I love goals and planning. I love taking days, weeks, and months (I’m not quite ready for entire years yet) and breaking them down into chunks, with lists and schedules galore. I love knowing what I’m working towards in both the short and long term. I’m not guaranteed time on this earth–none of us are–and some people think planning is a waste of time. What’s the point in planning for something months away when it might never happen? I feel the fear of my mortality almost every day, but if those days and months and weeks do come, and I sure hope they do, I have so much I have to achieve. I’m playing the long-game.
I was enjoying writing my weekly goals posts, but I was worried they were becoming too similar and mundane (read: boring). I’ll still write down my goals for the week, but I won’t necessarily post them on my blog. I’m sure you’re all dying to know whether I’m reaching my weekly water consumption goals, but a monthly list should bring about more meaningful content.
January was a challenging month. I’ve said before that I’m guilty of getting lost in the lofty dream of the miracles that will occur when one year ends and a new one begins, and January reminded me that no matter how driven I am and how much I want to succeed, curve balls will still be thrown and I need to become better at adapting to change. My February goals fall into four distinct categories, and I’ll run through each of them now.
I’m kicking it off with something massive! February is the shortest month of the year, and I’m setting myself a huge blogging challenge this month…
★ Publish one new blog post each day. (Yeah, wow!)
★ Write four book reviews. (This is a funny one, because although I started this blog to review books, I’ve become bad at it.)
My January budget challenge was for the most part a big success. I shall be continuing with it in February, with a couple of minor tweaks.
★ Spend money only on essentials for the first fortnight after pay-day.
★ Create a budget spreadsheet before my 15 Feb pay-day, so I can better track what I can reasonably spend.
★ Transfer 5% of the February income to my savings account. (10% each month is the long-term aim, but 5% is a good start.)
I’ve read loads of #FebFit posts over the past week, and I’ve been inspired to pick up my fitness game! Don’t get me wrong, January was better than the entire last quarter of 2015, but I fell short of my goal to put 21 gold stars up on my fitness chart. (I made it to 12.) 21 is once again the goal for February.
★ Work up to five strength training sessions per week by the end of February.
★ Work up to one morning gym session per week by the end of February.
★ Complete a full set of 15 push ups without resting. (I used to be able to do this, and I want to get there again.)
I read six books in January, which is good but not great. On Goodreads I set myself the challenge to read 85 books this year, and while that seems completely achievable I found it hard to get quality reading time in during January.
★ Finish the three (yes, ugh, three) books that I am currently reading before I start a new one.
★ Read 11.22.63 before the TV series starts.
★ Aim for ten books in February, and be happy with eight.
★ Review at least 50% of the books I read in February.
Okay! So that’s the plan for February. I’ve shown you mine, now you show me yours. What do you hope to achieve in February? It may be the shortest month of 2016, but I’m certain we can make it one of the best!