make the most of 2009

Okay, so things are never as straightforward as you’d hope: one more speed bump on the road kind of thing. Still, I worded this goal quite deliberately: make the most of, however that’s possible.

_{besides, my list of goals was looking way too sparse!}

April is gone – thank goodness! It wasn’t completely awful, but it wasn’t good. Well, exams are done and that’s the main thing!

May, then, is my New Year – hurrah! Works well: the weather is glorious, spring is well and truly sprung, and I have something like choice again in terms of spending my time! :)

The plan is, I suppose, to try and juggle back into my life all the things I want to be doing. Yup – it’s that old balance chestnut cropping up again! I want a life where one element doesn’t crowd out everything else. Yes, I have a lot of interests, but I’m happy shuffling back and forth between them all. There’s a skill in not dropping the balls, so to speak, and I want to give it a good go!

Of course, this is also the month where studying is no longer prioritised above work – and that means getting my head down, I guess! I loved this job when I started, and since then I feel like it’s been an endless trail of time off for ill health and exams and all far too stressy. After a fortnight away, I think it’s time for a fresh start, and to start applying myself a great deal more to being work-brilliant!

1. Healthfullness – sleep, weight, exercise
2. Work – I’ve not been the ideal employee, and I think it’s time to prove I can focus and excel.
3. Fun! All those hobbies: card making, cinema, cooking, reading, review writing, and the newbie – gardening! Ooh, and photography – this should be the month of the new camera, methinks?! And, of course, planning for that holiday :)
4. Learning – it never ends, and it never should! Final two modules this year (NetApps that I started and dropped last year, and the new Multimedia Design which I hope is half as fun as it sounds!), plus all my ‘own’ learning: CSS, anything website-y, etc!
5. Decluttering – both physically (late spring cleaning!) and mentally: need to free ‘space’ (ie time) for all of the above, get things slotting into their places nicely.

One thing that excites me about all this is possible connections between hobbies and goals. Photography and gardening – taking photos of my efforts! Website building and any of my hobbies: building little trial sites to showcase photos or cooking experiments or card making. Exercise and gardening, naturally. Exercise and exploring my city, starting with the library sign-up :)

I’m well chuffed with how March went – possibly for the first time ever, the goals I set out to prioritise stayed at the top of my sights and good progress was made! :)

There aren’t any surprises for April: by the end of the month I’ll be done with exams for another year – thank crunchie! – but there’s a lot of work to be done before the month is out.

1. Studying
2. Studying!
3. (Mental) health – so, meditation, relaxation, and some fun to balance out the first two.
4. Weight – making good progress, despite the studying, so want to keep going!

As I say, March has been brilliant on the weight-loss front. I’m still not pushing for uber-exercising until post-exams, which means continuing to be sensible on the eating even through the stress.

Otherwise: survive and thrive!

The one constant with plans seems to be how often they get knocked off track! After declaring Feb as the ‘proper’ start to the year, I have to revise that to March – Feb saw me deep in recovery, dealing with extra stresses, and devoting the bulk of my energy to getting back up to full time in work. Which is… not so much fine as unavoidable – if it takes six weeks to get over surgery, it takes six weeks!

1. Studying
2. Health – yes, it should kind of be first, but it’s been at the top of the list for ages now and used as an excuse!
3. Weight and fitness – I want to tackle these anyway, what better (nice) motivation than an upcoming holiday?! :)

Studying is as studying is: do it, do lots of it, take regular breaks and avoid burnout. For this month – or at least the start of it – it really is just a case of bloomin’ well getting on with it!!

Health… plenty rest, really, and with point 3 as a (more focused) subset.

Exercise-wise I’m going to continue taking it a bit easy this month – but increasingly less so. There’s no point in going gung-ho after several months of inactivity – I’ll hurt myself, and in fact I already have a sore ankle (although not from anything strenuous!). Add in the study-requirements, and I’m not keen to sign up for anything huge. Instead my idea for March (and quite possibly April) is just to start building up again: walking, more walking, yoga and stretches, maybe some strength work (at home). Gardening might creep in during March, weather depending.

Weight… ah, there’s no point in being all ‘I’m better than having a weight-loss goal’. Truth is, I’m not happy with my size – not hugely unhappy, but not happy. It’s been going up and up over the years, and these past few months in particular have been attrocious: just, no controls, eat what I like, treat myself I’ve not been well. This has to stop, or I WILL be hugely unhappy! Plus, I’ve been sitting just outwith the healthy range for quite some time now – ooh, just oodles of reasons: clothes not fitting, blah blah.

And as I say: nothing like a holiday to get my motivation going! I have 14 weeks ‘til I go away – at a very reasonable pound/week, that’s a whole stone!! I’m actually considering buying some scales (ones that work) to help keep myself motivated with this. My plan does NOT involve starving myself, but treats (pudding, chocolate, Ultimate Mash) have to go back to being just that. My evening meals aren’t too bad, but I could do waaay better on the snacking.

Plan of attack: wait til I’m hungry, avoid obvious pitfalls (chocolate!), start reading 4DW again – to the point of action this time!

Pitfalls: choc/crisps already in the house – okay, just ration them out as proper treats rather than nomming indiscriminately. Also, pre-exams are not a great time for self-control, but let’s see what I can do without stressing myself out.

It sounds so… I dunno, fluffy-female-brained, to want to focus on such a thing. But I’ve wanted to be fitter and sleeker for years – it’s damn well time to take action!! I am in control and I can have it if I want!! :P

Not a new concept, but it just seemed to click (again) today.

First was going back to work. I only managed 2 hours before I started feeling tired, and another 90 minutes ‘til I had to leave. But it was okay. I went, I survived, I’m going back tomorrow!

Then my SparkPeople motivational email was titled ‘Consistency’. “pick small goals that can be somewhat easily integrated into your normal daily schedule”, it advises. Y’know, little 10-minutes here and there that you’ll hardly notice. But, 10 minutes every day is over an hour a week – and it will all add up!

Thinking… well, that’s how I’m digesting Northanger Abbey right now. I’m starting to watch a few films like that, too: can’t motivate myself to sit for 2 hours, but if I just watch 10 minutes… after a few goes like that, eventually I’m usually sucked in enough to keep going!

So I want to apply this to other things (when I’m a bit brighter and less sleepy, methinks – ie, not today!): studying, obviously. The problem I was having there is that 10 mins/day was clearly just not enough – until I postponed some material – and so I ended up doing nothing, too paralysed to do everything.

Card making. Last night I thought, bugger making a whole card – just make the base/background of that one. I’ll do the top/finishing another time. And I can see that working!

So. 2009 working method: flit through everything, do little bits here and there, but KEEP doing! It all adds up, it forms that foundation, and it keeps everything going forwards – AND it keeps me motivated, happy and unstressed about it all :)

I’m absolutely shattered, and yet kicking to get back to my life properly again – yay! Even work – despite having the option of more time off, I’m going back in tomorrow. Why? I’ve been sitting at home for a week, and I’m not getting a thing done; perhaps going back to normality will kick-start everything else I want to be doing, bizarre at that might sound!

And what are those things? Studying, card making, writing reviews (I have my next book order planned!), and proper relaxation – watching movies and reading and long hot baths :)

It’s going to be a relatively quiet month, methinks, and I’m looking forward to that. Sometimes the biggest indulgence isn’t about what you’re doing, but the frame of mind in which you manage it.

You know what’s good about all this crap I’m dealing with right now? How much I suddenly WANT to do everything!

Silly example: cinema. All the times I put off going to the cinema, ‘cos I just can’t be bothered and/or I’m not really ‘sure’ of the movie. Cinema – sitting still for two hours. Hardly difficult! But right now, keeping my snuffles from annoying a room full of viewers, and lacking the energy to do anything after work… gawd, do I want to see everything. Any of it! Just for the novelty of all of it!

Do try to remember that when I’m feeling better!!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Mark Twain

That’s my guiding quote for 2009. There is SO much I want to do, this year and in life in general. However, I need to just get on with it – any of it! – before I can achieve anything, before I can move on to more accomplishments.

I need to focus on what’s in front of me now – January: health and studying, and work – instead of constantly pining for the stuff I’m not yet at. I’ll get there so much quicker if I just finish off step one, right!?