Hey everybody! There is an electricity in the air around here. Can you feel it too? No, we don’t live underneath one of those really tall, high-voltage transmission towers 😉. I’m talking about the summer school holidays countdown! Have the school hols already kicked off where you are? We have 5 school days left and counting…
Did you see the long list full of FAMtastic ideas for the summer holidays I posted last week? Have you tried any of them yet? Or have you made your own “To Do List” for holiday fun?
I need to sit down with our 3 kiddos and make up our own personalised “bucket list” for these school holidays. Because I can tell you now, as much as I am looking forward to having lots of fun times with the kids, we will NOT be ticking off ALL of the 61 suggestions from last week’s list! We have however, already started experimenting with making ice cream 😉 based on a Donna Hay recipe. Oh my, how my children are currently infatuated with our @donna.hay cookbook…
I don’t know whether you remember, but at the start of the year I wrote about setting goals for GROWTH for myself for this year. Not drunken New Year’s resolutions, but real goals that I plan to achieve by year’s end. And given that the year is already half done with, I thought it was about time I gave myself a review. If you set yourself some goals for this year too, I hope that you are straight up rocking them! Me? Hmm…
Goals and What Can Help to Move Toward Them
If I am going to be serious about seeing my progress towards achieving my goals, and remaining accountable thanks to making them so public here in the big wide web, I need to answer honestly to each and every one of them. (And if you set any goals for yourself, you ought to as well!)
So, as part of my half-year review, I’m also going to share with you what keeps me moving me towards my goals. Whether you want to run your first 10km, learn Japanese or redesign your living room, perhaps you will identify a couple of reminders for yourself if things get challenging while working on your own goals this year.
Here we go…
To further refine Everything’s Famtastic, grow my online community, and develop and sell my products online.
I am posting new stories every week still, as planned. *Thumbs Up*
My online community is negligible. But that just leaves plenty room for future growth, right? 😊 Hey, by the way, if you know someone who would enjoying reading the posts here and might want to join the Everything’s Famtastic community, PLEASE let them know about this blog 😉. The more, the merrier!
I have been gathering information and participating in live webinars to inform myself about possibilities to grow my blog’s reach and about the “business” side of things. Can I just say, German tax law is insanely confusing, convoluted and impossible to follow?!?
Basically, there is probably nothing any reader would really notice that has changed with this blog. But there IS work going on behind the scenes, trust me! I guess I could summarise my progress toward this goal as: baby steps.
What helps me move forward: patience, not being afraid to ask for help, persistence, speaking to other people with more experience and expertise, lots of research, and trial and error.
To become more productive, more motivated, and better at setting goals and limits.
I think that I am becoming more productive and organised in some areas of my life (like sewing and clearing out unwanted stuff) but not necessarily in the areas most needed (eg. washing dishes LOL, better sleep patterns) or wished for (more successful blog practices). Let’s just agree it’s a work in progress 😉.
I am plenty motivated to achieve my goals on a day to day basis. Unfortunately distraction and procrastination raise their heads more often than they should. And childcare responsibilities. And my “real” job. And the humdrum of day to day life. Hm.
Better at setting goals and limits? Sure. Sometimes. I am definitely getting better at saying “No” to some requests, both from within our family and from outside, without feeling (too!) guilty. I DO need to actually write down my goals somewhere I can see them and get better and planning out the smaller steps to achieving them. *Mental note: write out goals and steps*.
To summarise: depends on the day 😉.
What helps me move forward: writing a daily to do list (the satisfaction of ticking things off throughout the day works wonders, trust me!), setting a timer when working on task and not allowing for distractions during that time (eg 50 minutes and GO!), constantly reminding myself of my goals and not quitting.
To avoid requiring a cornea transplant on my other eye.
Last year I had a cornea transplant due to a hereditary disease. Yes, even at my tender young age 😉. I know that in my future there will be further surgeries, but if I had any say in it, not just yet.
I mean, ultimately I have very little control over the need for surgery. But I am following doctor’s orders and attending my regular check-ups and taking my medication as prescribed.
What helps me move forward: follow doctor’s orders, patience, and keep on keeping on.
To find a new community (club/social group/sport/something) of like-minded people where I live.
I’m gonna be honest here. I have not actively sought out new people in my local community.
But what I HAVE done is be sure to remain in regular contact with the friends I already do have and meet up with them as often as possible for drinks or a BBQ or even just a coffee. Meeting regularly with friends is really, really important.
What helps me move forward: Um.. I haven’t. What I need to do is put more time into thinking about what I am interested in pursuing, how much time I am willing to commit, and research what is around town. *Puts it on the to do list*.
To be more present and attentive and “enjoy the moment” more.
There’s always room for improvement, right?. But I do think I am doing relatively well on this front. Although I am better at being able to set boundaries and say “No!” more often (as in: “Mama… can we please go to the movies this afternoon?”), I have also consciously been spending more attentive, quality time with the family. More sewing together, more cooking together, more enjoying the evenings together, more games together, more snuggling together, (even) more reading together…
I have also been getting back into meditating again lately. Meditation was a life saver last year when I was stuck laying flat on my back for 3 weeks post- eye operation. Meditation is the ultimate “in the moment” experience 😊.
All in all, I’d say I’m doing pretty OK.
What helps me move forward: sometimes a deep breath and a pause is all that’s needed, other times more clearly planning the day and knowing that there is time scheduled in for family fun.
To improve my fitness, lose weight and prepare for a 5km run.
I’m just going to get straight to the point here. My fitness levels and weight are at their worst point ever. I know that a few months back I posted about feeling “driven” to exercise . Which at the time was entirely true but right now makes me feel like a big fat (literally) liar. Due to a variety of health conditions these past months (bung knee for example) almost all forms of exercise had been ruled out.
BUT I have not lost sight of the fact that I want to lose weight and that I want to run my first ever 5km next spring. Hope dies last, as they say. Even though I have also quoted that “Hope is not a strategy” (thanks @msrachelhollis), remembering my goal rather than quitting on myself is massively important. As I write this there are less than 280 days until that 5km run. Time to get serious…
How am I doing? Frustrated, restricted and slack.
What helps me move forward: well, I am not going forward at all, and in fact going backwards. But I still have my *eyes on the prize* and will find a way.
To learn how to crochet.
Um… Has not happened yet. I enrolled in one crochet course, which was cancelled due to low enrolments. Then I enrolled in a second one. Same thing. I guess spring doesn’t really inspire crochet fever in many people. Am hoping that the next course in autumn will run and I will be there!
I have, however, been getting creative by trying out some new sewing patterns for the kids. For example, I have discovered that making a V-neck- rather than a round neck- t-shirt is actually not that intimidating! And I did trust myself to start sewing clothes that needed zippers! And not forgetting, I have finally bought some new patterns to sew some tops for *moi*.
And I recently discovered on my cool Duolingo language app that not only can I keep learning Dutch but now also Arabic. It’s tricky, but will definitely stretch my brain and creative abilities too!
Result? Crochet: 0. Other creative pursuits: Full steam ahead!
What helps me move forward: finding new projects to stretch my skills, patience, asking questions and trusting in myself to learn new things.
The Report Card
My word for this year is GROWTH. So how did I go with my goals this year so far? I’d say: middling. Have I grown and developed new skills since the start of the year? Yes, absolutely. Have I achieved all of my goals? No, not yet!. I still have half a year ahead of me though 😊.
But the important word to remember here is: “yet”. We should never think that our abilities are limited to what we can currently achieve. Anything can be learned or improved. Any goal can be achieved with enough planning, patience and persistence. Just DON’T QUIT. I won’t 😊.
So how are your goals for this year looking? Are you still feeling positive about them? What helps you keep moving towards them, even during lack of progress or even setbacks? Share below!