grabbing some from campus instead of going and spending money at Lowes or somewhere for boxes. I just have yet to make it up to the storage unit to try and repack anything. So I’m at about 50% for this goal.

Walking around Boomer Lake at least once on the weekends (early mornings):

I think that I’ve managed at least one day each weekend up at Boomer in the early morning for my walk. There are some days that I also want to say no—but I go and that way I have time to practice my photography skills. This is also my wake-up time on the weekends before others in the house get up and I have to interact with people.

Keeping a money log & having at least two consecutive no-spend days:

For the most part I managed to keep a money log. Since I had made it a goal to go basically the month without extra sweets (not counting the first few days of the month, since I was still trying to come up with a goal)—I managed to have basically three weeks of no spend days on campus (yes there was one day or two days of needing to get something at the bookstore). So if I can keep this up, I should have the credit card debt basically almost to zero every month.

Continuing to work through the various e courses that I’ve bought. Well this one I didn’t do to well on this month. There were problems at work that ate up the time that I would usually dedicate to trying to get through one video a day at work. So this is something else I need to schedule time to make sure that I actually get it done.

Continue with LIIFT4

I will be finishing week six of LIIFT4 at the end of the month. That means that I will have two weeks left of the program and will be finishing it roughly halfway through September. I’m liking the program—I’m starting to lift heavier with some of the exercises, but at the same time keeping with lighter weights for majority of the “fly” workouts (my shoulders aren’t quite that strong yet). I will be doing a second round of LIIFT4, I’m just not 100% certain when that will be (plus I know that I’m going to be maxing out at 20 pound weights until I move and then I might get one or two sets of slightly heavier dumbbells—plus two sets of in between weights for some of the weights I already have).

Continue working on my transition plan

So this month I had several “universal” pushes to make sure that I actually got my butt in gear and made some head way with my transition plan. I have basically decided that I no longer want to do research, and want to navigate away from the bench. This means that I’m going to be stepping outside of my comfort zone (which basically has been research) and seeing what other aspect of science I have a knack for and it interests me. This was basically just the starting point of the plan (determining both what I don’t want to do, and what I potentially would like to do). The next step is to start making lists of things that I need to get done, writing summaries of different things (such as watching different webinars, or taking e-courses) and then posting those as articles/posts on the blog.

Network & add value to my online connections (though try to be strategic about it)

This is something that I am still working on making weekly time for. One problem had been that without knowing exactly the direction (or directions) I wanted to pursue, I didn’t want to just be trying to do the connection with a whole lot of different people, and not have anything to show for it. I know that it will take time, and I am going to try to schedule a set time (probably evenings or weekend mornings) that I can do the majority of the networking, and then a little bit during the week.

Restarting the photography challenge: This one for some reason is now slightly difficult to do—mainly trying to get a new picture every day. There are some days where I do take a new picture, but other days I don’t. Currently the posts for Instagram have been of the oracle card readings I’ve been doing or the nature photo of the day. I do need to get back into doing this daily & also making the small posts to the blog. I noticed that I got the most views for a month when I was posting something daily (even if it was just a picture with a small blurb under it).

So moving forward into the last portion of the year, my goals for September will be similar to the past couple of months, with maybe trying to add in a few shorter specific goals that are related to my job transition plans.

September goals:

At least 420,000 steps

Shakeology daily (breakfast or dinner)

Reading (or finishing) at least 3 non-fiction books & writing (and posting) a review.

Writing & posting reviews for other non-fiction books I’ve read (see above—the list is currently at 5, but could go up to 7).

Packing my lunch daily, including more healthy snacks, & not buying any sweets on campus

Trying to start repacking boxes in my storage unit

Walking at Boomer Lake at least one morning on the weekend

Keeping a money log & have at least 2 consecutive no spend days

Finishing LIIFT4 and starting Shift Shop

Working through the various e-courses that I bought, taking notes and posting a summary of it on the blog

Working on the transition plan for industry (again there will hopefully be a weekly blog summary about what I’ve managed to accomplish that week in terms of the progress on getting from academia to industry).

Network, network, and more networking.

Restart the photography challenge (yet again).