Well August is officially over, and there are only 122 days left in the year. I’m also a day late in posting this as well. As I’m writing this I realize that my birthday is now in less than three weeks, and then I will be looking down my last year of my thirties. I also realized that I fell short on some of the goals for August.
There is only a month left in the third quarter of the year, and while that is scary, depressing, and slightly invigorating—I’ve realized that is just how time goes now—in an instant. Though there is still the fourth quarter of the year, and I’m thinking that is where some of the change is going to take place, and the seeds for change in 2020 will be planted.
August goals were basically the same goals that I’ve had for the past few months, including the goal of working on my “reboot break” plan.
The goals for August included:
At least 434,000 steps
Continuing with the photography challenge
Reading (or finishing) at least 3 non-fiction books
Working on my “reboot break”
Aim for two weeks of no spending (keeping a money log)
Get back into a workout schedule (either a full program or a hybrid program between two different programs).
Work on creating more content for the blog (and potentially posts for linkedin).
Work on getting in a routine of reading business & scientific articles.
So how did I do with each one?
At least 434,000 steps
I was down less than 9,000 steps for the month of August—my final total was 425,266 steps. This was mainly due to the hot temperatures on the weekends, and me not getting my steps in on those days (plus one or two days during the week, when I fell short as well). Though for the year I’m at 3,579,549 steps, which means that to get to 5 million—I only need to aim for a little over 11,500 steps a day. So, I think it is safe to say that I’m going to make the goal of 5 million steps. It is nice to see that by the time I take my reboot break, I don’t necessarily have to aim for 14,000 steps a day (though I probably will—just so I’m not constantly sitting on my butt).
Continuing with the photography challenge
I took a week off from the photography challenge this month. This was partially due to the heat and not having done a walk for a week or two (therefore I felt like I was running low on photographs to share), and partially due to my mood—I just wasn’t in a good mind space that week.
Reading (or finishing) at least 3 non-fiction books
I managed to finish one book this month and it was “The Self-Care Prescription: Powerful solutions to manage stress, reduce anxiety, and increase well-being” by Robyn Gobin.
One thing that I have realized is that while having a kindle is nice—all your books are at your fingertips, at the same time it can be detrimental if you bounce between books a lot (like I do at times). There are numerous books that I’ve started to read in terms of personal/professional development and then I decided I wanted to read something else. So now I’m actually going to go back to some of those books and start from the beginning, as it’s been at least six weeks (if not longer) since I read anything from that particular book.
Working on my “reboot break”
I have an idea of how the first few weeks will go—as those are the weeks that I’m going to dedicate to getting my storage unit in order and starting to try to get rid of things (either selling or donating).
As I had posted earlier, I’m thinking that the first week (and it will probably be the week of Thanksgiving) will look a little like this:
Get up, have a cup of coffee (or tea), and feed the dogs
Go for a morning walk at Boomer Lake (morning zen time and photography time)
Breakfast, shower (probably), then to the storage unit to rearrange and/or repack boxes
Home for lunch
Computer time: **Make use of apps that allow blocking of certain sites for a certain time frame (remove social media temptation—mainly facebook & instagram).
At least one e-course (I have numerous ones bought covering a wide range of topics)
Read/share at least two articles from a biotech/biopharma news site on Linkedin and twitter
Spend at least forty minutes responding to messages and/or sending out connection requests on linkedin
Spend at least thirty minutes reading through other people’s posts on linkedin, and hopefully commenting on at least two or three of them.
Read for an hour (personal/professional development) and journal for an hour (answering questions from personal/professional development book)
Workout
Feed the animals
Dinner and evening routine
Then after getting my storage unit in order, and other things taken care of I can use that time for other things (such as craft time, or more reading/journaling time). This is one thing I’m hoping to improve upon during my reboot break—time management and spending time doing things that I enjoy and things I need to do.
I’ve realized that I’m not aiming for “balance” per say—just having the ability to say today is a day that I need more “me” time or today is a day that will be heavy workwise, therefore after work this is going to be my recharge plan. It has taken me almost thirty-nine years to realize that I really never have had that type of “balance”—I go all out one way or the other, and therefore it isn’t surprising that I’m basically burnt out on life.
Aim for two weeks of no spending (keeping a money log)
I think I managed about one day a week of not spending money on campus. I’ve gotten into the bad habit again of going to the student union at lunch and grabbing candy (my excuse is that it’s a walk to help me get in my steps). Hopefully other than a few scheduled purchases (such as pre-ordered books, one lunch out with friends, and one order from Amazon), I can avoid spending money this month.
I don’t see spending money as bad—but considering what I’m currently buying (namely candy)—I think that I should try to cut back on that spending. Now if I end up buying some fruit or veggies to snack on while on campus—I will make note, but still try to avoid “careless” spending (i.e. spending money on things that I could very well bring from home).
Get back into a workout schedule (either a full program or a hybrid program between two different programs).
This is one thing that I’m struggling with currently. There have been new “hours” required at work (they’re not really new, but they’re very concrete—can’t leave until basically 5 pm on the dot), which has messed up my evening routine and I have yet to get into the groove of a new one. Hopefully this is something that I can get straightened out over the next few months.
Work on creating more content for the blog (and potentially posts for linkedin).
Well, other than the photography challenge (and I took a week off from that), and a few other posts—I didn’t get that much content created for the blog, and none that would be shared via linkedin.
I realize that sharing things via linkedin, they’ll be more of the scientific posts (and I don’t have that many of those done), plus I haven’t decided on the niche/area I would like to focus on. Though to be truthful, for the blog I can be a little more of a jack-of-all-trades, but they would need a central theme.
Work on getting in a routine of reading business & scientific articles.
I have read several articles on biotech/biopharma business pages, and even shared them on linkedin and twitter. It isn’t totally consistent—but it is a start. I’m still trying to figure out my niche, as everything/one has said that it is better to be an expert than a jack-of-all-trades (which is what I currently consider myself).
This is currently one of the problems I’m having with my transition plan—trying to narrow down what it is I want to do with my life. One thing I’ve realized over the years—once I master a skill, I start to get bored. Therefore I’m going to need to choose an area, where I will be challenged consistently, and that could even mean working my way up the ladder—more responsibility, more challenges. Or, I may need to look towards smaller companies, where I may wear more than one “hat” in terms of responsibilities.
Therefore the goals for September will include:
At least 420,000 steps
Continue with the photography challenge
Determine some type of workout routine (hopefully more than just walking)
Aim for two weeks of no spending (keep money log)
Read 3 non-fiction books
Continue working on the reboot/pause plan
Try to set up a monthly calendar (getting organize) for various things
Continue reading on various industry websites and sharing interesting articles via linkedin/twitter. Plus notes for weekly recap on the blog
Keep reminding myself: Progress over perfection, and that I shouldn’t fear failure, but fear being in the same place next year as I am today.
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