The moon will be transitioning through the Cancer constellation tomorrow (or maybe tonight—depending on where you are in the world), which means its time to look back at the goals I set for the Gemini new moon and see how I did with each of them.

So, what were my Gemini New Moon goals? They included:

  1. The creation of a multi-prong personal/professional development plans (including health/fitness, finances, spirituality, career, and hobbies/crafts), as I’m confident in the direction I want to pivot in, and I’m not getting any younger. This will also tie in with my personal/professional development game (creating different types of content based on the ‘square’ I landed on).
  2. Continue with my daily intentional movements and nightly meditations/sitting quietly moments.
  3. Start getting out of my comfort zone and interacting more on different sites (LinkedIn for example). I’m great at ‘lurking’, but need to start trying to interact and comment on what others post; and possibly start trying to do more ‘zoom coffee chats’
  4. As always—reading, reading, and more reading.

So how did I do with each of them?

In terms of the personal/professional development plan:

I started creating my multi-prong personal/professional development plan…and had an anxiety attack.

A day or so later, I realized what I did ‘wrong’—I basically was throwing everything down onto paper (again)…

So how am I getting around that problem (of throwing everything onto paper)?

I’m making a list of goals (initially without dates attached), and then will be breaking those down into action items or smaller goals…I know everyone states you need to have a ‘deadline’ in order to meet the goal—well when I try to set a deadline…it gives me anxiety (because I either set it too soon or so far into the future that I forget about it).

In terms of daily intentional movement and nightly mediations/sitting quietly moments

Summer is here…and I’m sure you’re rolling your eyes and saying…’Uh, yeah it’s June’…well—it also means that I’m indoors more often than not these days due to high temperatures and moderate humidity (which makes it even hotter)…

Therefore, my intentional movements/exercise routines have been somewhat nonexistent lately…Still trying to help the other two dogs develop a ‘normal’ routine after we lost Rolex last month, which means that it is difficult to do a workout in the bedroom, when there is a 100 pound dog sprawled on the floor.

I need to get back to trying to sit quietly in the evenings…the past few days I haven’t mainly because I’ve been in a really irritable mood…

In terms of getting out of my comfort zone:

I am slowly getting out of my comfort zone and interacting more on LinkedIn…I’ve been participating in different social Saturday threads, and growing my network. I’ve been posting daily (usually trying to post three-to-four times a day), and interacting with other people’s posts.

One thing I’m still working on—is setting up more ‘coffee/water’ Zoom or Google chats.

In terms of reading:

Reading is never a ‘problem’—except when it comes to reading non-fiction. While I have a ‘huge’ to-be read digital pile of nonfiction books, and I fully admit to bouncing between books (fiction and nonfiction)—some are easier to read than others…

The ones I find easiest to read: are on topics I find of interest (anthropology, archaeology, paleontology, and so forth), ones that aren’t ‘badgering’ or ‘harping’ on things that you ‘have to change’ to be successful, and ones that are written in a more conversational manner.

Does this mean I’ve bought books I might not finish reading…. yep, though I may try to finish them—it may just take several months (if not years) to get through them.

Take home message: read what you enjoy, and when reading for personal/professional development—don’t be hard on yourself if it takes longer to read one of those books than it does to read a fiction book.

So, I managed to meet probably about seventy percent of my goals (reading, interacting more on LinkedIn, sitting quietly, and starting the personal/professional development plan).

Have things been perfect? Nope…not even close, the anxiety levels have been hovering around a EF2 level (tornado level 2) while at times peaking at a EF5 level (which was last Friday).

I’m trying to get better at controlling how I react to situations…such as Friday when the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade allowing states to decide on whether or not abortion is legal—which FYI: it’s the woman’s choice (and it isn’t an ‘easy’ choice for anyone to make)…abortion care = women’s health care =basic human rights. But that is a rant for another day…

Tomorrow is another new moon—which means another chance to look at an area of life and try to set some goals, and also realize that it’s time to figure out how to become a little more active in politics (without actually running for office)…

Namaste…