2015 Goals

So even before I get into a review of my goals progress for September and October, I’m excited to tell you about a major Bucket List item that’s just been crossed through! For some of you who carry out this activity on a regular basis (I’ve heard some real horror stories of how often some people go through this major life stressor!), let me put it in the context of not having done this for 27 years! If you haven’t guessed it, then here goes…we’ve moved house!

I’m so excited, as even though moving was on my Bucket List, it hadn’t even made it to my actual goals list for 2015! So I had no idea (plan) that this would happen this year!

Of course, it’s inevitable with such a major task underway that some of my goals have had to slip in order to accommodate the changes that are afoot. This is bitter-sweet, but I’m going to take comfort in knowing that some of my goal areas have progressed. We are still in the throes of moving, so disarray will continue for a little while yet.

So with that proviso (excuse?!) in place, here’s my latest update.

Read/Listen to 4 Good Books

I’ve read (listened to, on Audible) an excellent book this month called The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. In fact, I’ve enjoyed this book so much that I’ve gone back to key passages and listened to them a number of times.

The essence of the book is based on the idea that in order to make a breakthrough (in your life, goals, business) you need to 10X your efforts and outputs. I found the book very motivational and (despite all signs to the contrary) immediately put extra effort into the outputs I was trying to achieve by increasing activity and attempting to achieve greater consistency.

That process has been interrupted by the house move (although I’m making a lot of effort in that area!), but I will return to those increased levels once things settle back into some kind of normality.

The book has a strong business bent, so bare this in mind if you’re looking for something a bit more generic. But, for a dose of motivation, I’d definitely recommend it!

The Go Getter by Peter B Kyne – I read this little book (it’s just 62 pages long) on the train on the way home from our most recent City Break (see below!). The book is written as a story and was written around 1920 and reflects the language and cultural niceties of the day. However, this adds a certain charm to the story.

The Go Getter tells the story of a man looking for work who is given a chance by a business man to ‘prove’ himself. I don’t want to give the story away, so will leave the plot description at that. I enjoyed the book and it was a useful way to while away a couple of hours, rather than aimlessly scroll through Facebook or paging through a magazine.

Generate an Extra £600 (or £150 per month)

I didn’t keep any detailed records of extra income generated during September and October, again because of the house move, although there was some positive movement in this area (I just wish I could remember what they were!).

Increase Our Net Worth by 7% (cumulative)

My finances are a bit off-kilter at the moment while the various changes to mortgages etc happen. So I’ll provide an update on this goal next time once things have settled back down a bit!

Weigh 9 Stone 8 Pounds

To be totally frank with you, I’m struggling with this goal 🙁 . In fact, I haven’t even jumped on the scales recently as I know I haven’t been sticking to my eating or exercise plans and I’m pretty much in denial about the consequences of these omissions. Of course, it’s easy to say that there’s too much going on (there is!) to think about it, but it’s that kind of attitude that leads to failure.

I need a new and simplified eating plan for this area (which could easily be ‘stop eating takeaways’!). It’s back to the drawing board again I’m afraid.

Practice My Morning Routine 6 Days/Week

I’m still sticking with my morning routine, more or less 6 days per week. There have been odd days where I haven’t practiced, but they are the exceptions rather than the rule as I now find that if I skip my morning mediation, my patience is more easily tested and I get grumpy!

Record and Post 1 Personal Development Video on my YouTube Channel

Nothing to report to date.

Post Great Content to AYBL at Least Once per Week

It’s blatantly obvious that this area has been suffering under the pressures of the house-move, with just a three posts in September and only one in October!

But, unfortunately, it’s been more than just the house move that has impacted on this goal. As you may have noticed, my website has been somewhat ‘wobbly’ over the last few months. It turns out that the site had been attacked and, unfortunately this has meant a lot of background and recovery work.

The recovery and cleaning work was completed in November, but there is still ongoing work to do to get my website back up to its full functionality. This will be scheduled for the end of the year when I should be able to dedicate some uninterrupted time to the task.

Complete our 12 Cities in 12 Months Challenge

October was my birthday month (!) and I was treated to a trip to London to take in a few more of the sights, see a show and just generally chill in a nice hotel. All of these objectives were achieved!

This now brings the number of city visits up to 11, so just 1 more to do! I think the final city visit will be in December due to the house move and I’m looking forward to getting into planning mode. I’m very excited that we will soon be able to mark this goal-challenge as successfully completed!

Maintain and Improve Regular Contact with Family and Friends

September was an easy month for birthdays – just one to remember, but October was a busy month, with seven birthdays, including my own!

Aside from remembering birthdays, there were also a few social catch-ups. Not as many as in previous months as work and home-life has been hectic, but I still managed to fit in a few get-togethers.

Contribute to Local Causes by Sponsoring Local Activities and Events

In September I contributed to a runner who was running the Cardiff Half Marathon in support of his young cousin who has health challenges. I’ve been following his training progress all year, and it was good to see him complete his challenge. I was really impressed by how self-motivated this young man was in preparing for the half-marathon whilst also simultaneously preparing for and sitting his A-Levels!

So there it is.  A mix of success and delays, but all in a good cause.  I’m very happy in my new home and the effort of moving has been well worth it.  The year is marching to a close and I’m already starting to think about my goals for 2016.  This is such a busy and exciting time of year!  But I must keep my feet firmly on the ground and tick off as many of my 2015 goals as possible before getting too carried away!

Photo: Ali Karimian

Way back in January I published my 2015 goals on this website and declared (eek!) that I would write a progress report each month. A-hem, well you might have noticed that there’s been a bit of a gap and that my last progress update was up to the end of May.

Oh dear….

Well, clearly it’s time to get this show back on the road, and there’s no better time than September, a month when the season turns (I love the change of the seasons).  September feels like a time to get back into some kind of routine and it’s also a good time for a general goals review, since we are nearing the end of the calendar year – just 4 months to go!

In January I (thankfully!) wrote:

This will be a year-long process, although, of course, I intend to have completed some of these goals long before the end of the year. I may also add, amend or change goals as the year progresses to recognise any changes and remain flexible.

…because, over the summer months my circumstances and priorities have changed somewhat and so there is a need for a thoughtful review of my goals. In doing this I need to reconsider their relevance at this particular time, the timeframe available for their completion and their likelihood of success, given other priorities and commitments.

So with this in mind this is a dual-post which will give a brief update of progress on all my goals and will finish with a list reflecting my revised goals for the remainder of the year.

Goals Update

I can’t believe it’s been three months since I’ve written a progress update…tut tut! June, July and August have been busy months although not all of the busy-ness has been goal-related. Consequently I’m a little nervous about writing up my progress as I don’t think I’ve made as much progress as I’d hoped. However, any progress forward is good progress.

And we all need to remember, it doesn’t really matter how slow we go as long as we keep moving forward!

Here we go…

Personal Growth

Read 18 Good Books (31/12/15)

Progress 1 (Total so far = 3 of 18)

In August I read The Life Plan by Shannah Kennedy.  I read this book very quickly as I found it entertaining and I also picked up a few tips for goal planning and achievement.

Attend a Personal Development Seminar (31/12/15) – COMPLETE!

Complete my Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) Course (31/8/15)

Currently on hold.

Finances

Generate an extra £10,000 of income (31/12/15)

For the three months June to August, extra income generated amounted to £479.08, bringing my YTD total to £956.64 (that’s actually more than I thought it was!).

My annual goal is now unlikely to be reached, so I’m adjusting downwards.  The revised figure is in the list below.

Increase our net worth by 15% (31/12/15)

Our cumulative increase in net worth to the end of August is around 4.8%, so again, this goal has been revised downwards and is shown in the list below.

Health Fitness & Wellbeing

Bring my weight to within 9 stone 2 pounds/4 pounds (128-130lbs) (31/3/15)

At start: 10st 7lbs (147lbs), Was 9st 7lbs (133lbs), Now 10st 0lbs (140lbs)

Oh, dear, it seems not only have I fallen off the wagon, but the wagon’s gone and left me too!  Seriously though, I’ve really lost focus in this area and am just thankfull that I haven’t undone all my good work and put all my losses back on again!  There’s work to do here so I’ve revised my goal, which you can see in the list below.

Maintain my weight within this band (R & O)

N/A at present.

Participate in a fitness-related charity event (30/9/15)

No progress yet.  This goal will be shelved.

Practice my morning routine (meditation, affirmations, reading) 6 days/week (R & O)

This goal has mostly remained on track.  I’ve had the odd day here and there where I haven’t been able to practice my morning routine for various reasons, but for the most part, this is now an established habit and something I miss if I don’t do.

Business

Grow my website subscriber list to at least 1,000 subscribers (31/12/15)

No change to report and goal currently shelved.

Set up and launch an AYBL Youtube channel (31/12/15)

Although I have technically launched my AYBL YouTube channel, I haven’t made the progress I’d hoped for by posting up a few more videos.

To enable this goal to be considered complete by the end of the year, I am therefore going to make it more specific by re-stating the goal as ‘Post one Personal Development Video by 31st December 2015’.

Clearly this has been a lesson in the need for goals to be clear and specific, otherwise, as in this case, we don’t really know whether we’ve completed them or not! This change in wording will make it completely clear whether this goal is successful or otherwise in my stated timeframe.

Write and launch my second eBook (31/12/15)

No progress yet.  This goal will now be postponed

Post relevant and appealing content to my website at least twice/week (R & O)

Well you may recall that May was my best month to date for blog writing and posting with 8 blogs out of a possible 9 posted. So that result kind of makes June, July and August look quite shabby with just 9 blogs posted over the three months.  Looking back, July was the month we took a holiday and I think my writing output had dried up somewhat.

In light of this and future commitments, I’ve decided on a revised goal (in the list below).

Fun, Adventure & Relaxation

Continue and complete our 12 UK Cities in 12 Months Bucket List Challenge (31/10/15)

As I write this post, our total city visits has now climbed to 10, so further updates will be posted soon!

Review my Bucket List regularly for opportunities to take action (R & O)

There’s a potential big-ticket item which might be crossed off my BL in the next couple of months.  I don’t want to say anything just yet, but will post an update as soon as I can!

Take a 2-week summer holiday (location TBD, but somewhere hot!) (30/9/15) COMPLETE!

I’m going to give this one a ‘Complete’! Even though we didn’t manage to get out of the country to ‘somewhere hot’ and even though it wasn’t a full two-week holiday, we did manage to get away!

We took a mini-tour and headed off to Scotland via The Lake District. Our trip included a stop off at Coniston village and lake, famous for the water speed record attempt and horrific fatal accident in the Bluebird in 1967. A beautiful place and a lovely tribute to the history of both the boat and Donald Campbell in the museum situated there.

We then spent a few days relaxing and touring Dumfries and Galloway. The weather was beautiful and we even made it to the beach! Our trip was rounded off with a few days in Edinburgh – an amazingly ‘alive’ city and one we’re determined to visit again!

Relationships

Take a trip to New York to celebrate our 27th Wedding Anniversary/significant ‘0’ birthdays! (31/10/15)

Due to other priorities and commitments, this goal will be shelved for 2015.

Maintain and improve regular contact with family and friends (R & O)

After missing a few birthdays in May, I’ve been on the ball in the last quarter!  It’s also been a good period for catch-ups with friends too 🙂 .

Contribution

Volunteer to help in whatever way needed at at least one charity event (31/12/15)

Due to other priorities and commitments, this goal will be shelved for 2015.

Contribute to local causes by sponsoring local activities and events (31/12/15)

I’ve sponsored a few friends and colleagues during the summer months and will continue with this goal until the end of the year.

Phew!  So there it is, for better or worse!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there have been a number of changes in my priorities over the summer months, consequently, having reviewed my goals, I have shortened and amended my list to cover the remaining months of the year as follows:

Goals September to December 2015

1. Read/listen to 4 good books
2. Generate an extra £1,500 of income (includes total so far this year)
3. Increase our net worth by 7% (cumulative for the calendar year)
4. Weigh 9 stone 8 pounds or less by 31 December 2015
5. Practice my morning routine (6 days/week)
6. Record and post 1 personal development video on my YouTube channel
7. Post great content to AYBL website at least once per week
8. Complete our 12 UK cities in 12 months challenge by 31 December
9. Maintain and improve regular contact with family and friends
10. Contribute to local causes by sponsoring local activities & events

Photos: Jelene Morris

Well, another month is now behind us and it’s time for my monthly review.

Here we go…

Personal Growth

Read 18 Good Books (31/12/15)

Progress 0 (Total so far = 2 of 18)

I’m still working my way through Tony Robbins’ ‘Unleash the Giant Within’ which I’ve now been reading for over a month. I think I’ve lost a little bit of momentum on this book, so the amount of time spent reading has decreased.  I think I might have mentioned in an earlier blog post that this book is over 400 pages, so I guess it’s going to take a bit of time (amongst everything else) to complete.

Attend a Personal Development Seminar (31/12/15) – COMPLETE!

I completed this goal in April, where you can find the update 🙂

Complete my Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) Course (31/8/15)

Currently on hold.

Finances

Generate an extra £10,000 of income (31/12/15)

April Goal £300, Achieved £57.77 (Totals so far £405.56, Goal £900.00)

Another slow month on the money-making front, but there was a marginal increase over last month (£3.26!) Again, I’m happy for the upward movement in this goal, even if it’s now well-off target.  Here is how the May income breaks down: [Read more…] about May Goals Progress Report

Bye-bye April!  One third of 2015 is now behind us, time flies by so quickly! On balance it’s been a good month, some ups and downs, but mostly positive progress on my goals even if not as much as I’d hoped.  Little steps I guess, it’s all good!

So here we go…

Personal Growth

Read 18 Good Books (31/12/15)

Progress 0 (Total so far = 2 of 18)

I haven’t managed to finish any books this month, although I am about a quarter of the way through Tony Robbins’ ‘Unleash the Giant Within’.  This book has been languishing on my bookshelf for a few years, an earlier attempt at reading it having failed.  This time however, I’m really enjoying it and am making good progress.

I think books are meant to be read at certain times in our lives, and for me this is definitely the case with Unleash the Giant.  It’s been a really useful tool in helping me understand my tendency to procrastinate, and therefore perfect timing!  More about this next month.

Attend a Personal Development Seminar (31/12/15) – COMPLETE!

A few days ago I returned from an excellent training event having been immersed in two full days of coaching training.  The training itself either confirmed things I already know and am using (great to get confirmation!) or delved into completely new areas.  We covered areas such as The Wheel of Life (I love this coaching tool and learned some extra techniques to make it even better!), limiting beliefs, active listening and we also touched on marketing.  I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Complete my Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) Course (31/8/15)

Currently on hold. [Read more…] about April Goals Progress Report