So November is over—the presidential election went the way I wanted (though I was quite shocked at the number of people who thought the last four years were good and wanted four more years of the same shit). The Electoral College will meet in less than two weeks to finalize the vote, then on January 20th the new president and vice-president will be sworn into office.
I’m still working on figuring out the type of fluid schedule that will have me getting stuff done, but at the same time not feel like I’m being stuck in a rigid schedule.
The US still hasn’t gotten the virus under control—when I published ‘October in Review’ I noted that the US had over 9.4 million cases and now the US is just under 14 million cases (that is an increase of over 4.5 million cases in a month). This means that we’re starting to double in cases a hell of a lot faster than we were even a month ago. While there are several vaccine candidates that are being pushed for emergency use—it will still be awhile before the general population will have access to it (I’m hoping that the first series will be going to the front-line workers—the doctors, nurses, and emergency staff that have to deal with daily; and the two main vaccines require two shots a month apart). While the election went the way I wanted–it will still take a while to get the virus under control and then travel may be possible by sometime late 2021 or early 2022. I’m still planning on at least (hopefully) one mental health trip somewhere.
So as we head into the last month of 2020, I should look back on the goals that I set for November and see how I did with each of them.
Goals for November included:
At least 130-150,000 steps—I’ve realized that as it gets colder, I’m less likely to take my dog out for a walk and I usually am sitting more than anything during those days. Therefore I’m going to have to figure out something to do (possibly put on movies or something and march in place to get the steps).
Finish up the combo calendar of Yoga Booty Ballet & LIIFT4; then start 10 Rounds (which is 6 weeks and should take me right up to Christmas), with a little Yoga Booty Ballet tossed in here and there
Read (or finish) at least 2 non-fiction books
No spend days/no spend weeks/no spend month
Finish the Medical Writers Organization program
Get half way through either the Management Consultant Firm or the Project Management Consortium programs
Start working through at least one e-course that deals with Python
Complete at least two other short e-courses
Start refreshing Spanish
So how did I do with each one?
At least 130-150,000 steps—I’ve realized that as it gets colder, I’m less likely to take my dog out for a walk and I usually am sitting more than anything during those days.
I managed to hit and surpass my step goal this month. I managed to get a little over 218,000 steps (218,813 steps to be exact). I managed this because I took four walks up at Boomer Lake (and the total walk usually gives me about 10-12,000 steps).
Finish up the combo calendar of Yoga Booty Ballet & LIIFT4; then start 10 Rounds (which is 6 weeks and should take me right up to Christmas), with a little Yoga Booty Ballet tossed in here and there
So I finished up LIIFT4 mid-November. The rest days were either used as rest days or I did a walk, or yard work (because we did have a ice storm at the end of October). I managed to do Yoga Booty Ballet during the first half of LIIFT4—I may add in a week at the end of month (December) since finishing up 10 Rounds will be around Christmas and I can either start a program a week early, or possibly do a week of Yoga Booty Ballet and then start something new after Jan 1st.
Started 10 Rounds on the 16th, and currently I feel like I have two left feet in terms of the foot movement and no rhythm at all for the slips and rolls. But it’s only my first time through—I may do it again sometime in 2022 (as I have most of 2021 already planned out).
Read (or finish) at least 2 non-fiction books
This month I managed to finish reading the following books:
Quit your job and follow your dreams by Michelle Klup
This book basically gives tips on how to get various things in order (finances being the big one), how to transition to part-time, and how to just go about trying to figure out how to translate your dreams into a career, or a hobby.
No spend days/no spend weeks/no spend month
I managed to have a couple of no spend days—but they seldom stretch to no-spend weeks, and it didn’t stretch to a no-spend month. One reason—my impulsive habit of buying e-books, and if the synopsis of the book sounds interesting I’ll purchase it and may or may not get around to reading it for awhile.
Finish the Medical Writers Organization program
I’m almost through the fifth module of the program—I just have to do the writing and editing assignments, post them in the group and get feedback. Then finish up the 6th module. I have realized that while I’m thinking of going writing—I probably want to focus on either science education/outreach and/or writing for a nonprofit (such as Nature Conservatory, Sierra Club or a zoo/aquarium).
Get half way through either the Management Consultant Firm or the Project Management Consortium programs
I think I watched the first two videos for each program. Having the basics for consulting will be good; even if that isn’t the path I currently want to go on. I have no problems with long hours for a job—I just don’t want to be adding in huge amount of travel (which consultants do, depending on the company they work for and the area they may be assigned). I’m thinking that one way to showcase my project management skills will be to have a better posting schedule for the blog, posting regularly on different social media sites, and creating/posting original content on Linkedin as well. All-in-all two rather large projects I need to start planning out.
Start working through at least one e-course that deals with Python
Nope, this didn’t happen this month. I realize that in addition to trying to relearn/refresh a language, I will also need to consider this goal also as a ‘class’—schedule in the time or I’m not going to get it done.
Complete at least two other short e-courses
Watched the short course on skillshare: Capture your writing ideas: how never to lose track of blog or book ideas.
Basically this short course just talked about different ways of keeping track of ideas: either analog (paper and pen) or digital. I’m basically a hybrid—I like writing out on paper, but I also like to have a list of things digitally as well. I would give the course probably 4 out of 5 stars.
Start refreshing Spanish
Nope this didn’t happen again. I’m actually thinking that I need start thinking of this challenge (refreshing my knowledge of a language or learning a new language) as an actual class. I probably will need to write down that I will spend ‘X’ amount of time per day working on this task—otherwise I know that it isn’t going to get done.
So a little progress was made (namely on fitness) this month. In part, I will admit to being ‘glued’ earlier this month to the news to find out who would be declared the winner of the US presidential election, and the various stupid lawsuits that the outgoing president had launched to try to change the outcome.
I have to remind myself that the only person that I need to be in competition with is myself—and who I was yesterday. I’m working changing my mindset and self-talk. As I had stated last month—it took me awhile to realize that the all-out and full-speed ahead mentality/push basically brought me to that brick wall and burnout. I wasn’t using my strengths the way I should have been using them, and I was trying to meld myself into someone else.
The ‘reboot break’ may not be going as planned—but it has been beneficial. Now all I need to do is figure out the best methodology that will work for me to achieve my goals. The biggest question for me going into 2021 will be—what do I want to be doing in five years, and where do I want to be at that time.
It’s time that I start to draw my own map to my own destiny instead of relying on the maps of others. Therefore–
Goals for December will include:
At least 130-155,000 steps—December is probably going to be fairly cold and I’m not sure how often I’m going to be able to make it up to Boomer Lake for a walk.
Finish up 10 Rounds and then either do a week of YBB, or start one of the following combos: Muscle Burns Fat/Muscle Burns Fat Advance or 21-Day Fix Live/21-Day Fix Extreme Live.
Read (or finish) at least 2 non-fiction books
No spend days/no spend weeks/hopeful no spend month
Finish the writing/editing assignments for the Medical Writers Organization program.
Get halfway through one of the other advanced Cheeky Scientist programs
Complete at least two other short e-courses
Brain dump/organize/create a rough draft for a editorial/to-accomplish calendar/list
And finally reminding myself: “Progress over Perfection”, “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one”, and “Not caring what other people think is the best choice you will ever make”.
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