Goals Update: February 2012

It's leap day where I am, but I've been thinking a lot about how well I managed my February goals and figured now was as good a time as any to reflect and post on how things panned out.

As I discussed at the beginning of the month, our Vietnam travels and visiting friends convinced me not to attempt to many new and challenging goals other than what was in the works from January. It's a good thing I went with that method, because it turns out we lost all sense of routine in February for a number of reasons that I am extremely grateful (friends crashing our couch and floor, the fabulous Vietnam vacation, etc.) So, on a technical level, I failed most of my goals. But below, I'll expand on how each was and wasn't fulfilled and why I feel content having accomplished what I have.

Daily:

• Drink one glass of water when I wake up and before I go to bed AND mid-day: this worked well when we were functioning in our routine and I was more conscious of drinking water when we were off our routine, so personally, that's a win!
• Stretch at least once a day: Again, this was good during routine type days...which were only about 1/3 of the days in February, still a win, I think about stretching a lot more.
• Do a minimum of 15 push-ups and 50 sit-ups: Read above observations
• Floss daily (or at minimum 3 days a week): Same idea as stated above. The winning factor here though is how desperately I wanted to be flossing in Vietnam and how disappointed I was in myself for forgetting to pack floss.
• Daily journal about 5 things for which I am grateful: I've conquered this one.
• Read a minimum of 2 chapters from the Bible each day: Routine days, good. Non-routine days, not so much.
• Begin stretching time in child pose - meditate on the Lord's Prayer: Same story.

Overall I feel good about these daily goals and think that I can easily keep stretching, a bit of exercise, drinking water and gratitude journaling alive and kicking without having to put forth too much effort.

Within the Month:

• Write about a minimum of 5days in the travel journal I started for our world tour in 2010 -- REALLY hoping I get on that: Just a difficult task, not sure what I'm going to do for motivation to finish this up, but I'm thinking one delicious chocolate per finished entry...thoughts?
• Finish at least 5 books toward my 2012 reading goal of 50 books in a year: Barely. Thankful for lazy days on the beach and long flights/layovers.
• Update my food blog within 3 days of preparing a meal: Almost could have nailed this one except for all the 'distractions' so I think I'm getting close to having this become the norm.
• Finish blogging about Taiwan before heading to Vietnam: And then some.
• Blog more about what I'm processing/thinking -- (i.e. comparisons, individuality, complaints -- things I've been thinking about lately and would do well to think through): Not as much as I'd like, but did you read about how I'm struggling with hate? That was good and beautiful for my processing soul...maybe not for my blog, but for my processing.

So that was February. I feel good about it all things considered and have spent the past week or so thinking about what to bring into March, what to state as goals and what new thing I can add. Thinking about changing my home work out routine, possibly studying the Korean language (but may put it off a month), being more conscious and proactive about good posture as well as trying to make some home-made yogurt. Surprisingly, I'm quite looking forward to March...even though we've just said a significant amount of good-byes to significant people in our Daejeon Community.

And here's the Calendar of February - beginning is pretty impressive, no?

(Typed while drinking my 'mid-day' water from a Jeonju University mug)