At the beginning of the year, I shared about my goals for 2015 and my plans to accomplish those goals. There were specific ones I mentioned and others that I wrote down in private. Some I’ve met, others I have not. I try to hold myself accountable so I’m sharing my progress with you now.
My personal and professional goals are fairly intermingled because they affect each other and quite frankly, with me working from home my whole work/life balance is more of a blend.
Let’s take a look at how I’m doing so far.
Physical goals
I talked about health goals including making sure I get enough sleep. I’ve done “so-so” on this. I should explain that in late February, I started having severe problems with my arms and all my joints in that area. It escalated until I was in agony and no specialists have been able to find an answer. I’m having more testing done in September but until then I’m on about five different meds to manage the symptoms.
The symptoms have affected my sleep and my other goals. At one point, I was in so much pain that I was waking up about every two hours if not sooner. I now wake up about every four hours, which is a big improvement. That said, I know I can’t help any of that. I’ve also done a lot better in taking naps and resting when I need rest. I’ve worked when I was not able to sleep and slept when I could.
I had also planned on aggressively pursuing a physical therapy program and while I didn’t share this much publicly, I planned on doing at least two more 5K races. With my arms, that has been an impossibility. I did start seeing a chiropractor so I could work on the back pain. Less back pain would mean I could work on my knee. But with the inflammation in my arms and I’m learning other places, I can barely stand to be touched. It also means I haven’t been able to walk my own dogs in months. It’s too painful and quite frankly, too dangerous. I can’t wait to find answers and get my life back.
Emotional goals
The term “emotional goals” is a little weird but it does address emotional blocks I had to achieving my goals. Part of that was self-confidence, including letting a few naysayers get in my head. I joined Toastmasters to feel more confident in my speaking and decided to finish my first manual in a year. I’m close to accomplishing that already with 8 of 10 speeches accomplished with good marks.
I also decided I would try to get five speaking engagements where I would teach about topics I consider my “niche.” I’ve already accomplished that and will probably do more at the end of the year. I’ve taught business blogging and online writing at a chamber event, two conferences, a networking meeting, and a small business development organization. I want to move more into the inspirational side perhaps but really feel comfortable talking about business blogging.
Mental goals
When I spoke about my goals, I talked about how there were mental components that had held me back. Specifically, getting into the urgent mindset and not the long-term mindset. My goal was to learn to “say no so I could say yes.”
Overall, I’ve done well with this. I’ve cut out work that was not enjoyable and in my niche. I’ve done a few “off” projects recently to help make up an income loss last month.
I mentioned back in January that I had several goals for diversifying my revenue stream. I have to admit, I’ve not done well with that goal. At least was much as I wanted. I’ve accomplished the goal of finding more publications (new to me) that I can write articles for but have not finished my ebook or finished an online course that teaches a new (to me) form of writing.
My plan for the rest of 2015 is to congratulate myself on the goals I’ve accomplished and now focus on those that I have not advanced on as I should. Part of that will be evaluating if those goals are really what I want to do or if it’s something I feel like I should be doing.