Eighteen days into the month of February and I have yet to write a blog post or set my goals for the month so let me take care of that right now.
February did not start off well for me and that has definitely been a factor in my ability to write or focus on my goals, and it has also contributed to my sporadic appearances on social media so far this month. As I wrote in my last blog post back in January, my dad had been on my mind heavily and I think writing about that made me see the need to explore that further. I took the opportunity to talk to trusted friends and family members about what I've been going through and that allowed me to deal with some emotions I had been suppressing for a while and I feel much better.
The issue for me during this eighteen day hiatus is that I see how easy it is for me to fall out of my routine. With my usual blogging schedule of posting twice a week, I should have four posts up by now but I have none. When I missed the first day I told myself I would do a post the next day; when I missed the next day I told myself I would write the next day and soon that turned into a week, then another. It became very easy for me once I skipped that first day to rationalize skipping another and had I not told myself that I would not do anything else today until I wrote this blog post, I could very easily see myself skipping another day.
Routines and goals are very important for me because it's too easy for me to find a reason not to do something. Yes life happens and there are situations that come up which can throw me off my routine but I can't use that as an excuse not to get back to that routine as soon as possible. If I don't, before I know it weeks will have gone by and very little will get done.
So with that in mind here are my goals for the rest of February:
- Go to bed by 11:30 pm every night - so far I have been doing extremely well with this and I am really surprised because I was really struggling towards the end of January with getting to bed at a decent time.
- Exercise daily - I have joined two exercise challenges for the month of February and have been doing really well with them. I keep an Excel spreadsheet of my daily progress and that really helps to keep me focused. If I happen to miss a day for whatever reason I double up the next day so that I stay current with the challenge. Challenges are the way to go for me in terms of working out because they're very structured, I know exactly what I have to do each day and there is a real sense of accomplishment, as well as an obvious improvement in my body.
- Ditch my to-do list - now this one will be hard because I love my lists and feel so good when I cross something off. However I found that I was becoming very dependent on my lists to the point that I would only do what was on the list and kept adding more and more things to them and they were starting to get a bit impractical. I tried working without my list yesterday and actually got a lot done, including some things that had been on my mind but not on my list.
- Create one video - this is going to be extremely hard because I HATE doing videos. I have no problem doing hangouts where I'm talking to other people but when I have to go one on one with the camera? Cue stomach upsets, sweats, dry mouth, etc. I just don't like it at all! I was supposed to be participating in a video challenge this month on G+ but every time I went to record the video, I would find an excuse not to do it. If I can do one, whether personal or business, maybe I can find the courage to do more and catch up on the challenge.
- Blog twice a week - completely fell down on this for the first two weeks of the month, but am now back on track.
Just the act of writing this post makes me feel so much better and the fact that I've been doing some of the goals on my list before I even wrote them down ensures that I will be successful in carrying them out, but seeing them in print helps keep me accountable. Here's to a successful rest of the month for all of us!