Well the weather is still definitely on the warmer side of things now. We are well and truly into the last half of the year. July is over, and before we know it-it will be Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and then the Christmas holidays. I had seriously hoped at the beginning of the year that by the time August rolled around, I would have had several different informational interviews to help narrow down my job search (needless to say that this hasn’t happened yet). I’m trying to get better at time management (if I just make the time during the workday to get some things done, I think I’d be doing a lot better). There is now just two months left for the third quarter of the year, and I think that I might need to look at my Level 10 life and see how things are progressing, and maybe add in one or two things from that to my goal list of August. But in terms of how this past month has gone, lets take a look at what I set as my goals and if I met them or not.

So my goals for July included:

At least 434,000 steps (basically back to trying to get 14,000 steps/day).

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.

Packing my lunch daily

Starting to get my storage unit in order

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

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

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

Figuring out the best workout plan and implementing it this month

Continue working on my transition plan

Networking & adding value to my online connections; though trying to be strategic in doing so—realizing that I can’t add value to over 1200 people in a month.

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

So how did I do with each one?

Getting at least 434,000 steps in: I have managed to surpass the monthly goal of 434,000 steps. I have been getting anywhere from the 14,000 upwards of 20,000 (or more) daily. There were a few days that I didn’t hit the minimal goal of 14,000 (but since there were days at or above 20,000—its balanced out). The final total for the month was 499,633 (I was so close to accidently getting to 500k this month in steps). This has me at a total of 3,116,437 and that means to reach my goal of 5 million steps by December 31^st I only need to basically do 12,311 steps a day (I’m still going to be aiming for 14k though).

Having shakeology daily (for either breakfast or dinner): I have managed to have my shakeology for breakfast everyday this month. It is one nice thing about summer—it’s hot and the shakeology is nice and cold. The only thing that I really need to start doing is to properly measure how much plain Greek yogurt and all natural peanut butter I’m actually adding into my shake on a daily basis.

Reading (or finishing) at least 3 non-fiction books & writing (and posting) the reviews: Well this one (and the following one) are two that I did not manage to get even a little part done on. I did add a few more books to my to-be-read digital pile, but I haven’t finished any from that list this month. I have been reading both fiction and non-fiction, but just haven’t finished any non-fiction books (they do at times take a little more brain power than reading a fiction book). So this one (and the following one) will probably be going back onto the goal list for August.

Writing and posting the reviews for all the other non-fiction books I’ve read this year, but haven’t reviewed yet: Nope, haven’t written (and posted) book reviews yet. I have documents started for several of the books that I need to review (I did that back in the beginning of June)—I just need to sit down and (1) see if I highlighted any quotes or phrases in any of the books (I do love that little part of the kindle); and then (2) if I haven’t probably go back through and skim the book for those little nuggets that I should have highlighted the first time.

So the books that still need a review written on them 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.

Packing my lunch daily: This one has been a success. I guess there is one little benefit for being on the stupid damn timesheet—you bring your lunch to make sure that you aren’t going to be going over your one hour lunch and having to work late. Though I also need to start packing more snacks for the day (that way I won’t feel tempted to go to the union to buy some type of sweets).

Starting to get my storage unit in order: Did this the day after the Fourth of July. I managed to get everything rearranged, and now I just need to start getting boxes that way once I take off another couple of days, I can start repacking the boxes that have fallen apart and be able to get a little more stuff in there as well (including the recliner from Arick’s room).

Walking around Boomer Lake at least once on the weekends (early morning walk): This one I’ve basically managed to get up to Boomer Lake either both Saturday and Sunday, or at least one of the two (depending on the weather). I haven’t really done the full walk around Boomer, since I’m taking photographs—I realized it would probably be an almost two hour (if not closer to three) walk if I tried to go all the way around the lake (though I might try that maybe today [July 29^th]. I have managed to get pictures of the great blue herons, the scissortail flycatchers, the ducks & geese in the mornings. Occasionally I will see the green heron as well. I do enjoy seeing the rabbits out and about in the early mornings as well.

Keeping a money log & trying to have at least two consecutive no spend days: I have more or less managed to keep a money log going this month (and my no-spend days were basically at the beginning of the month). I’ve realized that I probably should try to see if I can make it through a workday with just a mug of tea (because even getting a “normal” coffee is still a little over two dollars), and I truthfully really don’t need the extra sweets that I’d also been buying. In addition I’m thinking of deleting the match three games off my kindle again, as I seem to be willing to spend the money every so often (and at times quite frequently) for getting extra turns and lives to continue playing the games. This is another challenge that I’m going to keep going for awhile to see if I can get better at curbing my random spending and start saving more.

Continue working through the various e-courses that I’ve bought: I’m slowly working through the different courses that I’ve bought (which now includes courses [and access to websites] that are devoted to coding for webpage development. Coding is something that will be beneficial for me to know, no matter what direction I go with my career. I’m hoping that I can get through a few more of the smaller courses through August, and then in September and October dedicate time for some that will take a little more time.

Figuring out the best workout plan & implementing it this month: Decided to go with LIIFT4. This is a new resistant training with HIIT intervals in it, and it’s only four days with the workouts ranging from about 30 to 45 minutes. I missed this pass Monday due to the site being down, but was able to start it the next day, and we shall see if it’s a good idea to have a leg day HIIT program on the weekend.

Continue working on my transition plan: I managed to try to develop a new way of thinking about my transition plan—I drew some bubble maps on what I considered my safety zone (research) and those positions that I was consider that were totally outside my zone of comfort, and how they could also be connected to things that I enjoy doing. I still need to work on the plan (one of the books that I’ve started reading has these little “homework” assignments of writing down your goals and putting them in a timeline, so I need to start doing that as well)—but the big priority for August is to determine the direction that I think I want to go (research [if so the sector] or other direction), that way I can really start trying to network better.

Networking & adding value: I’m still slowing working on this. If you look above, I’m putting a deadline (hopefully) of when basically September being the month that I really try to start networking more (though I not sure that I really want to be moving possibly back to the east coast during winter), to hopefully find something for the spring.

Restarting my photography challenge: This one I started, but then stopped doing sometime after the fifth of the month. I mainly stopped because my phone was acting up (and still is). Basically I need to make sure that all photos are downloaded to my computer and delete a lot of them from my phone (I keep getting the message that I don’t have enough memory for taking photos). In addition I need to plan out what each week may consist of that way I have a better idea of what I may want to take a picture of; though I do like doing freestyle photography of what ever catches my eye and attention. So—this is something that I need work on still. But I think I’m getting better with the camera during my morning walks at Boomer.

So my goals for August will 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 (and possibly to the blog); then I will do a weekly recap for my facebook pages and possibly the blog as well–this might vary week to week)

Basically the goals are more or less the same for August as they were for July (with a few changes). If I want to transition by April of 2019—I have eight months to make that happen, so I really do need to start making lists and checking things off.