Checking in with 2013 Goals and Resolution

Today, with the weather firmly established as summer-like (again going into the 90’s), it seems like a good time to check in with those goals I had set back in January.  To see if I am on track, and also to see if I need to modify some!

Wellness 

See the positive in every situation, or to follow the advise of  a fellow blogger, play the Glad Game; Don’t fret over or complain about issues; either act to change it or accept it; Procrastinate less, or to put it positively, use my time productively; Chronicle the good from the year by keeping a jar of good things that occur during 2013

Yeah I still need to work on these!  I did start keeping a  jar of good things that occur during 2013, but I haven’t put anything in it in quite a while.  Not that good things haven’t happened, I just haven’t been keeping up with recording them.  Perhaps I can add things to the jar retroactively?

Arts & Entertainment

See all of the movies nominated for the best picture Academy Awards (and see the new Star Trek movie); See some plays; Go to some concerts; Take more photos during the year

I’m on track with this one!  I’ve seen a bunch of the Academy Award films — Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, AND Star Trek.  Wow, this is more movies than I’ve seen in a year since high school!

I have a bunch of plays lined up that I am planning on seeing this summer.

I’ve seen Southside Johnny at The Music Hall and The Rat Pack is Back (I’m not sure if that counts as a concert to a play)

I have fallen behind in the take photos category.  I even keep my little camera in my purse, but I never quite get around to snapping pictures.  I use my phone camera, but again, not too often.  Well, the year is young!  I better start taking some or my Christmas card will be photo-less this year!

Travel & Recreation

Go skiing; Go Ice Skating; Take a family trip (even if it is only a weekend)

I did manage to go skiing with my daughter, son and daughter-in-law so that qualifies for skiing and a family trip.  I would have liked to do more skiing and taken a longer trip, but we have to start somewhere!  And I would like to add in a trip with friends to the goals.

As for ice skating, they are talking of building an outdoor skating rink at Strawery Banke in Portsmouth!  I am very excited and if the weather is nice and cold in December, I should be achieve to make this resolution this year!

Fitness

Practice yoga at least twice a week, preferably 10 times a month; Be able to sit with my legs at a 90 degree angle and touch my chest to the floor or to put it in yoga terms, Upavistha Konasana; Run a 5k in under 24 minutes and/or a 10k in under 50 minutes; Do 20 push ups at once (full push ups!)

Let’s see I was on track with yoga in Jan, Feb fell off a bit.  Then I had a nasty cold and cough and hardly went at all in March and April (couldn’t disturb the class with my constant hacking), but May was right on track — 10 times last month!  All in all, I managed to average about  6 classes per month.

I have been doing a lot of stretching, and working on pushups, but I am no where near my goals yet.

As for running, I have had to scale it back quite a bit as my Achilles tendon has been acting up, and so I haven’t done any speed work yet.  We’ll see about those race times!

Money & Finances

Increase savings 10% over last year; Turn off lights when leaving a room; Turn off water when not in use (brushing teeth, washing dishes)

I’m doing really good with these goals!

Personal Organization

Update all my personal addresses and phone numbers into one master list; Sync all my personal and business calendars to one electronic calendar; Redo my passwords

Haven’t gotten to any of these yet…

My Blogs

Consistently blog 2-3 times per week on personal blog; and 2-3 times per month on my professional blog; Expand the topics of my blogs; Increase visits to my blogs.

I’ve done been keeping up with this blog, and visits have been increasing (thank you!)  I have been a bit slow with my professional blog  (all about marketing and social media).  While I haven’t been posting a lot, I have gotten a lot of “new user registrations”.  These seem to come from odd email addresses and so I don’t know if they are real or some sort of spam.  Any ideas?

Education

Learn how to make a website

Nope, I haven’t done this yet.  But I did download a tutorial on coding.  Now I just have to go through it.

And a few of my favorite resolutions from last year that I carried forward to this year:

Deepen 1-2 friendships; Make 1 new friend; Get together with girl friends at least once a month; visit family monthly; write 52 letters in 52 weeks.

Well my letter writing is off this year, but I am at least writing some letters.  I have indeed gotten together with my friends each month, and as a result I believe I am deepening some friendships.  I don’t think I’ve made a new friend (yet), and I have managed to visit family almost once a month.  So I’m on track with these goals.

All in all, it’s been a good year in terms of these objectives I set forth back in December.  However, as you can see, there are definitely some areas that need attention in the remainder of the year!

Weekly Goals

As I was reading through some blogs today, I came upon a very good idea — the weekly challenge.  While I’m not going to formally participate in the contest, I really like the idea of setting one goal for the week — just one.  And then adding to that the next week.  As I’ve stated in earlier posts, I tend to try to accomplish too much and end up not doing anything!

So this week, my goal is to run at least 3 miles 3 times this week.

There now it’s out there, so I have to do it.

March Check in with My Resolutions

This year, I’ve decided to treat my  New Year’s Resolutions more like personal and professional goals rather than resolutions.  To reexamine them each month, and to set 1-2 specific monthly goals to keep on track.  So far it’s been working out well.  Here is my review of March:

• Welcome every morning with a smile 🙂 — I have been pretty good about this one.  Rather than start the day growling at the alarm clock, most days I’ve remembered to smile and being thankful for another day!

• Post at least once a week on this blog –So far so good!

• Complete the Seacoast Race Series –The race series runs from May to November, so I haven’t actually run any of the races yet, but I have started running again and I did sign up for the first race in the series.

• Lose 5 pounds– I’m down 3 in March; buying that scale really helped keep me on track for this one.

• Remember to take my vitamins daily –I have a new trick.  I got tired of standing at the cabinet opening bottles of vitamins, minerals and other supplements, and I am way too young and healthy for one of   those pill boxes with a compartment for every day of the week, so I bought some of the little snack size plastic bags and filled up a bunch.  Now I can just take a baggie out of the cabinet and have all my vitamins, etc. in one place. (I know it’s the same thing as a pill-box, but it makes me feel better)

• Cut coffee down to 1 cup a day and drink more tea –Amazingly I’ve been able to do this.  I don’t even miss the afternoon cup of coffee anymore.  And, since I’ve been cutting down on dairy, I put soy milk in my morning coffee.  It really isn’t as good as cream or half and half, and so I often don’t even drink my full cup of coffee in the morning.  (Unless I get a soy latte at Starbucks, then I finish it all up!)

• Make a new friend and deepen 1-2 existing friendships –Last night I stepped out of my comfort zone and made some new acquaintances.  I got together with a group of women I met via a local  Facebook group, Pink Martini Confessions.  I had been reading some of their posts and we’d commented back and forth.  I felt a connection with one of the women as we shared a lot of interests, so when the opportunity to meet came up, I went for it.  We had a lot of fun over drinks and dinner!

• Get together with girlfriends –Just last week, I had dinner with my friend Diane who I hadn’t seen in 2 years.  After dinner, another friend of ours, Brenda met up with us and we had a great time catching up.  I also rejoined the book club I used to be in.  I forgot how much fun wine club, oops, book club was.  Everyone was very welcoming;  I’m looking forward to next month.

• Listen to more current music–I have been tuning into “The Loft” more often on my XM radio–trying not to always listen to “Classic Vinyl”!

Some things that need work are:

Keeping up with my professional blog (goal of 2 posts per month.  In March I got in one post)

Watch less TV.  Now that “my shows” are back on — Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, I won’t be working on this goal until after May!

Goals for April:

• Post at least twice on my Media and Communications blog

• Refuse to participate in negativity–at work, at home or on the news!