Well today’s post is going to be somewhat brief, and I will have a catch-up photography challenge post tomorrow. I just realized that over the past two months (and probably longer than that), my posts have been almost all photography posts, with a few others sporadically posted throughout the month.
When I started this blog almost two years ago, I had figured it would be a way of keeping myself accountable in two different areas–personal and professional development (as I job searched), and also a way of sharing different interests (photography, fitness, books, and so forth). One thing I haven’t gotten the hang of totally yet is sitting down and trying to write numerous different posts ahead of time and then scheduling when I would post them on line.
I’ve been better this year at doing my bi-monthly moon goal posts, and my month in review–but that is still only about five additional posts added in to my photography challenge. The photography challenge is also starting to become difficult, because I feel like I’m almost taking the same pictures every week. At least I know where I can start making small daily changes.
I’ve also realized that I’m falling into an almost predictable mood swing pattern–I work on different areas and feel good about myself one month, and then the next I fall prey to that nasty inner voice that has me questioning everything I did the month before. It takes me a week or two to silence the inner critic, but then I have to build back the momentum that I lost–and then I repeat the cycle. I’ve realized that to break this cycle–I need to work on countering the inner critic voice (work on getting out of my own way), and also doing more journaling and getting the thoughts to paper and acknowledging the emotions (instead of ignoring them).
As we head into the second half of 2019, I realize that I’m going to have to make some big decisions about certain things (like when exactly am I going to be doing my “reboot break”), and that while I can’t see all the stairs in front of me–I need to take those first few steps and actually get myself unstuck in order to start really moving forward.
Well the first quarter of the year has come and gone. Some
things have gotten accomplished, but I’ve fallen short on quite a few other
things. One thing I despise about March is the start of day light savings
time—where we set the clocks a head an hour. We don’t gain or lose anything
other than a little bit of our charming personalities. For the most part I can
adapt pretty quickly, except I usually end of snacking a little more, and it
takes me a little longer to get back into a workout routine. Plus it’s still
flu season (luckily I got my flu shot last fall, so I only had a very mild case
this past week). As we head into the second quarter of the year, it’s time to
look back on the goals for March and see how I managed with each one.
The goals for the month included:
At least 434,000
steps (again this breaks down to a minimum of 14K/day), though I would like to
maybe aim for 475,000 steps (which would break down to a little over 15K a day).
Continue with the
photography challenge
Workout daily (continue
to alternate between weight training & cardio)
Read (or finish) at
least three non-fiction books
Try to get at least
one more science post up on the blog (maybe two if possible)
Aim for a week of no
spending (keep a money log)
Continue interacting
on linkedin
Continue working
through the various e-courses/groups and transition plan (making notes,
narrowing down on cities, looking into companies, and figuring out my
superpower trifecta)
Read at least one
article on FiercePharma and/or FierceBiotech (weekly and work up to daily) and
make notes so that I can do a blog post (or weekly recap of what I’ve read).
So how did I do with each goal?
At least 434,000
steps (again this breaks down to a minimum of 14K/day), though I would like to
maybe aim for 475,000 steps (which would break down to a little over 15K a
day). Well I’ve at least made it to the 434,000 steps for the month. There
have been several days that I’ve decided should be rest days—so I usually end
up with less than 5K steps. I did manage to get to a total of 464,960 (I was just a little over 10K
shy of the 475,000 goal). This brings me to a total of 1,329,138 and I’m still on track for both the goal of five million
by the end of the year, and my ~14-20 million by the end of 1001 days challenge.
Continue with the
photography challenge. So far so good, I’ve managed to keep up with the
challenge. I’m alternating between newer pictures and older ones that I haven’t
shared. Right now the photography challenge is mainly on the blog, and then
shared on either twitter or pintrest (depending on the post).
Daily workout
(continue to alternate between weight training & cardio). This really didn’t happen this month. In
between trying to readapt to day light savings time and just life in general—I
managed to make sure that I was walking daily, but that was about it. April
will be when I get back on track. I’m actually thinking of maybe trying to
start transformation 20 come April 1st (it’s the new ShawnT workout
from Beachbody that should be available to everyone).
Read (or finish) at
least three non-fiction books. I managed to only finish one book this month
and that was: “Choose the life you want: The mindful way to happiness” by Taj
Ben-Shahar. With day light saving time starting, and coming down with a mild
case of the flu—I fell back into a routine of re-reading some of my go to
series (also there were a couple of new books out in two series, so I needed to
remember what had happen so I could read those books). I have one or two other
books that I’m about 70% of the way through, but didn’t manage to get them
finished this month.
Try to get at least
one more science post up on the blog (maybe two if possible). I have
several ideas for different science posts for the science page of the blog (and
even a couple of blog posts), but that is as far as I’ve gotten for those. One
issue is again my poor illustration skills and the fact that I want them to
look good. So the posts may just be
“wordy” to begin with, and then once I’m comfortable with not perfect
illustrations I’ll start to add in some illustrations.
Aim for a week of no
spending (keep a money log). I did manage to have a week of no
spending—it was the very first week of the month. I’m hoping to do better in
April and actually maybe have a month of no spending. The money log only lasted
about the first two weeks of the month, and then I kept saying I’d add in
things after work—but I never did. Again this is a work in progress.
Continue interacting
on linkedin—this is something that didn’t really happen this month. I think
it was a combination of not getting decent sleep, allergies, and just feeling
blah in general that I more or less stayed off linkedin last month. This is
something that I need to be doing (interacting—not staying off of) more of, and
hopefully will be doing better with come the second quarter of the year.
Continue working
through the various e-courses/groups and transition plan (making notes,
narrowing down on cities, looking into companies, and figuring out my
superpower trifecta). I’ve made some
progress on this—I have several pages of notes on the types of positions that
could be of interest, and things I should be doing to help narrow down the
positions from seven to maybe four (or at least ranked a little better than
what I currently have). In terms of the different e-courses that I’ve bought
(or saved) I’ve managed to only get through one or two (and they don’t
necessarily have anything to do with transitioning to an industry position).
Read at least one
article on FiercePharma and/or FierceBiotech (weekly and work up to daily) and
make notes so that I can do a blog post (or weekly recap of what I’ve read).
Truthfully I can’t remember if I read anything on either website this month. I
may have during the first week of the month, but if I did—I forgot to take
notes.
So I’ve been up and down on the goals for March—but
truthfully with the time change and then battling the crud—I’m not surprised.
I’ve also realized that there are several things on my 101-goal list that I
haven’t been consistent with either the first quarter of the year. But that is
the nice thing about life—you can realize something isn’t working perfectly and
then start slowly readjusting things so that you’re hopefully hitting the goal
at least 80% of the time for the month.
So as we head into the second quarter of the year, my goals
for April will include:
At least 434,000
steps (breaks down to 14K/day).
Reading (or
finishing) at least three non-fiction books
Continuing with the
photography challenge
Being more active on
linkedin
Working out daily
(hopefully starting transformation: 20 or another round of LIIFT4)—or at least
on a consistent basis. I’m not going to push myself if I know I’m not feeling
well—so there has to be balance.
Aim for two weeks of
no spending (keep a money log)
Continue working
through the various e-courses/groups and transition plan (making notes,
narrowing down on cities, looking into companies, and figuring out my
superpower trifecta)
Read at least one
article on FiercePharma and/or FierceBiotech (weekly and work up to daily) and
make notes so that I can do a blog post (or weekly recap of what I’ve read).
Read at least one scientific article a week and write a 500-word summary for a potential blog/science post.
The goals are pretty much the same–which is good. If I can stick with them for a couple more months, they should almost be a habit and then I can start in with some new goals.
Well we’re almost through the first quarter of the year. Tomorrow is both Monday and the start of April–which means April Fool’s Day. I think there is a universal joke being played on us–that is almost an unfair way of starting the week. But since the quarter is almost over, it’s time to do a quick check-in on life via the Level 10 criteria.
Level 10 Life Update: Starting the second quarter of 2019
So there has been little change in basically all areas–either things stayed steady or they went up or down a little. Things almost balanced out in terms of what when up and down–though I think I’m +0.5 in the positive direction in terms of changes.
I still don’t have much of a social life–and currently I’m perfectly fine with that. I know that it could help in terms of networking–but at the end of a busy day at work or a busy week–I don’t want to go back out and deal with interacting with people. So right now most networking is done on-line. I’m planning on doing in-person/live networking, but that will be in a few months (once I have a little more vacation time earned) and I can do a duel networking/mental health break.
I’m hoping to get more things done in terms of my job transition plan, and moving towards getting an industry position (more on this later), and I’m also probably going to be starting a new beachbody program tomorrow (as long as the wireless and internet behave in the evenings–streaming workouts aren’t fun if they keep crashing in the middle). So what are some of my 2nd quarter goals for April through June:
Getting in touch with friends and family via email/social media
Continue reading different personal development books and doing different short challenges (more on this later).
Continuing to try to mediate daily and do my daily tarot/oracle card readings
Different savings challenges
Work on my industry transition plan and network
Lunch with friends on the weekends
More time for crafts
Donate clothes (mainly t-shirts) at the end of the 333 challenge
Repack boxes in storage unit (make room for other boxes from home).
Hopefully do Transformation 20 (new ShawnT workout from Beachbody) and then the hybrid Transformation 20/LIIFT4 program.
I almost consider the first part of the year as still a “planning” period. Now that we’re well into the year–it’s time to get stuff done. More lists will be made (and possibly shared), so that things can be checked off and as a way to make sure that I’m actually moving forward and not just spinning in circles.
