Tag: NewMoonGoalsinReview

Baby steps towards progress: Aquarius New Moon Goals in Review

02
Mar
2022

So the moon will be entering the Pisces constellation either tonight, tomorrow, or possibly last night (depending on where you are in the world). This entrance into the Aquarius constellation marks the third new moon of 2022. We’ve made it through the first 60 days (or so) of 2022—and it is looking like 2022 wants to be even a bigger ‘problem’ than 2021 (see my February in review post for my rant on current world issues).

Therefore before looking ahead to the Pisces new moon and the goals I could set—I need to look back at the goals I set for the Aquarius new moon and see how I did with each of them.

The goals that I set for the Aquarius New moon included:

  1. Sorting and editing the large number of digital pictures on the computer
  2. Go through the large number of shirts and decide what I want to keep and what I possibly want to donate
  3. Set up an area for reading oracle/tarot cards
  4. Continue working on my three-to-five/ten year vision/plan

None of the goals were completed during the past few weeks.

I did slowly start going through the digital pictures on the computer—but when you have over 100Gb of pictures, it takes a while to decide which pictures to keep and which to get rid of (especially the bird pictures).

I’m hoping to possibly get rid of five to ten Gb worth of pictures over the next few weeks. I just need to decide how many pictures of various birds I actually want (and possibly back everything up before deleting—that way I still have all of them for awhile).

In terms of going through my shirts—I probably could just donate anything that isn’t in a ‘large’ or ‘x-large’ size. Since I’m not trying to ‘actively’ lose weight or ‘change’ my body—a lot of the shirts aren’t comfortable to wear, and I probably could half the number of ‘large’ and ‘x-large’ shirts I own.

While I have a ‘spot’ for reading my oracle cards, it isn’t permanent, and doesn’t have the ‘vibe’ I’d like for a permanent reading area. As I mentioned in my Feb in review post—I’m in the process of designing an area that can be taken down when I’m done meditating or reading cards (due to elderly cat issues).

The long-term ‘vision/plan’ is still a work in progress—mainly because I’m figuring out my ‘now’—where I’m at in terms of different things and figuring out how to move from ‘here’ to ‘there’. Both ‘spots’ have to be identified before one can move forward. I also like the idea from ‘The Slight Edge’ of just determining the ‘starting’ point/goal and working towards that, instead of trying to work towards a ‘three-year goal’.

So I would say that I made possibly twenty-five percent progress on some of the goals. This past month has been trying and I know that the next few months (to possibly a year or more) will be even more trying. I’m going to aim to be more focused, more productive, creative, and so forth. That may also mean unplugging from the world, curling up with a book or trying to complete a cross-stitch project.

Happy thoughts/vibes/feelings to those who are fighting for their country tonight; your determination, commitment, and strength in spite of what another country is throwing at you amazes me…

Namaste…

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Mostly forward progress, a little backwards: Review of Capricorn New Moon Goals

31
Jan
2022

So the moon will be entering Aquarius either tonight or tomorrow night (depending on where you are in the world), and we’ll be having our second new moon of the year. I’m possibly going to be a day or so behind in various things for awhile—trying to get back on track after allowing the inner critic a couple of ‘battles’ this past month.

So before I look ahead to the Aquarius new moon, I should look back at the goals that I set for the Capricorn new moon and see how I did with each of them.

The goals for the Capricorn new moon included:

  1. Work on developing my vision of where I would like to be in 3-5 years in regards to remote/contract/online freelance writing/blogging. In the same note, write out very specific goals/milestones that will help me achieve the said vision
  2. Read at least one non-fiction book from my 2022 non-fiction book BINGO card
  3. Finish at least one module of a personal/professional development course from my 2022 e-course BINGO cad
  4. Start refreshing my Spanish again using the app Mondly
  5. Work on getting better at self compassion

So how did I do with each of them?

In terms of the 3-to-5 year plan—I’m still working on this. It isn’t so much the time frame, but also a combination of imposter syndrome/self-doubt, and writer’s block. It is slightly hard to figure out what I want to be doing freelance/remote/contract when I currently can’t drum up any enthusiasm for writing. This is something that I’m working on getting past.

I managed to read two books off the non-fiction bingo card:

Work Quilting by Vicki Walton

Girl, Take Back Your Career by Solange Lope

I’m also bouncing between a couple of other non-fiction books along with several fiction books.

I finished two short courses on Skill Share (and I may go back and watch them a couple of more times this year):

Productivity Basics: How to become more productive in 4 steps

Personal and Lifestyle Branding: Build Your Story

Neither course is on the 2022 e-course BINGO card, but I am slowly working through two of the courses:

Write Your Way to Freedom Course (course on becoming a freelance copywriter)

How to Work For Yourself (a course on Udemy)

I haven’t started refreshing my Spanish yet—again the imposter syndrome/inner critic ‘took’ over for about half the month.

In terms of self-compassion/self-love, I’m doing better. I’m working through various assignments for different groups and realizing that there are ‘issues’ that I have tried to ignore for the past few decades and I need to develop a plan for working through them.

My biggest ‘problem’ this month turned out to be being over-zealous in terms of what I would be getting accomplished. I’d mentally planned out a lot of work, but when it came time to start the work—I ‘decided’ to do something different instead and ended up not really doing anything.

Which is slightly funny—since I started the year with watching a productivity e-course, and I ended up procrastinating most of the month away.

So, I managed about three-quarters of the goals (as the only one I didn’t really do anything with was refreshing my Spanish)—so I’ll take that as a win to start the year.

Baby steps, small steps forward and a few steps backwards are all progress towards growth. Growth doesn’t happen in the comfort zone—which is why I’m going to try to focus more on stretching the comfort, bounce, and stretch zones, while working to shrink the risk and die zones.

How do you attempt to stretch your comfort and stretch zones, while attempting to shrink your risk and die zones?

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Progress made on nutrition/movement and acknowledging inner critic

03
Dec
2021

It’s already December, and the moon will be transitioning through another new moon phase this weekend. That means there will be less than thirty days left in 2021—where did the time go this year? Last year seemed to drag, and this year some months seem to have flown by. I’m hoping that come 2022, the ‘richer’ countries will start donating vaccines by the millions to the lower income countries, so that maybe we can get this damn pandemic under control.

So before looking ahead to the next new moon (which will be Sagittarius new moon), I should look back at the goals I set for the Scorpio new moon and see how I did with each of them.

The goals that I set for the Scorpio new moon included:

  1. Continue working on healing my relationship with food and movement.
  2. Continue with my evening meditations/sitting quietly for at least five minutes
  3. Start working through the complete personal finance course that I bought on Udemy
  4. Continue working through the Write Your Way to Freedom copywriting course

So how did I do with each of them?

I’m still working on mending/healing my relationship with food and movement. I’ve started a second round of Morning Meltdown 100 and will be pairing it with walking (so there may be days when I’m not pushing ‘play’, but instead took a two-hour nature walk). I’m still working on getting more protein in during the day (and I do realize that I feel better on the days that I have my yogurt or cottage cheese for snacks). Still working on drinking more water during the day (I did buy a gallon water jug and now am working at actually trying to drink that much water during the day; currently it takes me about four to six days to drink that much water), getting more fruits and veggies in during the day as well.

While the Wi-Fi issues were resolved, I didn’t do much computer work this past month. Mainly—I let my inner critic/imposter syndrome win a couple of internal arguments that I didn’t realize I was having with myself. Therefore I didn’t make any progress on the personal finance or copywriting course.

I need to expand the time for my sitting quietly/meditation in the evenings. This past month, it was more just sitting quietly—I didn’t feel like lighting the candles and actually trying to meditate, though that is something that I’m going to be working on going forward.

Minor progress was made on goals (I’d say about thirty to forty percent), but huge progress was made in realizing where I was tripping myself up at this past month. If I actually acknowledge the feelings (namely anxiety), I can figure out ways of working through the panic/anxiety attacks and still be productive—instead of trying to ‘put my head in the sand’ and ignoring the bigger issues.

My plan now is when I’m realizing that I’m having a panic/anxiety attack–I will shut down (or at least put to sleep) the computer and just writing things out by hand. Tonight for example–I’ll be doing my monthly ‘brain dump’ after I done here, along with figuring out my December goals (two things I should have done earlier this week).

I’ve also realized that the anxiety/panic attacks are caused by me overthinking and making things a lot more complicated than they really need to be–so progress is being made.

So, now it will be time to focus on goals and brain dumps for the night, a nature walk tomorrow morning, Sagittarius goal planning tomorrow afternoon, and working on a couple of writing assignments this weekend as well.

Do you try to get out into nature to help cure anxiety/panic attacks??

No Comments careerfinancesNew Moon GoalsPersonal Developmentprofessional developmentReflectionsspirituality

Reviewing Virgo New Moon goals: Some were derailed and some were met

05
Oct
2021

Well, we’ve entered the month of October—less than 90 days left in the year and we’re going to be heading into another ‘new moon’ phase tomorrow. That means before I look ahead to the October Libra New Moon, I should look back at the goals I set for the Virgo new moon and see how I did with each of them.

So what were the goals that I set for the September Virgo new moon? They included:

  1. Taking inventory of various aspects of life (research/writing/editing/publishing, crafts/hobbies, fitness, and mental health/spirituality) and trying to develop a working schedule that will allow me to be both productive, but at teh same time enjoy time outside as well.
  2. Continue with daily workouts (either weight lifting/shadow-boxing or starting a second round of MM100)
  3. In combination with #1–organize the schedule and block out periods of time (or set certain days to certain tasks) and see if that helps improve my productivity
  4. Work on completing the third and fourth goal from the Leo New Moon goal list:
    • Determine the top five to ten types of freelance/remote/contract writing that I would like to do and start drafting examples of each. Also start drafting my ‘own’ medical content pieces.
    • Determine the top five to fifteen items/sponsors/affiliates and so-forth for the other three ‘blocks’ of my business foundation.
  5. Continue with evening meditations and start trying to incorporate them into the mornings as well.

So how did I do with each of them?

  1. I’ve realized that one of the things I’ve really been struggling with is setting aside enough time to do the research/writing and editing for various writing projects that I have on my plate. Why? Mainly because I haven’t prioritized them, and unlike the bird pages, I haven’t done a lot of ‘batch research’ (looking for papers on different topics on PubMed at the same time). So, this is something that I’m going to be working on (in addition to making sure that I schedule in enough time for fitness as well).
  2. September was a roller coaster month (one of the younger dogs developed hemolytic anemia after getting an allergy shot—so there were several vet visits, and a lot of worrying), and I didn’t get into an fitness routine. I also decided I’d renew my Beachbody-on-Demand subscription one more year, so I will actually be figuring out the best time to schedule in my daily workout (probably going to start with a second round of Morning Meltdown 100).
  3. Organizing the schedule is still something I’m working on—I’m going to make use of my larger bullet journal as a planner and over the upcoming weekend see how many pages will be required for a monthly/weekly/daily spread.
  4. In terms of the freelance/remote/contract writing areas: I published a post earlier this week mentioning how I’d decided that I was going to be a ‘multi-niche’ writer/blogger. I decided that the three ‘main’ niches were going to be health/wellness, science/medical education/communication, and personal/professional development. In addition, I would still be doing posts on photography, travel, book reviews, and various other things as well (though they may be shorter in length compared to topics from the three main ‘niches’). While those areas are still extremely broad, I’m slowly working on narrowing down to say three to five areas within each one (for example within personal/professional development I’m interested in learning more on personal finances, minimalism, time and project management, and online learning). After choosing the three to five (possibly more) areas, I’ll slowly be writing longer posts/pages for those areas and publishing them both on the blog, possibly LinkedIn, and other sites as well. In terms of the other three pillars (advertising, selling photographs and jewelry), I’m still working on determining those top five plus items (though I’m also thinking of possibly trying to sell my cross-stitch projects as well).
  5. I’ve been doing really well with the evening mediation (or sometimes just sitting quietly), but haven’t really been able to get into the habit yet of doing it earlier in the day.

Okay—so I managed to possibly get two of the five goals met during the Virgo new moon (meditation and slowly figuring out the main ‘niches’ I am going to migrate towards for starting a freelance/remote/contract writing business. I’ve also decided that the best thing to do will be to have polished examples on the ‘tabs’ (the main ‘portfolio’ pages), and then additional posts within the blog. So this means that I will really need to get on top of developing a editorial calendar, and making sure that I’ve got my ‘key words’ for the different niches narrowed down and picked out (something else to put on the to-do list for the weekend).

Luckily, we hopefully caught the hemolytic anemia in time, and our younger dog will be making a ‘full recovery’. It may be another month on the high dose of meds until the allergy shot is totally out of her system, and then a gradual tampering down on the dose of the two meds.

Hopefully it will be somewhat smoother sailing for the rest of the year (as long as there are no more medical emergencies—either animal or human, or any other problems). Minor progress is still progress, and trying to develop a schedule has always been a minor problem for me (I don’t really like trying to totally plan out my days/weeks to far in advance).

But tomorrow, is another new moon—which means it is another chance to set a series of new goals, but also to continue working on the goals that have been previously set—but not totally met.

As I’d mentioned at the end of my Virgo New Moon goals—I’m going to be focusing on progress not perfection, slowly starting to write the next chapter of my life, and not allowing the opinions of others to deter me from the path that I’ve started on. It is usually the bumpy and windy roads that lead to unique places.

Though I am curious: when is your favorite time to meditate?

No Comments Astrologybullet journalcareerfitnessHealthNew Moon GoalsPersonal Developmentprofessional developmentReflections

Looking back at the ongoing personal and professional development adventures

07
Aug
2021

So, the moon will be heading into the next new moon cycle tomorrow night (or possibly Monday night—depending on where you are in the world). That means I should look back at the goals I set for the Cancer new moon and see how I did with them, before looking ahead to the Leo new moon.

So what were my goals for the Cancer new moon? They included:

  1. Continuing with the ‘next adventures’ of my personal/professional development board game: reading two to three books (‘Why You’re Stuck’ by Derek Doepker, ‘More of Less’ by Josh Becker), work through a copy-writing course, and start drafting some science posts/pages.
  2. Figure out the answers to the following questions/points that I raised when trying to create a financial plan: (1) what are the different ways that I can earn money; (2) what would the ‘minimal monthly earnings’ be for each areas’ and (3) will it stay a online/remote/contract/freelancing/consulting/blogging mixture or will it be a hybrid (online and in person).
  3. Use the answers from above to slowly create a new 12-month goal/plan for the various areas of my life.
  4. Continue with my evening meditations/sitting quietly moments.
  5. Continue with my oracle card challenge and doing my evening readings/drawings as well.

So how did I do with each of them?

  1. I’m still working through the ‘current adventures’ of my personal/professional development board game. I’m currently halfway through ‘More of Less’ by Josh Becker, and just a little ways into ‘Why You’re Stuck’ by Derek Doepker. I’m slowly working through the different copy-writing courses, and I have an outline for my ‘troubleshooting tips for molecular cloning’ writing project completed.
  2. Last night I did a double post on how I was going to try to simplify my life and at the same time ways I was going to try to diversify my earnings. The initial four methods are going to be: freelance writing, affiliate marketing/advertising revenue/sponsored content; selling photographs; and creating/selling jewelry (and possibly some tee shirts). I’m still working on figuring out what the ‘minimal monthly earnings’ would be for each area (and I also realize that they may change month to month, especially as I’m just starting out). Currently I’m aiming for strictly online/remote/contract/freelance work since there are various variants of the SARS-CoV2 virus still spreading throughout the US and the world.
  3. This will actually be accomplished over the next week or so, since my ‘pillars’ for diversifying my income were only chosen over the past week or so. I also need to work on my ‘vision’ statement as well–basically try to answer the question of where do I see myself in say three, five, ten, or even twenty years.
  4. I’ve been doing well with the evening meditations or periods of just sitting quietly and focusing on my breathing.
  5. I’d been pretty good at the oracle card challenge, up until this past week. Currently I’m basically five days behind ‘schedule’ and I am thinking of doing a four-to-five card spread to ‘catch’ up and end it (currently) at 30 days. While I enjoyed doing the challenge, it has started to lose its enjoyment and is starting to feel like something I ‘have to do’ instead of something I want to be doing. The evening card drawings have been going okay–though I’m thinking of trying to move them to the mornings so that I can reflect on them throughout the day.

So, I focused more on the mental health goals this month compared to the professional development goals. I’ve realized what one of the triggers of my anxiety is–trying to set goals that are years in the future. The reason: I’m still ‘afraid’ of making the wrong decision in terms of my life, therefore I overthink things to the point of almost not doing anything.

The only way to face that ‘fear’ is to slowly move in the direction of change, and while I say ‘slowly’—I’m talking about working on ‘change’ daily (brainstorming ideas, research, writing, editing, and so forth), so that the anxiety starts to dull and hopefully only spikes then for ‘real’ threats. I’ve already started ‘slow’—I managed to get a volunteer medical content writing position, and I’m learning quite a bit from the editor and position (especially that writing 1000 words is harder than it looks when you need to limit the amount of scientific jargon you use).

So, the personal/professional development adventures will continue—hopefully I will be done with at least one of the books within a week or so, I will also have hopefully worked through part of at least one writing course, and have found five to ten resources/references for my ‘troubleshooting tips for molecular cloning’ writing project. I’m pretty certain that I can develop a ‘year’ plan that can be extended and revised as I met (or change) goals and benchmarks.

Progress is never a straight line, it can curve, fold back, and zigzag along—you just need to trust in the process and continue moving forward. Compared to where I was mentally three years ago—I’ve made strides in putting myself first, I need to continue those strides, but also work on creating a community as well.

What strides have you made over the past few years?

No Comments AstrologycareerfinancesHealthNew Moon Goalsno spend challengesoracle cardsPersonal DevelopmentPhotographyprofessional developmentReflections

Review of Pisces new moon goals

24
Mar
2020

So the moon is going to be moving into the Aries constellation over the next day or so, and transitioning through a new moon phase—and it will be the start of a new astrological year. So before I get into trying to set goals for the Aries new moon, I should look back on the goals that I set for the Pisces new moon and see how I did with each of them.

So what were the goals for the Pisces new moon?

            Get back into a meditation routine—preferably at night, but may try morning as well.

            Start doodling again, and possibly turn one of the doodles into a cross-stitch pattern (and teach myself how to cross-stitch).

            Daily workout (Beachbody or possibly see if I can find a free online belly dancing workout)

In terms of meditation—I’m still trying to figure out the best routine at night. I’ve bought a meditation pillow (though it is smaller than it looked in the pictures), and am trying to figure out the best time that works for me. Currently I usually try to meditate at night before going to bed. Since I’ve been having problems with the time—I’m going to try to set aside fifteen minutes (probably before brushing my teeth) for meditation at night.

In terms of doodling—this didn’t happen. I’ve been a little too irritated with the world (mainly because of the mishandling of the pandemic response) to try to draw (or even color).

In terms of working out—this I have managed to do. I started doing Morning Meltdown 100 on beachbodyondemand. I have only taken two days off (brother & his dog were in town, and needed to help keep the peace). But I’m liking the program—and currently I’m more focused on toning and losing inches than I am on losing weight—that would be great, but I’m not going to go out of my mind trying to micromanage what I’m eating.

I know that nutrition plays a large part in losing weight—but with the current atmosphere (global pandemic) I’m more concerned with trying to keep my anxiety and stress under control than I am about having my nutrition totally under control.

And I am remembering: Progress not Perfection

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