2014 Monthly Goal Check-In for January/February

I am lucky enough to have some really smart friends that are willing to put up with me as I steal their ideas to help my own creativity.  One such friend (who has a lovely little book review blog here) and last year she was posting monthly updates on her resolutions for the year.  I think this is a brilliant idea and have decided to high grade it for my own blog.  It is my hope that this monthly check-in will help keep me on track and lead me to a completed check list of goals for in December (especially since even in two months I’ve already managed to ignore a couple of my goals).  Anyone that is looking to check out my original list for the year can read all about it in the entry New Year’sResolutions Past and Present.

1) Move More/Lose More
Of all the goals that I set for myself this year this one is moving along the best and most smoothly.  I’m regularly hitting my 10,000 step goal for the day.  This goal will be changing to 11000 for the months of March and April as I step my way to the year-end goal of 15,000 steps a day.  I’m meeting my goals currently at least in part thanks to a friend/co-worker that not only cheers me on but is willing to walk with me one lunch hour a week at my pace.  She is one of those crazy active people that I aim to be like but haven’t quite gotten there yet.  It is amazing to be finding support for my journey and has proved to be very motivating for me.

When it comes to the lose more part of this goal I have to say I’m incredibly proud of the way the year is going.  I’m currently down about 11.6 pounds for the year.  I am finding my clothes are fitting better.  I’m more comfortable in my skin and just generally feeling really good about the progress I am making.  I can see my future healthy self and I am racing to catch her.

2) One Day a Week Vegetarian
This sadly is one of the goals that I had forgotten I had made for myself.  I am still cooking vegetarian meals and dishes but have not been diligent on planning and creating meat free days.  I shall remedy this for the month of March.

3) Regular Blog Posts
A look at the lists of posts I have done in 2014 shows that I have also not been paying much attention to this goal at least in terms of actually getting results.  I don’t consider this goal completely forgotten though because in the last couple of months I have been working hard offline to move my blog in the right direction.  I have spent time working on a plan and vision for my blog.  Now it is just the time to start to put that plan into action.

4) 365 Photo-a-Day Project
All though this project feels a lot more challenging this year, I’m happy to say it is well underway.  I have yet to miss a day and somehow am finding things to take pictures off.  The challenge this year is an unexpected internal voice that has popped up that keeps saying things like, “you took that photo last year” or “do you really need another picture of your cat?” (this last one sounds a lot like my brother.)  I have to keep reminding myself that the project is meant to capture my everyday life.  My life sadly is not always exciting and interesting – in fact more times it would probably be described as quiet and dull – but that just means I need to work on doing more fun things each day.

5) Read 50 Books
The progress on this goal when compared to this time last year is astounding to me.  I’m making way more headway on this than I did in 2013.  So far in 2014 I have read 8 books, which have me right on target to hit 50.  I think the biggest difference is that I am making reading a priority in my life now.  I try to read at least a little bit each day and it has been wonderful.  Not only is it helping me complete this goal but it has been inspiring my own fiction writing.  
                Favourite books read in Jan/Feb were Ashfall by Mike Mullin and The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level by Chris Hardwick
                Most challenging book that sadly got put down was The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert Edsel. – I wanted to love this book but couldn’t pull my way through its pages.  I will try again though before the year is done.

6) Nanowrimo challenge Complete a Draft of Conor’s Story
I have decided to change this goal to finishing a draft of my currently historical fiction novel.  I have fallen in love again with my main characters and don’t want to wait to write them until the next nano challenge.  I have spent the last couple months relearning the story, the characters and reviewing all my research.  It has left me feeling very motivated and this goal is moving along at a good pace.

Overall I’m feeling really positive towards 2014.  For the first time that I can remember not only do I have very specific, goal focused plans that I’m starting to put into place but I also have mental pictures of where this year is leading me.  I can see my future as clearly as if I had just taken the photo and I know that nothing is going to stop me this year from getting everything I want.