On New Year’s Eve I decided not to make resolutions, but instead to make some personal goals for the year. Nothing unattainable, just some goals that I can take smaller concrete steps toward each month.
Here are my goals for February, with the mental health ones redacted. I don’t blog everything. 😉
Home:
Clean garage – Success! I didn’t mean the whole garage, just the garden table area, which I succeeded.
Plant seeds – Success! I started my tomato and pepper seeds. My tomatoes are sprouting but the peppers haven’t yet.
Financial:
Low spend February: Success! In February I spent a total of $233.23, but included in this was my replacement carry-on bag from Kipling. It was $148.21. (Of course it’s on sale today.) The $85.02 balance was spent on snacks at Trader Joe’s, a packet of sunflower seeds, some card supplies at Michaels, and a tee-shirt. I’d call this successful, but the only lesson I learned is that I miss shopping when I don’t do it. I may do another low-spend in April.
Look into cancelling a music service: Success! To my embarrassment I was paying for three music services: Amazon Music Unlimited, Sirius XM, and Spotify. I cancelled Amazon Music Unlimited and as I can play both Sirius XM and Spotify content through Alexa, I don’t miss it at all.
Health:
Gym 2x/week: Nope. I’m not there consistently yet. This is a recurring monthly goal.
Water daily: Success! I pledged to drink at least 17 oz of water a day (that’s what my bottle holds) in addition to my usual morning coffee, evening tea, and the occasional afternoon soda. I’m not aiming for 64 oz a day, because I’m a little suspicious of the science behind that. This is a recurring monthly goal.
Vitamins: Success! I take multivitamins and vitamin C daily. This is a recurring monthly goal.
Yoga/Murphy walk: I think I was going to either practice yoga OR take Murphy for a lunchtime walk every day and I did not do that. This is a recurring monthly goal.
Colonoscopy appointment: Nope. The followup from January’s mammogram trickled into February and that was enough medical for me. Moving this forward to March. All I have to do is make the appointment.
Mental Health:
I succeeded at 2/4 of these goals.
Safe/Loved/Warm: (refers to my core values from 5 1/2 years ago)
Send 30 Postcards to Voters: Success! At this time of year we write in support of progressive candidates in smaller, local elections. One candidate won their race, the other’s election is this week.
Donate blood: Success! I want to donate twice a year, so I’ll bring this goal back in August.
Looking at all of this I think the resolutions would have been easier.
Need some more email in your life? If you’re a regular reader but forget to check in, you can subscribe to a once-a-week email with links to the week’s posts! Click here to sign up!
Look at you – I think you did great!
That spending is incredible. I’m keeping a spending planner. MY LORD… one week, it was over $1000 – no wonder I’m broke