Goals: Month 1
First month down and here is my status update. I didn’t complete 100% on my goals. I also didn’t expect to complete 100% of my goals, but it’s interesting to see where the shortcomings end up. Of course the most beneficial part is that I know I’m failing at certain goals and now I can alter my strategy to perform better in the future. Check out the full report card below.
Health
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I hate exercise. I actually attended a 45 minute “high intensity interval training” class, but since my goal is only 30 minutes of exercise, I just walked out 15 minutes early. No explanation to the instructor. My goal was met and I was felt ready to puke. I stood in front of the water fountain outside the class room and tried to lap up water in between panting. Checkbox complete!
Even with my very strict rule around 30 minutes of exercise, however, I still only completed 3 actual work outs. I didn’t count yoga because otherwise my intense cardio and high intensity workout dreams will rapidly degrade into restorative vinyasas. This is one flag that I might have to revise this goal. I think it’s way more realistic that I get a 15 minute work out. It’s important to remember the intention of the goal isn’t to check the box but rather to improve my overall health and sense of well being. It’s easy to get distracted though.
So what stopped me from making it out to the gym? First there was the changing of gym membership which I believe was postponed roughly two weeks into the month. Second I had to figure out my rhythm in my day and classes. I’ve started adding the classes that I plan on attending to my calendar, another new skill I’m learning. I also now plan on attending classes that occur in the morning. It’s too easy to make excuses in the evening of why not to make it to the gym.
Gym aside, the rest of these goals went relatively well. I was closer than I expected with not smoking and every day it’s getting a little easier to forego the activity. Sleeping is a skill and you actually have to work at not screwing it all up for yourself throughout your day. This includes how you eat and what you drink. I’m happy with to report I have more unassisted sleeps than necessary!
Lastly was the 1500 calorie days. Unfortunately I do think this goal needs to be revised. First of all it is possible that I hit this goal more than stated, but I only allow myself to check the box if I have it recorded all the calories in my phone for honesty sake. Second of all I’ve been told by a nutritionist that this calorie count is actually counter productive to fat loss which is the overall goal. Third the goal is very difficult to meet and once the line is crossed, let’s just say I don’t miss heaven by two inches. I go drastically over my calorie count and in additional I don’t eat healthy foods once my count is compromised. I’m thinking of revising this goal to focus more on a realistic calorie count and putting in an addendum for the quality of the food eaten.
Creative
Goal Accomplished Expected Grade Beautiful Thing Review 0 1 0 Life Lesson Learned 0 1 0 Write Nonfiction Story 0 1 0 Write Fiction Story 0 1 0 Record Podcast 0 2 0 Edit 30 Minutes of Audio 0 1 0 Edit 30 Seconds of Video 1 1 100 5 Minutes of Standup 0 2 0
I met a very tiny part of my creative goals. So what happened? I can chalk most of this up to poor planning. I didn’t schedule time to do any of these tasks and shockingly only one of the tasks got done which was editing this clip for Adventures on the Substrate. That said there was a non-goal creative task that got accomplished. I collaborated with my sketch team in producing Bags Anonymous.
While this isn’t an excuse but is worth mentioning I did setup the infrastructure for being able to post regularly. This includes getting my server setup correctly, installing WordPress, linking the domain name, and setting up YouTube channels. All of these tasks are somewhat small and menial, but having them accomplished allows for smoother sailing going forward. It’s not at all what I was aiming for but I’m in a good position to fail better next month.
Activities
Goal Accomplished Expected Grade Hangable Canvas Photo 0 1 0 6 Mile Hike/Camp 0 2 0 Ski/Snowboard Day 3 5 60 Meal w/ a Friend 2 2 100 :-)
I had a few wins this month in my activities section. I got to have two meals with friends one on one. The goal here is essentially to be able to get to know someone in my life at a deeper level.
This month I had the opportunity to dine with my buddy Jake. Jake is an authentic human, video shoot pocket knife, and handsome guy. Most of our conversation was project oriented as he helped on the above video “Bags Anon”. He was able to give me advice based on his previous experiences and helped guide me through potential missteps. He even showed up day of shoot and provided what I think actually turned out to be 95% of the equipment used. When I asked him how he felt about being there that day he said “I am here to make sure your day is a success.” That’s a pretty humble statement for a man who essentially coached me through the process of making a sketch from start to finish. I’m very glad to have Jake as a friend since he a genuine guy with buckets of integrity.
It seemed as though I found myself leaving breakfast with Jake, gleaning all his knowledge of how to make a shoot day a success and minimize downtime, to meet up with my friend Lauren. Lauren is a stand up comedian in the Denver scene. We met at an improv theater and immediately hit it off. After hanging out a few times walking around LODO making fun of drunk frat types and coming up with the fictional product “douchesurance” to scrape that backwards hat and polo off the front of your car it’s no surprise we went on to collaborate on Bags Anon. While Lauren and I spend a lot of time working together on projects it was nice to sit down with her and have a conversation over pizza. I asked about her aspirations, which she assures me she has and she’ll tell me more once she finds them. It was a pleasure working with Lauren to take a script that was sitting almost entirely dead in the water at the beginning of the year and drag it across the finish line by early February. Lauren tells me I might be one of her best friends in Denver and I pretend to not hear her so I can avoid having emotions as a man.
Reading
Goal Accomplished Expected Grade Gulag Archipelago 0 pages 34 pages 0 On Becoming a Person ~ Carl Rogers 28 pages 23 pages 121 :-) The Body Never Lies ~ Alice Miller 0 pages 18 pages 0 Ordinary Men ~ Christopher Browning 0 pages 19 pages 0 12 Rules for Life ~ Jordan B. Peterson 15 pages 31 pages 48
Okay, okay, okay… This months theme is learning how to block off time. I usually just read in the morning while I sip coffee at a St. Marks and break my diet by eating one of their giant muffins or a cinnamon roll. Turns out this might be a bit leisurely for my goals. For the most part I only have to read about 30ish pages a month per book, which means if I read about 5 pages a day I’d be in the clear. It’s sort of sad to find out that I’m not even reading 5 pages a day…. I also hadn’t really thought about how to break out the task of reading these books this year until writing this entry. Doing it by page might make it a bit awkward with chapter/concept breakdown, but at least this gives me a point of measurement for the future. With some determination I hope to catch up the pages that I missed this month and get back on track for the year.
Finance
Goal Accomplished Expected Grade File for Mortgage Release 0 1 0 Pay Extra $X into Debt 8 1 800 Week in Budge 2 4 50
I had a bit of a boom here. I happened to be able to reach my goal of paying into my debt eight times over for the month. While this might seem like maybe I set my goal too low in reality the reason for this is that I drained some savings to eliminate a credit card and attack my car payment. It’s not expected that this will be possible every month, but hopefully I will reach my goal of getting out of debt sooner than years end and will be able to start paying into savings again.
Conclusion
| Section | Average Grade |
|---|---|
| Finance | 283.33 |
| Reading | 33.8 |
| Activities | 32 |
| Creative | 12.5 |
| Health | 68.1 |
While I didn’t exactly reach all my goals that I set out for this month I was able to observe that I didn’t meet them. That fact has value. Not only do I know that I missed my goals but I also have the advantage of knowing by how much and form a reasonable conclusion as to why. If I can do better next month I’m already making rapid progress toward being better at life. Game on!
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