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!

2013 Resolutions!

It’s that time of year again, time for New Year’s Resolutions!  I know it is January 4th already, but I like to take a few days to really think about the past year, and to set my goals for the upcoming year.

I really enjoy making resolutions.  I find that reviewing them throughout the year serves to keep me on track.  And since I’ve been blogging and posting the resolutions publicly, I have done a much better job keeping them!  So here’s to a great 2013!!

At first I was writing these haphazardly, jotting down everything that came to mind.  Then read a fellow blogger’s resolutions and I like the way she categorized hers so as imitation is the greatest form of flattery, I am going to categorize mine this year too!

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

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

Travel & Recreation

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

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!)

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)

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

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

Education

• Learn how to make a website

And I am going to carry forward a few of my favorite resolutions from next year:

• Deepen 1-2 friendships
• Make 1 new friend
• Write 52 letters in 52 weeks
• Get together with girl friends at least once a month
• Visit family monthly

Summing up 2012’s Resolutions

It is December 18, only 2 weeks before the end of the year, time to check in on those New Year’s Resolutions from January.

This year I made a point to write specific resolutions and to check in on them regularly, and I’m very happy to report that I’ve stayed on track and achieved most all of my resolutions!

• Live in the present moment; don’t worry about the past or dwell on the future
• Have a positive outlook

These first two resolutions are similar and they are works in progress.  However, I believe I am further along in my journey to live in the present moment and have a positive attitude (most of the time).

• Get another annual client for my business
• Send at least 2 e-newsletters this year
• Write at least 2 blog post on my business blog each month

Well I started out the year with resolutions to grow my business, Saving Grace Media Services, but ended up the year picking up new projects, and  losing a small client (the business was sold), but my business income was slightly higher than my projection for the year, and even better than that, my business led me to a lucrative new position.

• Write weekly posts on this blog, settle on a “look” set up pages: nutrition, exercise, self help

DONE although I never figured out to get pages with tabs, I was able to set up relavant categories and that works!

• Exercise: yoga 2x/wk, weights 2x/wk, run 1-3x/wk in season

 I’m not sure I actually ever achieved this much exercise on a weekly basis, but I kept up with my exercise and mix in yoga, weights and running.

•  Run Seacoast Race Series — improve times over 2011

I changed this resolution, and rather than run the Race Series, I concentrated on training for and running the Seacoast Half Marathon.  (It was difficult to do both as the last 2 races of the Series conflict with the half marathon training).  And yes, I did improve my half marathon time by almost 3 minutes over last year.

• Lose 5 lbs

DONE – I switched to a vegan diet for a lot of reasons and I Lost 10 Pounds!

• Take vitamins daily

I managed to take my many supplements almost every day, certainly 5 times a week

• Drink more tea, less coffee (1 cup/day) — DONE!

•  Deepen 1-2 friendships
• Make 1 new friend

I believe that I did deepen a few friendships this year.  I certainly deepened at least one new friendship and connected with an old friend this year.  I also made some new friends through my new work connections.

• Write (and mail) one letter each week

I love this resolution.  I definitely sent over 52 cards/letters this week (not even counting the Christmas cards), but not necessarily one each week.  For the most part I did send one a week, but at times I skipped a few weeks and then sent 3-4 all in one week!  All in all, I’d say this resolution was achieved!

• Get together with girl friends at least once a month —

DONE!  Another fun resolution that I am carrying over into 2013

• Monthly, visit Taylor and Kelsey and/or my Dad — DONE!

• Go skiing

Only went once, but I went to Steamboat and it was a great trip!

• Listen to more current music (less Classic Rock!) – WHY?

• Watch less TV, use down time more productively

DONE!  I spent more of my time on this blog and reading.

WOW, I’m impressed.  Now to start thinking of 2013 Resolutions…Stay tuned!

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!

Resolutions to Stay on Track!

February 29 –Happy Leap Year Day!

A good opportunity to check in on those New Year’s Resolutions.

My theme for the year is:  “Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don’t waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.”

I like that!  I’ve been succeeding at waking up with a smile or at least not a groan as I shut the alarm clock…I’ve also been successful at keeping up with my blogs,   (this one and my blog on media), exercising, eating well, taking my vitamins, nurturing friendships, visiting family and writing at least 1 letter each week.

I still need to work on living in the present moment.  I’m pretty good about not dwelling on the past, but I can still use some work on not worrying about the future!  Also I see that I set a resolution to run the Seacoast Race Series again this year.  Funny just this morning I said to myself, “no, I don’t think I’ll run the series this year, there is too much pressure”–good thing I made a resolution.  Now I will do it!!  The first race is in May so it’s also good thing I started running again (this morning as a matter of fact.  I was running when I contemplated not racing this summer!)

Lastly, I find that breaking one or two of the resolutions into Monthly action items helps he achieve them so here are March’s  goals:

• Run at least twice a week
• Visit my friends and family in Virginia
• Cut out Cow’s Milk from diet

Resolutions still going strong into February!

Let’s see how have I been doing with my New Year’s Resolutions….Here are the resolutions that are right on track!

Work on this blog — I concentrated on this blog this month and managed to write a good number of posts thus far this year (8), plus I’ve settled on a look and feel, expanded it to include some healthy recipes. I’ve been more actively publicizing it both on LinkedIn and twitter.  For those of you reading this, thanks!

Exercise — I’ve also been keeping up with my exercise in general, getting in some yoga, weight training and some cardio.

Vitamins — I’ve been very good about taking my vitamins daily, drinking more tea and less coffee.

Write 1 letter each week — One resolution I’m excited about is the 52 letters in 52 weeks challenge.  So far so good!  I’ve written 3 letters and sent 3 cards, so I’m actually ahead of the game!  Let me know if you’d like some “snail mail” and I’ll be happy to send you a written note!

Get together with girlfriends each month — In January 3 college friends and I got together for our semi-annual dinner, and I had lunch with a former work colleague who I hadn’t seen in over a year (Nancy)!  I even got a jump on February by joining other long time friends, Sean and Wendy for dinner.  This was a real treat as I hadn’t seen them in well over 10 years!

I also had a chance to visit Taylor and Kelsey, and go skiing with Kelsey in January.  I’d say I did really well in January!  I will keep it up in February and maybe even tackle some of the others.   My monthly goals for February are to

1. Get my taxes done
2. Post more consistently on my media and communications blog: http://www.savinggracemedia.com/blog  (feel free to check it out and leave me a comment!)

How are you doing with your resolutions??

Move on to a New Resolution!

I do feel bad saying it, but I can’t wait until all the “New Year’s Resolution” people realize that it isn’t easy to get in shape and give it up.  They gym is wayyyyy toooo crowded!

Checking in with the Resolutions

The new year is off to a good start.  I find that my New Year’s Resolutions keep me on track!

One of my resolutions was to keep up with this blog, to settle on a look and set up some pages.  What do you think of the new look?

On the exercise front I have been faithfully hitting the gym 2 days a week and yoga 2 days a week.  Perhaps the fact that I am going skiing in Colorado next week has led to my renewed enthusiasm for the gym!  I haven’t been skiing in a few years and so I’ve been doing working up to some heavy squats and lunges in preparation.  Yesterday I even got 30 minutes of cardio in, so while I’m not in ski shape (as I haven’t been skiing) I do feel that I am a little bit more prepared!

And week 1 of my 52 letters in 52 weeks has also gone well.  I started writing a card to a friend who lives out of state and ended up adding both sides of a sheet of paper to the note.  As I haven’t kept in touch with her except by exchanging quick emails, once I started writing, the thoughts kept coming.  I excitedly mailed the letter and look forward to her response!

Making 2012 Count!

I really like making (and hopefully keeping) New Year’s Resolutions. It is a time to reflect on my personal and professional life and to set some goals. It’s hard not to just cut and paste last year’s resolutions as I’d like to continue to work on those, but I’ll rephrase them a bit for 2012…Let’s make this year great!

2012 Resolutions

“Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don’t waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.

• Live in the present moment — don’t worry about the past or dwell on the future
• Have a positive outlook
• Get another annual client for my business
• Send at least 2 e-newsletters this year
• Write at least 2 blog post on my business blog each month
• Write weekly posts on this blog, settle on a “look” set up pages: nutrition, exercise, self help
• Exercise: yoga 2x/wk, weights 2x/wk, run 1-3x/wk in season
• Run Seacoast Race Series — improve times over 2011
• Lose 5 lbs
• Take vitamins daily
• Drink more tea, less coffee (1 cup/day)
• Deepen 1-2 friendships
• Make 1 new friend
• Write (and mail) one letter each week,
• Get together with girl friends at least once a month
• Monthly, visit Taylor and Kelsey and/or my Dad
• Go skiing
• Listen to more current music (less Classic Rock!)
• Watch less TV, use down time more productively

I like the idea of making monthly resolutions to stay on track so for January my resolutions are:
Personal — Go on a ski trip with Kelsey (this one is easy as it’s already booked!)
Professional — Clean up my e-newsletter contact list

Revisiting the 2011 Resolutions — How did you do?

As 2011 is winding down, it is probably a good time to look back at those new year’s resolutions and see just how well we did, so we don’t keep making and forgetting the same resolutions year after year! I’ll start —

Weight Resolution — lose 2 more pounds by the end of January.
Result — let’s carry this one over into next year!!

Exercise resolution — practice yoga 2-3 days a week and go to they gym for weights and cardio 2 times a week. Once the weather gets nice again, running twice a week.
Result — Obviously there isn’t enough time in the week to do all this exercise and make work! But, I did do yoga several times a week through the first half of the year, then I stepped up my running big time. I progressed from running 3 miles in April to running a half marathon in November! In between I finished several shorter races.

Nutrition resolution — Eat healthier. Eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat and junk food. Take my vitamins, calcium and drink more water. Be aware of what I am eating so I know when I am full, and stop.
Result — I did pretty good on this front. I definitely am eating healthier, mostly remembering my vitamins and not always eating everything on my plate.

Vacation Resolution — Take a family vacation
Result — We’ll push this one into 2012 as well

Personal Relationships Resolution — Call, visit or write (as in a real letter and send through the US Mail) 2 different people each week.
Result — Pretty good on this front. Especially once I reread these resolutions and got off 2 quick cards!

Financial Resolution — Save more money for the future
Result — Doing well on this resolution. Unfortunately the stock market isn’t cooperating and the banks are paying next to nothing so my money isn’t growing, but at least I’m saving…First things first.

2-3 private Resolutions
Result — mixed, as a matter of fact one of them I decided I really didn’t want to accomplish anyway!