Phew! What a year it has been! A lot of good stuff happened… and rough stuff too, but mostly good stuff. I wanted to thank each and everyone one of you (plus my intention groups) for being part of the good stuff and I want to wish you all of the good stuff too, now and in the coming year.
If you recall, I enjoy making cheater’s resolutions. These are resolutions you make ahead of time so that you can already record significant progress by the time you get to New Year’s Eve. Conveniently for me, I already did big planning back in October. So it’s just been hashing out some details.
But first a confession. I did my major planning back in October, but didn’t make huge traction on some of those goals. I did do masses of magic, so no complaints there. And my CT business goals (which I don’t talk about much here because, hello, tacky) kicked all the ass! But in other areas, yeah coasting. And indeed, a joyful Jupitarian holiday season was total right place right time. So that’s what we did.
But now I’m feeling the battle energy of the new year and the focus and discipline of the new moon. I’ve got some goals for the early months that I’m going to share here and (because I have NO SHAME) will even do an update n around the Equinox to see how I did (because I also have NO PRIDE). But note, I also did preplanning for these goals and will share that as well (so in case you haven’t done the preplanning work yet, you can see some examples):
Goal: Wear what you’ve got!
Over the past few years I seriously upgraded my wardrobe. I wrote about the start of it here on the blog in Sept 2015 (there’s a spreadsheet!) and it was very successful. However, lately I haven’t been taking as much advantage of that. In part that’s because after a year of serious travel, this past year was much more quiet (at least until Q4). So my goal is wearing the full extent of what I have already.
Planning: I replaced a few hardworking staples (including a pair of shoes that finally died after 9 years — an argument for quality shoes if there ever was one). I completely cleaned and reorganized the closet and my dresser. I asked an expert for advice (just an email to someone I follow, nothing formal or costly). I outlined an approach that I think will work and a way to track it.
Goal: Get your ass to Mars (or in this case the gym)!
So you know that in a misguided fit of frugality I let my gym membership lapse, only to discover that the gym was my only workable exercise trigger. All my efforts to get exercise at home and by running in the neighborhood just let to sorrow (and skidding out on gravel). So in an acknowledgement that exercising, for me, is hard enough without making it even harder (I tend to skew cerebral, shocking I know), I need to rejoin a gym. I made this decision at the end of October, but a combination of a serious migraine attack and travel put off pulling the trigger. That said, timing being what it is, I think I will hold off for just another week or two, to avoid the crowd.
Planning: I researched gyms that had a good price to quality ratio and were (most critical) on my way to work and visited a couple of likely candidates and made my decision. I put it into the budget.
Goal: Migraines under control.
Chronic and even debilitating migraines are my particular cross to bear. I’ve had them reasonably under control for a number of years now (reasonably under control means three times a month). In the past few months however that’s changed and it sucks a whole lot.
Planning: I visited my GP and tried some exciting new medications that didn’t work at all. I also got a referral to a neurologist (not my first, but I haven’t seen one in forever) and an appt. at the end of February. In the meantime I’ve been conducting food experiments and have cut out wheat completely (including all the holiday baking). I’m also reducing carbs in general. This isn’t a cure, but seems to be mitigative. And I started taking a daily aspirin (it helps).