So the moon is going to be heading into its next full moon cycle this coming weekend (either Friday or Saturday night—depending on where you are in the world). That means before looking ahead to the Libra full moon, I need to look back at the goals that I’d set for the Virgo full moon and see how I did with each of them.

What were my goals for the Virgo full moon? Well, they included:

1. Finish setting up the ‘meditation’ area for nightly meditations
2. Get back into the practice of doing ‘monthly brain dumps’ and using that to gauge how narrowly focused or ‘well-rounded’ I’m being in my thoughts
3. Continue working on various Diamond group activities to help with the transition to either a remote writing position and/or starting my own freelance business.
4. Another long-term goal is going to be continue looking into my cultural heritage and starting to strengthen my sisu.

So how did I do with each of them?

I have the ‘meditation’ area straighten up, its just a matter of pulling out the blankets to sit on at night and then putting them back in the box (to decrease any potential pet accidents).

Did my April monthly brain dump, and I would say that I grouped things into creative/reflective posts (my usually five monthly posts), book reviews, photography (mainly different birds that I’m wanting to post pages for), throwback travel posts, and a list of science topics that I’m figuring out how to blend into one or more large ‘series’.

When it comes to the Diamond group activities, I’m slowly revising my resume (made the mistake and made a ‘Frankenstein’ resume, so I’m in the process of using the template and rewording things to emphasize skills and results that I have to focus on the jobs that I want.

I know the top four-to-five things I still need to be doing (and once I get one done, it can easily be checked off as complete):

Creating a functional resume template that can then be tailored to each position

Update my LinkedIn profile (removing ‘academic’ terms/phrases, becoming more future facing, more emphasis on transferrable skills, and showcasing my writing)

Networking and doing informational interviews with both freelance writers and writers within different companies

Writing and creating different types of deliverables (and what do I mean by different types of deliverables?)

I mean, creating examples of infographics, slide decks (PowerPoint), possible posters (or possibly just link in a JPEG picture of one from grad school), and possibly even try writing a literature review.

In addition, I’d be figuring out different types of copywriting that I’d also be willing to do (which can also include the above), since I’m thinking of freelance and possibly doing a mixture of content/copywriting.

In terms of investigating my cultural heritage and finding my inner sisu—I realized that it has always been there (I just accidentally ignore it from time to time).

Sisu is that inner grit/determination/will.

I realized that I do tap into from time to time—I had to in order to finish college and grad school. I didn’t know what I wanted to major in as an undergrad (hence the seven years and two degrees), and didn’t know what I wanted to do afterwards (hence going to grad school).

It also helped me get through two post-doc positions, and two staff scientist positions. It allowed me to say, ‘this isn’t working, and I need a break to figure things out’.

When have I ‘ignored’ it? Well, there was college, grad school, two post-doc positions, and two staff scientist positions.

I kept with the science track because I was good in science and I enjoyed being in the lab. I had dreams when I was younger of having my own lab doing marine or developmental biology research. When things didn’t work out doing the post-docs, I switched to a staff scientist position instead of taking time to figure out what I really wanted to do.

The past few years, I’ve realized that I want location independence, ability to do research on topics that are of interest to me (leaning into my top strength of learner), and being able to control my schedule.

The sticking point has been allowing my inner critic/imposter syndrome loom over my sisu. I know that I can write, and that I can do it in both a ‘scientific’ voice and an ‘everyone else’ voice. I just have to sit and write, step away from the computer and come back the next day (or day after that) and edit what I wrote (instead of trying to edit as I write).

So, I would say that I managed to meet at least seventy-five percent of each goal. I know that I could have completed more Diamond group activities (but again—there is that pesky rabbit hole of researching a topic—even if it is ‘only’ a career track), but I’m aiming to be a little more productive over the next ninety days.

Starting to be a little SMARTer in the goal setting (even for the moons) is starting to help. My problem really has been the ‘T’ (Time restraint) in setting the goals. I either make it too short or too long. Again, I’m planning on improving on my SMART goals over the next ninety days as well.

How did your Virgo Full Moon Goals turn out??