May! Isn’t it crazy how time passes no matter what else is going on? When I was looking forward to this year in December and setting my goals in January, I could never have seen this pandemic coming- no-one could have. Now, it feels like we’ve been here forever with no real end in sight. When this started, I wrote some posts that I thought would be helpful like a pandemic shopping list, dealing with anxiety and maintaining productivity. As time started to pass, living day to day became easier mentally. One thing I wanted to do was journal, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it (I still haven’t started journalling even though I’ve put aside a brand new notebook for the cause).
As April ended, I started to look through my old journals starting from 2013 and one thing that struck me was how easy it is to carry the same goals for so long without realising it. I did this at the start of the year but in light of recent times, I felt the need to revisit. I came away feeling like goals are temporary and flexible things. Life isn’t guaranteed, so there’s no point constantly looking ahead to a hypothetical future at the detriment of the present. I decided to take on the goals that were still relevant and get rid of the ones that weren’t. I can always come back to them if they are useful in the future, but anything I can’t work towards now has been tossed out.
So goal update- If you are a frequent blog reader, you’d know that I set out a list of goals for the year in January and gave a February update. Now, I’m going to revisit those goals and talk about new goals going forward.
Health And Fitness
Over the years, I’ve had so many “fitness goals” that boiled down to one thing- lose weight. For the first time in my life, I’m going to do something that feels insane to me- not diet- at all- not once this whole year. I’ve gone on 100s of diets since I was a teenager and it’s just not something I’m interested in doing anymore. So my goals for health and fitness are really about health and fitness for a change and not an euphemism for weight loss.
I’m glad that I’m mentally still in this space where I’m chasing holistic goals.
Run a 10k and a half marathon- cancelled.
Walking – I’ve started doing Leslie Sansone walking workouts. I feel like I’m 30 years older when I do them but they are fun and a way to keep walking without going outside.
Learn how to do a push up- cancelled.
Get a full health work up- This pandemic has shown just how important this is and I can’t wait to get this done as soon as I can when outside opens up again
Eat more protein- this is such a daily struggle, as I type this, the new protein powder I ordered is on its way.
Career
I think I’ve always underestimated how much of my life I actually control and continually waited for outside feedback, but this is an area I’m taking more control over.
Love
Work on giving with no expectations- I’m getting better at this for sure.
Grow stronger friendship and family bonds- I think I’ve definitely stopped chasing ideas of relationships and started focusing more on developing the relationships I have.
Give gifts- bruh I should surprise someone with lunch or something.
Say Yes To Attending Things
There’s nothing to attend, stay indoors!
Get Rid Of As Much Clutter As I Can
I’m just choosing to be kind and patient with myself in this area because hmmm.
The Present
Okay so that brings us here to May 2020, in line with the new realities of life. One thing I saw that I wanted to do in an old journal is a year of monthly challenges. I think monthly challenges are good because they interrupt the voice that tells you that you should stop what you’re doing and try something else. For people that have problems with follow through, this tends to be the problem. For example, you decide to walk everyday for an hour and on day 9, you’re like “hmm this is boring, why don’t I try running 5km everyday instead”. It means that you never commit to anything and never really have a “finished product”. Monthly challenges are good because you usually get past the phase where you want to give in to your whims and can set you on the path to consistency.
I’m starting this month with three main challenges. Now, the reason I’m doing 3 is because I’ve already been consistent with two of the three goals for a while and I want to continue.
drumroll please
The three challenges are
Blogging everyday
18:6 Intermittent fasting
Leslie Sansone walking workout
I’ve set myself the challenge to blog everyday lots of times but I’ve never once actually done it. The closest I came was late last year and it set me on a path of fairly consistent blogging. This time, I believe I’m in the head space to follow through and I’m looking forward to doing it! I hope you’re excited too :)
I’ve been intermittent fasting for a while- starting from 13:11 and kind of working my way up. I was always reluctant to commit to a set time frame because I didn’t want it to get extreme but after a while, I decided to just do it. Now, doing it as a 31 day challenge is going to take it even further and I’m kind of excited about that.
Leslie Sansone walking workout - walking is the low impact home workout of my dreams and I would like to commit to it. I think if you’re home all day, it’s important to commit to moving your body everyday for part of the day and this is the way I’m choosing to do it. It might sound excessive to work out everyday but that’s why it’s a challenge, no?
I really wanted to say so much more, but this post is over 1000 words long now, so I’ll save some words for the remaining 30 days of the challenge.
Let me know how you guys have started thinking of goals going forward
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