Next Practices

In my first post for the year on January 1, I shared 11 goals divided into the categories of body, mind and spirit.  I review my progress here monthly to help hold me accountable.  I have some good news and some bad news on my goals for 2013 to date.  The good news is that I’m well ahead or on target for several of them.  The bad news is that I’m woefully behind on a couple and it will take quite a bit of time to catch up.  Catching up is possible, especially since I’m now in a stretch of three weeks I’m (mostly) taking off from work with more time daily to devote to them, so I’m hopeful that my report next month looks better.  Here are the details…

Goals related to body:

1. Keep my weight at or below 150 pounds.  All continues to be well on this one.  I still weigh in daily, and that weigh-in determines what and how much I eat as well as influencing physical activity for the day.  I look forward to the 1-year anniversary of reaching my target weight July 26.

2. Walk/jog/run a total of 10,000 steps per day three days per week. I’m way ahead of schedule on this one, having done it enough days to already be in the month of July ticking them off a calendar.  With our company’s annual 100 Day Dash starting June 3 where my goal is to average 10,000 steps per day for 100 days, I’ll easily pass the goal for the year by the end of that Dash in September.

3. Average at least six hours of sleep per night.  I still don’t record numbers here, but more nights than not when I set my alarm and lay down, it’s for more than six hours from the time I’m going to bed.  I’m enjoying a little extra time in bed during these weeks off in May.

Goals related to mind:

1. Read a book every other week.  I am more behind on this goal than any other.  I’m a few dozen pages away from completing book #5 for the year.  By this time, I should already be in book #10.  I have some work to do!

2. Blog every other day (at least).  I’ve posted 59 blog posts this year, but an every-other-day schedule would have me at 68 already, so I need some daily ones in this time off to reach the goal.

3. Continue to follow My 3 Words: Ground, Stretch, Reflect.  Same as reported last time, this one still sneaks up on me because of not blogging every day like I did in 2012.  Nightly blogging provided a built-in time for this reflection.  Without that, I’m missing it too many nights.  I still think through the sequence on days I blog to see what is worth writing about, but other days I tend to forget about the framework even though I may still do two of the three instinctively every day.

4. Double the blog’s readership from 10,000 views in 2012 to 20,000.  I’m running 20% ahead of schedule on this one and will pass last year’s total readership either this month or next.  Many thanks to all of you for making that happen!

5. Continue to write hand-written letters to my sons.  As reported before, this is only done a couple of times a year, so having done it last in December, it will be this summer before I do it again.  Time to start making notes on what the focus of these next ones should be for each son.

Goals related to spirit:

1. Finish reading the ESV Study Bible and read half of The Apologetics Study Bible.  I am a month behind on this goal.  My time off this month is allowing me the luxury of peace and quiet at home to do more reading, so the report on this next month should be much improved.

2. Review 100 Bible memory verses weekly.  So far, so good. This takes less than an hour weekly, so it’s easy to stay current.

3. Come to some resolution to an unsettled situation where I worship.  Completed in January.

Life has been a little weird around our house the last six weeks.  My wife just had her second knee replacement surgery since early April, so our schedules are anything but normal.  I learned from the first one that I can’t keep a regular work and personal routine going with her in the hospital and rehab and then needing more help than normal around the house.  That’s a large part of why I’m taking off so many days from work now through the end of the month.  I needed to take some time off, anyway, for a breather and to work on some of the above matters that are very important to me.

So that’s how I’m doing on my goals after the first 4+ months of 2013.  What about you?  How are you doing on your goals for the year?

With 2013 now 1/4 complete, it’s time to report on how I’m doing with the many goals I set for the year.  My first post for 2013 on January 1 is where I shared 11 goals divided into the categories of body, mind and spirit.  Reporting on my progress here helps hold me accountable, so that’s why I’m doing these monthly updates.

There’s good news and bad news on the goals front this month.  The good news is that I’m still doing well on some of them.  The bad news is that I’m more behind on others now than I was a month ago.  One big reason why I’m more behind than expected is that I had to cancel a week of vacation for late March where my plan was to catch up with the reading and writing goals.  With simply too much happening at work to walk away for a week, I felt the impact of not having that time for working on my goals.  I’ve scheduled a vacation week for April and another for May to try to catch up some, but with other schedule oddities going on that I will mention below, it will still be a challenge to completely catch up anytime soon.

It is what it is, so here is the update…

Goals related to body:

1. Keep my weight at or below 150 pounds.  All continues to be well on this one.  I still weigh in daily, and that weigh-in determines what and how much I eat as well as influencing physical activity for the day.  I look forward to reaching the 1-year anniversary of reaching my target weight this summer.

2. Walk/jog/run a total of 10,000 steps per day three days per week. I’m still way ahead of schedule on this one because I’ve been doing it five days per week instead of three for a couple of months now to reach some reward goals with my company’s incentive program, HumanaVitality.  In March, I ran my first 5K race in about 5-6 years when my company scheduled one just for our employees and families in downtown Louisville.  My race time was the slowest 5K I’ve ever done at 31 minutes, 18 seconds (my previous race before this one, for example, was under 24 minutes), but I’ll use it as a benchmark going forward.  At least there were only seven people my age or older who finished before me.  I was #232 overall out of 2074 finishers.  I’ll take it.  Also helping with this goal is that the weather is finally getting warmer, so I will be more inclined to go for runs or longer walks with the dog than during the cold weather.

3. Average at least six hours of sleep per night.  I still don’t record numbers here, but more nights than not when I set my alarm and lay down, it’s for more than six hours from the time I’m going to bed.  I’m probably pretty close on this one.  Unless I buy something like a Fitbit that tracks sleep, I won’t know exactly how well I’m doing on this goal, but I’ll have a good idea.

Goals related to mind:

1. Read a book every other week.  I really bombed on this one in March.  I didn’t complete any book.  I’m about 2/3 through the one I’m reading, but this is one of the goals impacted by me canceling my vacation a couple of weeks ago.  I have much to do here.

2. Blog every other day (at least).  I keep lagging a few days behind in this goal, having published 45 posts this year when an every-other-day schedule would have me at 48 by now.  Catching up won’t be difficult.  Blogging daily for one week would do it.

3. Continue to follow My 3 Words: Ground, Stretch, Reflect.  As I reported last month, this one still sneaks up on me because of not blogging every day like I did in 2012.  Nightly blogging provided a built-in time for this reflection.  Without that, I’m missing it too many nights.  I still think through the sequence on days I blog to see what is worth writing about, but other days I tend to forget about the framework even though I may still do two of the three instinctively every day.

4. Double the blog’s readership from 10,000 views in 2012 to 20,000.  I’m very happy to say that as of today I’m running 46% ahead of schedule on this one.  At the current pace, I’ll pass last year’s total readership in either April or, more likely, May.  A couple of pairs of popular posts have helped the cause with each receiving hundreds of views and the most popular (The Worst Mistakes I’ve Made As An Employee) now approaching 1000 views.

5. Continue to write hand-written letters to my sons.  As reported before, this is only done a couple of times a year, so having done it last in December, it will likely be this summer before I do it again.

Goals related to spirit:

1. Finish reading the ESV Study Bible and read half of The Apologetics Study Bible.  I am more behind on this goal than any other.  Again, canceling the vacation week really hurt me here.  I have much to do to get back on track, but just a few solid days of vacation devoted to this would do it.

2. Review 100 Bible memory verses weekly.  So far, so good. This takes less than an hour weekly, so it’s easy to stay current.

3. Come to some resolution to an unsettled situation where I worship.  Completed in January.

I don’t expect to be caught up on all goals by the end of April.  My wife just had knee replacement surgery two days ago and will have the other knee replaced in about four weeks.  She needs assistance from me, of course, when she returns home, and the schedule meanwhile is way different than normal.  I’m also officiating at a wedding later in April, going out of town for a couple of days for that.  Whenever I perform a wedding, I rehearse it a bazillion times so I can say everything just right without depending much on notes, so I know I’ll spend a lot of hours on that the next couple of weeks instead of other matters my time would normally be given to.  That isn’t a complaint, of course, since it’s a great privilege to officiate at the wedding of dear friends.  It’s just a notation that spending more time in one effort means there is less time to spend in others, so there may be consequences related to these goals that I’ll have to make up later.

So that’s how I’m doing on my goals after the first three months of 2013.  What about you?  How are you doing on your goals for the year?

2013 is now 1/6 complete, ready or not.  That means it is time for a progress report on the goals I set at the beginning of the year.  My first post for 2013 on January 1 is where I shared 11 goals divided into the categories of body, mind and spirit.  Reporting on my progress here helps hold me accountable.

Goals related to body:

1. Keep my weight at or below 150 pounds.  All is well on this one.  I still weigh in daily, and that weigh-in determines what and how much I eat as well as influencing physical activity for the day.

2. Walk/jog/run a total of 10,000 steps per day three days per week.  I’m way ahead of schedule on this one, actually shifting to five days per week instead of three because I want to reach some rewards goals with my company’s incentive program HumanaVitality.  I admit to doing a lot of jogging in place in front of the TV some nights to reach this goal, but that movement counts like any other.

3. Average at least six hours of sleep per night.  I’m back on track with this one after a rocky couple of weeks in January.  I don’t record numbers here, but more nights than not when I set my alarm, it’s for more than six hours from the time I’m going to bed.

Goals related to mind:

1. Read a book every other week.  Another couple dozen pages of book #4 this weekend and I’ll be up-to-date on this goal.  I’ll read three and write book review blog posts of them in March to be where I want to be after the first quarter.

2. Blog every other day (at least).  I’m two posts behind this schedule, so that will be easy to make up.  It was nice blogging every day of my week at home last week to make up ground.

3. Continue to follow My 3 Words: Ground, Stretch, Reflect.  This one still sneaks up on me because of not blogging every day like I did in 2012.  It was actually easier getting into a routine last week and blogging every day than I’m finding it is to blog every other day.  This one needs some work.  Nightly blogging provided a built-in time for this reflection.  Without that, I’m missing it too many nights.

4. Double the blog’s readership from 10,000 views in 2012 to 20,000.  I’m thrilled at the progress on this goal.  Through February, I’ve had more than half the number of blog visits I had all last year.  I’m well ahead of pace to meet this goal with February being my best month ever and one day in February being my best day ever in number of views.  Many thanks to the readers who join me on the journey!

5. Continue to write hand-written letters to my sons.  Like I reported at the end of January, this is only done a couple of times a year, so having done it last in December, it will be a few months before I do it again.

Goals related to spirit:

1. Finish reading the ESV Study Bible and read half of The Apologetics Study Bible.  This is on schedule.  Even though I’m a few days behind in my readings, I read a little more daily than required to meet the mid-year goal for completion of the ESV.

2. Review 100 Bible memory verses weekly.  So far, so good.  This takes less than an hour weekly.

3. Come to some resolution to an unsettled situation where I worship.  This was reported as complete in my report on Feb. 2.

My week at home last week helped with a number of my goals.  I’m planning at least one week at home per month for the foreseeable future, so those times can help me catch up a little if needed.  I still use the low-tech approach of a little Post-It note with a checklist on the stand beside my recliner so that it’s near me nightly.

It’s time to round out the first quarter now that March is here.  I’d like to be completely up-to-date in all categories by the end of this month.  Let’s see how I do!

How are you doing on your goals for the year?

It’s hard to believe that a full month of 2013 has already passed.  That means it is time to share with you how I’m doing on the goals I set at the beginning of the year.  In a post on January 1, I shared 11 goals divided into the categories of body, mind and spirit.  It helps hold me accountable to update publicly how I’m doing, so here goes…

Goals related to body:

1. Keep my weight at or below 150 pounds.  So far, so good on this one.  I continue to weigh in each morning, and if I’m at the max of 150 I know I have to be very careful that day, eating a little less or being more active or both.  If I’m a couple of pounds below my goal, I allow myself a little splurge.

2. Walk/jog/run a total of 10,000 steps per day three days per week.  I’m a little ahead of schedule on this one.

3. Average at least six hours of sleep per night.  I don’t keep a record of this, and I know I’ve had a few stretches of too little sleep, but I also know I’ve gone to bed earlier than what was previously normal many nights and have had more evening naps than in the past.  I may not be at six hours on the average, but I don’t think I’m far from it including the naps in my cozy recliner.

Goals related to mind:

1. Read a book every other week.  I’m a little behind on this one since I’m in the middle of my second book.  I have to pick up the pace on this one to get back on schedule.  I should finish book #2 this weekend which will put me back on track.

2. Blog every other day (at least).  I’m only one post behind this schedule, so that will be easy to make up.  Having blogged all 366 days of 2012, it feels like I’m hardly ever blogging by dropping last year’s frequency in half, but I’ll stay with this goal for 2013.

3. Continue to follow My 3 Words: Ground, Stretch, Reflect.  It’s easy to miss some days on this goal because of not blogging every day and, therefore, not ending with that intentional time of reflection that accompanied last year’s daily lessons learned posts.  Still, the regular task of deciding what to blog about brings this goal to mind frequently.

4. Double the blog’s readership from 10,000 views in 2012 to 20,000.  I’m pleased to say that I am well ahead of schedule on this goal.  Through January, the average number of daily visits to this blog is up 179% from last year’s daily average.  January’s 2,403 visits more than doubled by previous best month ever, and January 25 saw the greatest number of hits in a single day ever.  The biggest difference is that I’ve done more promotion of particular posts on our internal social network where I work, and that has helped increase readership.  Onward and upward!

5. Continue to write hand-written letters to my sons.  This is only done a couple of times a year, so having done it last in December, it will be several months before I do this again.

Goals related to spirit:

1. Finish reading the ESV Study Bible and read half of The Apologetics Study Bible.  This is on schedule.  I read a little more daily than required in January to get a good jump start on the year, so I’ve backed off the daily quantity a bit now, but am still at a pace to reach the goal.

2. Review 100 Bible memory verses weekly.  This is not a time-consuming goal (less than an hour a week), so it is fairly easy to stay on track with this one.  So far, so good.

3. Come to some resolution to an unsettled situation where I worship.  I won’t share details, but this matter is thankfully resolved and the goal can be marked as complete.

To be honest, there were some times during January when I wish I hadn’t set as many goals – times when I would have preferred to just rest and relax and do something for the fun of it in the evening or on the weekend.  That was going on when I wrote “When does busy become too busy?”  For the second weekend in a row, however, I will be able to rest a reasonable amount and have a relaxing schedule, so I’ll keep plugging away at all of the goals above.  It helped that I took a few days of vacation in early January, and I will do so again one week per month for at least the next several months, staying home and resting a little while focusing on my goals the remainder of the days off.

As a side note, would you like to know the secret to me keeping up on my goals daily?  I keep a tiny little Post-It note with a checklist on the stand beside my recliner so that it’s near me nightly.  How is that for high tech and for this guy who is constantly online and connected to technology?  Hey, it works.

Overall, then, it looks like I made it through January very close to the goals – either right on target or slightly ahead or behind, depending on the goal.  February, here we go!

How are you doing on your goals for the year?