2018 GHDR Review 3

This is my third official checkin for my 2018 GHDR as I am following Dave Seah’s masterful plan.

I’m glad I added a mood tracker to my journal, because I am able to see that I mostly felt good - the majority of my days are :smiley:

I only missed one weekly review this month, and I feel like I’m doing okay with the items that I’m tracking. I’m also still learning so much every day and sprouting new ideas that I have had a little trouble managing my focus. In the past few days, I’ve clarified my tasking to help eliminate some of that and ensure that I’m spending my time where it is most needed for my business without completely abandoning my GHDR goals.

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 in February, I added

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

What I did last month

I stayed mostly on track last month. That feels good because it was so crazy.

• [H]ealth: This month was MUCH healthier than last. I ate healthy foods all but one day last month - I had french fries (again) on April 6. I did intentional walks with the amazing Cupcake (my dog) every day; we even did two runs. I made it to the gym 10 times - I’m feeling stronger, too and making progress on my press handstand challenge.
• [F]riends and family: I met my goal of one thing per month but not my goal of one thing per person. I did a few fun things with friends and family over the last month. The only real excursion was our trip to Ashikaga Flower Park and strawberry picking - it was me and the boys in the rain, but we made the most of it. I did poorly on quality time with individuals - except for playing the bass with Thing 1 a couple of times and a few walks with friends. This is a small improvement over last month, but I really need to change something to foster real human connections. Most of my gym trips included friends, though, and I think that is a great way to build - we laugh and chat on the walks to and from the gym and get healthier in the process.
• [I]Intention: Again, I did very poorly on this. I was quite inconsistent with daily reviews in my journal - only doing 8 reflections at the end of the day. I did a little better with three weekly reviews. My noted to journal command line interface is capturing more of my thoughts and feelings over the day, though.
• [M]Money: There were not many things to do with Open Collective, so I did not have many hours. However, gifts-done had our first gift finish, charge, and ship this month…so I think we made $2.53; but we are still in the red. Future months look a little better for activity. That’s what we get for launching with at least a 30 day minimum lead time.
• [E]Engagement: I did all sorts of engagement again - perhaps too much. I was active in the Moms Can Code group; ; I published a few things on dev.to; I uploaded repos to github; I started blogging for gifts-done, I answered questions on quora; I went to meet with other entreprenuers in the area; I participated in Instagram challenges; and I engaged with folks on twitter. I still find it impossible to stay up to date with everyone who I find interesting, and I still find that maintaining a consistent posting pace is draining.

In addition to my progress on goals, I have felt like I am drinking from a firehose on running a business. Every day, I learn something new. When I try to implement a new thing, I find that there are other things that I need to do/know/clarify first. It is exciting and demanding and stressful all at once.

Insights

This month was better than last, and I think it was partly because I had less pressure - the previous month, I was working on meeting a launch deadline. However, it has been tumultuous - there is so much going on in the rest of life. This month, we:

• searched for a house - a very stressful experience, and we put in three offers before getting a contract and then faced a house inspection that required the seller to do a lot of work. All looks like it is going smoothly now.
• packed our stuff - we had both our regular packout and our unaccompanied baggage shipped over the past two weeks, and we are living with loaner furniture, loaner kitchen, and very basic suitcase stuff.
• shiftwork for the hubs - he’s been on midshift for two weeks, and it has made our routine and family life a little difficult.
• end of homeschool year - both the boys wrapped up their years with blue book exams, and they are out of regular routine. It is frustrating for all of us that they have little to do during the day. Thing 1 still has some exams and a project, but they are essentially done. Keeping foreign language and self directed learning going is the only thing resmbling schedules right now.
• creating a revised transcript - our new school district requires some information that I did not prepare for the transcripts, so I’ve been going back through old assigments to make sure that I have everything properly identified with examples.

Looking forward

Next month should be a little more relaxed. While I don’t have many of the “comforts” of home, I also don’t have all of the distractions of preparing for and directing packing. My focus this month is on growth and stability with gifts-done, perhaps a refresh of this blog, and more time with friends and family. I have set up very specific business goals in my journal this month with their own trackers, and I’m hoping that this will help me stay anchored.