So we’re going to be entering the last full moon of the year (and December) on Tuesday. That means there will literally be only two days before the end of 2020, and the start of 2021. This is one of the few years that I’m actually looking forward to staying up late to see the year out—and hopefully 2021 will be a lot more mellow, laid back, and more productive.
But before I can look the next full moon, or even start trying to look back on the month or year—it is time to look back at the goals that I set for the Gemini full moon and see how I did with each of them.
What were my goals for the Gemini full moon? They included:
Read (or finish) at least two non-fiction books, and take (or highlight sections) notes in order to also post a book review on the blog (and possibly amazon as well).
Continue to work on improving my evening/afternoon meditations.
Get creative in figuring out an schedule/calendar for things. I’ve had ideas of doing everything from a ‘syllabus’ (treating different areas like they were ‘school subjects’) to making a to-be accomplished list. Needless to say neither has really stuck (though to be fair on the to-be accomplished list, the first draft was more of a brain dump). I may try to make a hybrid of the three—a brain dump, cleaned up into a to-be accomplished list, which can be formatted into one or more ‘syllabus’.
So how did I do with each of the goals?
In terms of reading/finishing two non-fiction books—I managed to start two new ones, but haven’t really finished any of them. I think that one part of my problem this year in terms of reading non-fiction books, I have SO many of them on my personal/professional/non-fiction reading list that at times it’s hard to choose which one to read at any given time. Another part of the problem is that sometimes I’m not in the mood to read non-fiction, so I will go read a fiction book instead (and I have managed to finish at least five fiction books during the Gemini full moon).
I am still improving my evening meditation routine. If I can manage to get my tarot/oracle card reading done prior to taking the dogs outside for their last romp—I can then meditate after I bring them in, instead of trying to get the card reading done and then meditate. Though this hasn’t happened as often as I like—therefore I may try to meditate and then do the card reading.
In terms of trying to develop an schedule/calendar, I’m going to be doing a couple of different things as we head into 2021. For starters I’ve created two ‘bingo cards’—one is a 2021 goal bingo card and the second is a 2021-2023 fitness program bingo card. I’m also going to be making a shorter list of books to read and e-courses to complete—and if I manage to finish everything on the lists, I will go back to the master lists and select some more to add to each list. I’m also going to start working on ‘channel switching’ (more on this in a later post); that once I get bored (or have reached a particular time limit) with something I will go do something totally opposite. This means that if I’m doing a lot of computer work—I will go do some chores, or a walk, or play with the dogs; and if I’m doing chores, I’ll take a break and read or just sit and be for a while.
It may not have been perfect this past month in terms of meeting these goals—but this is the last month of 2020, holidays, and lets just say that December 2020 is a month that I’m more than willing to ignore for the rest of time.
I am still going to be using the following quotes as we move into 2021: “Progress over perfection”, “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one”; and “Not caring what other people think is the best choice you will ever make”.
So I’m 100 days into this challenge, and there are sixty-six days left in 2020. We’re also just about a week away from the presidential election as well (fingers crossed it goes the way I’m hoping).
I decided a couple of weeks ago, that I should probably look at the list again, and see if there were any goals that I wanted to remove (for whatever reason), and possibly any goals I wanted to add—but also to see where I was in terms of the different goals.
There is still the pandemic going on—which means that the travel plans are still on hold, and I’m still sheltering in place. I will probably continue to shelter in place at least until March of 2021 (when hopefully a possible vaccine is available). I’m still working on trying to figure out what my ‘new normal’ is going to be looking like.
As I stated in a previous post, I’m also thinking of replacing the list on the odds and end bucket list with this list—so that change may be occurring soon as well.
So how are things progressing?
Professional development and career: On-going
1. Transition into an industry position (probably remote/online or freelancing at this point to start); there will be several posts on this goal
2. Learn a programming language (python or R—ties in with #6)—going to go with python to begin with.
3. Finish various e-courses that I’ve bought, but in particular:
4. Dream Job Hack Removed, currently going through the modules but trying to tailor to my needs (program is best for those wanting to get into high level manager type roles—not the greatest for someone switching from research to industry and who also hasn’t been in a manager type role).
5. Medical Writers Organization
6. Data Scientist Syndicate—Finished September 3rd 2020
7. Project Management Consortium
8. Management Consulting Firm
9. All other courses—see additional lists in the journal.
10. More interacting on Linkedin—Hard to score these, I’m doing the best with #11; though I have started doing my own posts—mainly photographs and quotes; need to start working more on the other 2 (especially the giving/asking for recommendations).
11. Sharing articles from various biotech pages, and other science pages
12. Commenting on posts
13. Giving/Asking for recommendations
14. Start writing my own posts
15. Creating monthly/weekly/daily calendars for above goals—trying to get better at the editorial or to-do-list calendars.
16. Renew professional memberships—Need to pick just one or two currently to renew; can’t do all at once.
Both Personal and Professional Development—still working on all of these
17. Become fluent in Spanish
18. Become fluent in German
19. Become proficient in French, Norwegian, or Swedish
20. Read at least 300 personal/professional development books; this will include books from my previous attempts at 1001-day challenges as well. I have over 300 books on the list, and I would like to get through at least 100 of them before I keep adding to the list.
21. Finish the books on scientific writing
22. Start building up a portfolio of work (writing/data analysis/plus other ideas)
23. Develop a daily writing habit (tied with several goals below)
24. Write a letter to my future self
Personal development and hobbies—started a few, but need to also start in on others as well
25. Paint and frame at least one original painting
26. More photography—Have been doing this; started a new challenge (though I haven’t been totally consistent with daily postings) and updating/adding pages
27. 365-Day Challenge (aim for 365 different pictures)
28. Update photography pages on blog
29. Make my own jewelry
30. Learn to cross-stitch
31. Get a new sewing machine—On hold; seems getting a sewing machine there is a 50/50 risk that the machine will have problems winding the bobbin
32. Make a new quilt (or this may wait until I move)
33. Make a set of drapes for the bedroom (for backdrop for any zoom calls)
34. Start a new afghan (write a post on finishing the other)—need to figure out how to patch the other afghans
35. Show case crafts on blog (possibly a weekly update?)
36. Start writing a book
37. Learn Photoshop
38. Write in journal daily (answer questions/prompts from journaling books and free thought)
39. Create my own coffee-table photography book
40. Learn basic sign language
41. Start a virtual book club
Finances—still working on these, since I’m taking time off there isn’t a steady paycheck coming in yet.
42. Create monthly budgets—currently this is just paying off the bills.
43. Credit card debts down and hopefully paid off monthly—some are high, but that is due to buying a couple of personal/professional development courses that were rather expensive.
44. Declutter the house (way of earning extra cash)
45. Savings account up another 20K (hopefully)—this will be tied in with #44, #46, and any other ways of trying to earn a little extra cash.
46. Talk with financial person about short-term investment possibilities
47. Continue doing the small surveys as a way of earning a little extra cash
48. Finish the various financial e-courses, and decide when/how to start investing
Fitness & Health—On going
49. Get into the best shape of my life
50. Multivitamin and supplements daily
51. Manage to make it through the following Beachbody workouts
52. Morning Meltdown 100 (will probably do this 2-3 times, as I’m currently doing this program right now—07/19/2020)—Finished my first round on 9/15/2020
53. Yoga Booty Ballet—Abs & Butt (should be done mid-Nov)
54. 10 Rounds—Will be starting this mid-Nov & done by Christmas.
55. Barre Blend
56. Insanity Max 30
57. LIIFT4 (have already done this program once); 2nd round will be done mid-Nov (combined this with Yoga Booty Ballet—Abs & Butt)
58. 22-Minute Hard Corps
59. T20
60. Insanity
61. Insanity: Asylum 1
62. Insanity: Asylum 2
63. 4 weeks of Prep
64. 6 weeks of the work
65. T25 (have already done this program once)
66. Brazil Butt Lift
67. 21-Day Fix (Already done this program once)
68. 21-Day Fix Extreme (Already done this program once)
69. Country Heat (already done this program once)
70. CIZE
71. Muscle Burns Fat
72. Muscle Burns Fat Advanced
73. 30-Day Breakaway (this is a maybe—it’s running based)
74. 9-week control freak
75. Shawn Week
76. 80-Day Obsession
77. Brazil Butt Lift: Carnivale
78. Shift Shop: Proving Grounds
79. P90
Plus any other possible Beachbody program that is coming out that I may want to add.
80. Manage 5 push-ups on my toes
81. Manage 10 push-ups on my toes
82. Hold a two-minute forearm plank
83. Hold a 90 second plank
84. Meditate nightly
85. Start jogging (as another way to try to keep my mental health up)—may tie this in with #73
86. 60-80 oz of water a day
87. Stretch daily
88. Go one weekend a month with no social media (no scrolling through social media pages; may still post on the sites)
89. Get at least 10,010,000 steps (breaks down to 5K/day)—on my way; I’ve managed to hit all month goals (and surpass slightly).
Blog and Social Media–Ongoing
90. Finish YouTube for bosses course
91. Finish YouTube course creation for bosses course
92. Finish blog to biz course
93. Launch a YouTube channel
94. Launch an online course
95. Get blog traffic to 500+ views a day
96. Rebrand myself (?)
97. Get Instagram followers to constant 800+
98. Get pintrest followers to constant 400+
99. Get twitter followers to constant 1000+
100. Publish at least two blog series
101. Editorial calendars (monthly/weekly/daily)
102. Blog
103. Instagram
104. Facebook pages
105. Twitter
106. Pintrest
107. Get Fit with Jessi to 1000+ likes/follows
108. Get becomingJessi (or new name if I change) to 1000+ likes/follows
109. Various top 10 author lists
110. Various top 10 book series lists
111. Launch a podcast
Spirituality–Ongoing
112. Full/New Moon Goals
113. Create my own altar (wicca/pagan)
114. Weekly (or daily) tarot/oracle card readings
115. 15 minutes outdoors in the morning (coffee only) weather permitting; probably on hold now until spring—fall/winter mornings are usually somewhere between the 30s and 50s (if it’s closer to the higher end—maybe).
Others–ongoing
116. Keep at least 3 plants alive
117. Design a science based board game
118. Create and update digital vision board
119. Reorganize my storage unit
120. Put in at least one flower garden around the house (backyard, and/or front yard)
121. Help put up partial privacy fence in backyard
122. Start downsizing clothes and creating different “minimum” wardrobes (work/professional/casual; home/casual/working out)
123. Develop at least 10 different 100-day challenges
One challenge will be 100 days of iPhone Photography.
124. Start downsizing rest of my things./ as well—would like to probably be able to live comfortably in a smallish size apartment (or house) wherever I move for the next job.
TV shows to binge watch—Haven’t felt like sitting and watching anything lately
125. Hawaii 5-0 (latest remake)
126. Grimm
127. The Librarians
128. Once Upon A Time
129. Blacklist
130. Numbers
131. Agents of SHIELD
Goals on hold due to the global coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak (either because they require traveling, going into a large store, and/or being around large groups of people):
132. Re-pierce my ears
133. Go to at least 1 scientific conference
134. Present at a scientific conference
135. Go to at least 2 professional networking events
136. Move to a new (or maybe not new) city for job
137. Visit at least 3 new countries
138. Visit at least one new national and/or state park
139. Visit at least one new national and/or state monument
140. Visit at least one new zoo
141. Visit at least one new aquarium
142. Fly out and/or land at 3 new (to me) airports
143. Visit at least one new city
144. Visit at least one new state
145. See the northern lights
146. Attend at least one blogging conference
147. Attend at least one author-reader conference
148. Swim with whale sharks
149. Parasailing
150. Run a 5K (connects back to goals #73 & #85)
Once I move:
151. Get fabric and foam and make new cushions for chairs
152. New couch & chair for living room
153. New dresser for bedroom
154. New mattress & box spring for bed and/or a new bed set
155. New TV & stand
156. New desk/craft workstation
So in terms of the goals:
So I’ve removed one goal (finish the Dream Job Hack program), though I’m still going to work through a little that I think is relevant to what I need to be doing. I did find the program helpful, but it is geared more towards people who have been (or are in) management type positions—while I would like to get there, I know that I probably need to start a step or two below.
I’m making some headway with others—I’ve finished the data science syndicate program from the Cheeky Scientist Association (will be writing a post on late shortly), and am looking forward to trying to learn python and then start building a data science portfolio.
I’m working my way through the medical writers organization (another advanced Cheeky Scientist program), and am hoping to have that finished by mid-November, and again start working on building up a writing portfolio.
Currently I’m thinking of going in the freelance/online/remote direction for work (namely because of the pandemic and not really wanting to figure out the whole headache of trying to move two animals, all of my stuff, and myself to a different state currently). So in that case, I’m also thinking of possibly rebranding the blog (I have a couple of different names bouncing around, a decision will be made probably early next year sometime).
I’m still working on developing an editorial calendar/to-be accomplished list hybrid that works for me. I’ve realized that I swing between two extremes: I get over-ambitious and try to cram way to stuff in everyday, or I don’t get anything really accomplished.
I’m trying to work on that by possibly going to larger bullet journals that I can paperclip in my to-be-accomplished lists (which would then be discarded once everything as accomplished) instead of having to write out the lists constantly.
I’m also working on a schedule that will let me bounce back and forth between different things. I just finished reading “ How to be everything: A guide for those who (still) don’t know what they want to be when they grow up” by Emilie Wapnick.
I will be posting a review on the book soon (hopefully this week)—but it was nice to see that I’m not the only one who has felt drawn in different directions and not having a clue how to handle things. I was pleased to find that I’m a mixed-style multipotentialite—someone who goes between having quite a few different projects going on at once to only having one or two projects going on at once.
So that has definitely been a major breakthrough during the last few weeks—now it is a matter of me fully embracing that aspect of myself and figuring how the best ways of working that way—without triggering massive anxiety attacks (stay tuned).
I also removed the “number” of workouts from my fitness goals—the main reason I was starting to get tired. Everyone needs a rest day, and I’ve shown myself that I can still push play on Monday morning even if I take the weekend off (as told by the workout schedule).
So I am slowly making progress on the first ~124 (or I guess 123) goals; the last twenty-odd goals still require the pandemic to be brought under control and for me then to be willing to slowly start leaving the house and going to places that will actually have other people present as well.
So August is over, that means there is now less than three weeks before my birthday, barely three weeks before fall, a little over 2 months until the election, and only four months left in 2020. I’ve been joking that I’m not acknowledging this year—so in theory I won’t be turning 40, but having my 2nd 39th birthday.
I feel like I’ve been slightly more productive during the second half of the year so far—mainly in terms of pushing play and getting in a daily workout. Nutrition hasn’t been on point (and yes I know, that in terms of weight loss—one should focus heavily on nutrition instead of exercise), but I’m doing a little better every week (usually). I’ve realized what one of the major things I need to work on—finding balance between being well informed on what is going on in the world, and constantly scanning social media and the news. One thing I’m going to be looking into this coming month are web apps that block access to certain sites for a specific amount of time (say 8am to noon)—that way I can hopefully focus on other personal and professional development tasks and not just scroll through the internet.
The US still hasn’t gotten the virus under control—when I published ‘July in Review’ I noted that the US had over 4.7 million cases and now the US is a little over 6.2 million cases (that is an increase in over 1.5 million cases in a month). I’m hoping that the election goes the way I want it to go, and therefore travel may be possible by the end of 2021 (I’m currently debating on whether I want to spend a week in the UK or traveling through Northern Europe—Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark).
So as we head into the last few months of 2020, I should look back on the goals that I set for August and see how I did with each of them.
The goals for August included:
At least 155,000 steps (again breaking it down to roughly 5K/Day)
Continuing Morning Meltdown 100 (Days 55-85)
Reading (or finishing) at least 2 non-fiction books
No Spend Days/No Spend Week/ and hopefully a no-spend month
Finish the Data Science Syndicate program (or at least modules 4 & 5)
Finish at least 3 other short e-courses
And finally,
Answer the question: “Who do I want to become over the next 5 to 20 years?”
So how did I do with each one?
At least 155,000 steps (again breaking it down to roughly 5K/Day)
I managed to get in almost 186,000 steps (I ended the month at 185,860) and I was not quite 3K above the steps for July. Hopefully with cooler weather coming, I can get out and walk in the early morning, or even during the day with the pup. I haven’t done a long walk around Boomer Lake since early February (so about a month before everyone realized how serious the virus was actually going to be)—but once late fall, early winter hits I may be able to be out at the park walking (maybe with my smaller digital camera or without) and enjoying some time in nature—though I would also like to see some of the migrating birds this fall/winter.
Continuing Morning Meltdown 100 (Days 55-85)
I’ve been continuing with morning meltdown 100—only did one double day early in the month. The dogs had played a little too rough, so I kept an eye on Chaos that day—but did both workouts (melt-con and re-vibe) the next day to keep on track. I really like this program; right now my only complaint is that there aren’t worksheets for tracking the weights (so you can see if you need to or have gone heavier than previous workouts). So I’m thinking that I will probably be designing a set of tracking sheets for the next time (or possibly the third time, as there were a couple of workouts that I didn’t write down the exercises on).
Reading (or finishing) at least 2 non-fiction books
One of the books that I read this month was a short book (actually the author called it a booklet) on blogging. The title is “How to write great blog posts that engage readers” by Steve Scott.
Now I’ve had this e-booklet for a little over two years (though I just had to add it to the long personal/professional development reading list), before I actually got around to reading it. The reason—I have a habit of buying and downloading numerous books a month, and not removing books I’ve read from the device. So books that have been bought (but not read) have a habit of being at the very bottom of the list usually (or close to it). I’m now trying to get in the habit of removing read personal/professional development books—that way the only books that I’d be scrolling through are either the numerous fiction books/series that I have and any unread personal/professional development books.
I liked this book because it gave a suggestion that one should aim at having a minimum of 8 posts a month. Two of the posts are larger articles, and the other six are smaller articles. I’m thinking of adopting this mindset, but also varying month to month what each type (large & small) articles would be over—since I’m also keeping the blog “multi-facet”—in other words I’m sticking with probably two (maybe three) niches: lifestyle, personal/professional development, and hobbies.
I started a couple of other books, but hadn’t finished any of them by the end of the month. At times I couldn’t get in the mind frame for reading personal/professional development.
No Spend Days/No Spend Week/ and hopefully a no-spend month
I’ve managed to have several no spend days that almost stretched into a full no spend week—but I have yet to work up to an actual no-spend month (that is a HUGE goal for September, and hopefully October as well).
Finish the Data Science Syndicate program (or at least modules 4 & 5)
I managed to get through all of module 4 and about 80% of module 5. I think that there are two videos left before taking the quiz for module 5, and then I would have the sixth and final module for the Data Science Syndicate. I think that I might enjoy doing data science, though I need to download python (the data analysis program, and not a snake) and start working with it before I could say one way or the other on this particular job path.
Finish at least 3 other short e-courses
This was something that I fell behind on doing this month—I managed to get through another quarter of the data science syndicate program, but didn’t really work on any other e-courses (or not enough to have finished a course). I did write out all the courses that I have bought over the past few years so that I can keep better track of what I’ve completed and what I still need to work on. One of my issues has been trying to mentally switch gears and sit in front of the computer and listen to someone talk for awhile and then do what ever little work is assigned for that video or section. I’ve also realized that I can work on whatever course I want—it doesn’t always have to be a professional development course—if I want to spend the afternoon learning how to read tarot cards better, I can.
And finally,
Answer the question: “Who do I want to become over the next 5 to 20 years?”
The answer to this question will actually be posted as a separate blog post—currently my answer is going on two pages and I still feel like I haven’t answered the question in full detail.
Goals for September will include:
At least 150,000 steps (This breaks down to 5K/day; depending on how the number of virus cases goes, I will probably slowly start increasing the daily goal.)
Finishing up Morning Meltdown 100 (I only have 15 days left), and then starting a duel calendar of Yoga Booty Ballet and LIIFT4 (once I draft the calendar I’ll share it)
Read (or finish) at least 2 non-fiction books
No Spend Days/No Spend Weeks/leading to hopefully a no spend month
Finish the Data Science Syndicate program, install python and start learning how to use it
Finish at least 3 other e-courses
While reminding myself: “Progress over Perfection”, “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one”, and “Not caring what other people think is the best choice you will ever make”.
