2018 GHDR Review 2

This is my second official checkin for my 2018 GHDR as I am following Dave Seah’s masterful plan. I have not been very consistent with weekly reviews, and I feel like I’m sliding a little on my consistency with goals. That means that overall, I’m looking for a reset going forward. However, some things have gone very well.

Reminder of my 2018 Goals

My resolutions for the year broadly fall into categories: [H]Health, [F]Friends and family, [I]Intention, [M]Money, and [E]Engagement.

• I resolve to eat food that makes my body happy [H]
• I resolve to regularly go to the gym with friends [H,F]
• I resolve to run or walk intentionally at least 4 times per week[H]
• I resolve to do one thing with friends or family every month [F]
• I resolve to conduct a weekly review session where I summarize what I’ve done and how I’ve felt about it and where it is taking me [I]
• I resolve to conduct a monthly review of my progress on these goals [I]
• I resolve to make some kind of income and track it each month [M]
• I resolve to stay engaged and contribute to the communities that I have found [E]

and last month, I added

• I resolve to do one thing with each member of my family individually every month [F]

What I did last month

I think I touched each of these a little bit, but I don’t feel like I really lived up to my goals over the past month, and I’ve felt it.

• [H]ealth: I ate healthy foods most days last month; on the non-healthy days, I had french fries or cookies…not terrible, but not good for me. I did intentional walks with the amazing Cupcake (my dog) most days; we did not go for any runs. My biggest health news is a positive one - I made it to the gym with friends on April 3!!! Huge win.
• [F]riends and family: I did a few fun things with friends and family over the last month. Highlights include: going to the Yunnessun spa in Hakone, doing a big family friend barbecue, and going to Fuji peace park and heritage center. I did not make focused quality time for anyone - except for one time with one friend. That is one of the things that I was hoping to do better at this month, even created that whole new resolution for it, but alas, I did not achieve that. Generally, I did not feel very connected this month except for a few wins. I was even a bit frustrated with scheduled fun because it took time away from my work - definitely not the kind of attitude that I want to cultivate in myself or model for my kids.
• [I]Intention: I did very poorly on this. I was quite inconsistent with daily reviews in my journal, and I only did one weekly review in the past month; my recollection is that one was quite hurried, also. I am not sure how I will do better on this, but I want to continue to try because I get value from reflection.
• [M]Money: I made a lot of effort towards my gifts-done project, and I launched this month. I also finally submitted an invoice to Open Collective. Both of these seem positive. I am also keeping more track of my spending.
• [E]Engagement: I did all sorts of engagement. I was active in the Moms Can Code group; I worked on my CNC2018 blog more challenge; I published a few things on dev.to; I uploaded repos to github; I engaged with folks on twitter. In the past two days, I have been working on developing a social media strategy for gifts-done. It is exhausting to me. I think that I might be getting better at engagement, though, hitting a sweet spot that is not too much or two little. However, I find it impossible to stay up to date with everyone who I find interesting.

Insights

My goals/resolutions are heavy on the health, friends and family, and intention sides because those are the things that I thought I struggled with most for consistency. I still think that is true just like last month. I focused very hard on my goal to launch gifts-done by 3/31, and I made it (US time), but I ended up not achieving my other goals. I was not there for people who need me. I did some good things despite the launch push, like I still put my laptop on the shelf by 1800 and made dinner for the family almost every night. I still supported my friends who are launching other businesses by engaging with their content. I still stuck with my routines of meditating and studying - even bringing back semi-regular playing of the bass. That has been particularly great because my Chuck and I play together - perfect.

Looking forward

We will be facing some major changes - all of our possessions will be packed up, and the homeschool cooperative meeting days end. I feel like those two things may substantively alter my behavior, but I hope not for the worst.

I am not going to add any more goals this month. Rather, I am going to try to find a way to add routines or habits that improve my performance on my existing goals. I am capturing more of my wild thoughts with noted (my CLI journal), and I am working hard at being clear and intentional while at the computer, using TaskWarrior and TimeWarrior. I have a little bit of momentum, and a little bit of breathing room to stay on top of these goals in the next month.