2018 GHDR Final Review

This is my December and FINAL checkin for my 2018 GHDR as I am following Dave Seah’s masterful plan. Well, you can see several instances where I missed checkins and did not, exactly, follow the masterful plan, but I mostly tried.

In my post last month, I was not feeling optimistic. I had gotten stuck in a routine that seemed to be headed to a deep, dark place. In the intervening days, there have been good times and tough times. Overall, I’m in a slightly better place mentally as we come to the end of the year, and I have made peace with parts of myself that are still struggling. On a hopeful note, I have already set in place plans that will keep me on a positive path at least until I set 2019 goals.

I’m not posting my monthly trackers for Nov/Dec because they essentially look just like my previous months, with a few improvements. However, I am sharing this adorable Chewie that I got from Rikki on Instagram @crochetedbyrikki. Chewie is fun and whimsical, capturing the joy that I’ve felt this year. At the same time, he is small (and made out of yarn), so he can’t really do anything, capturing the lack of progress I have felt this year.

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]
• THIS WAS MARKED FOR DELETION IN AUGUST - DECIDED NOT TO DELETE BECAUSE FRIENDS ARE GOOD 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 the last month

• [H]ealth: I’ve been doing okay on food, but I’m not really doing much exercise.
• [F]riends and family: Book club is full of great people. We’ve had sweet times with friends, lots of games in the house with the old man and kiddos, and a few parties. I think I’ve rocked this one this month…somehow
• [I]Intention: Still sucking at this.
• [M]Money: I no longer hear the giant sucking sound that was my expenses.
• [E]Engagement: I am not sure how I am doing here. I feel very absent from some communities of friends, but I am still present in others. It is tenuous.

Insights

The past few months have been difficult with The Amazing Cupcake being sick just as I went back to full time work away from her. And that period followed the painful loss of Phoebe, which followed the absolute craziness of moving half way around the world. I can safely say that I am happy that we appear to be settling in to some calm steadiness, and, most importantly, The Amazing Cupcake is getting well. ~Soon, we shall be running again.~ Not even joking, as I typed that, her nose started bleeding again. WTF.

In any case, I was trying to get to the point that I have learned more about myself and life while trying to grasp the frailty of this sweet dog. I have also, in the same time, but completely unrelated, learned how much fun it is to create. I’ve been drawing and coloring more in my journal and my menus. I now have some very terrible, and some less terrible, drawings that make me happy. I hope to continue doing things that make me happy and reveling in them, even if they don’t make anyone else happy. (not advocating harming anyone here, just not caring quite so much)

Looking forward

Last month, I said I would be happy with “slightly better progress and connections next month”, and I think I did that. So, yay me!

I am going to continue to set the groundwork for a happy and healthy me next year and think more about the goals that I want to set on the next Groundhog Day. I can say now that I think I can already feel out some of my goals. I know I will have big business goals. While I’ve been pretty ho-hum on my progress lately, I did start a business this year, and it has been semi-successful. I’m no rockstar, but I think this is a good thing to push forward. I also want to have more clearly defined health and connection goals. I am not sure at this point if anything else matters.

Have a beautiful rest of 2018. I look forward to the next one!