November Goal Setting

Last week I was on the phone with my mom, babbling about lord knows what – as usual. Somehow, we got onto the sentiment of “I can’t wait for this year to be over.” It’s one of those phrases we hear so often this season and I’m probably guilty of saying it a time or two myself.

But it made me stop and think – are we wasting two months wishing away time when life isn’t going as planned or starts to get hectic?

Life gets so busy at the holidays with travel and time with family. It’s easy to throw our hands up, claim the whole year has been a mess, and swear we’ll regroup in January. I’m no expert, but if I had to guess, this is why diets and budgets tend to fall apart the last few months of the year.

Back to this promise …

Anyway, this is my long-winded way of recognizing how easy it can be to get sucked into the end-of-the-year craze and my promise to myself is to keep living life intentionally and with purpose.

I’ve talked before about how I structure my monthly and weekly goals. Monthly goals are typically bigger tasks / projects that feed into one main focus I set depending on how I’m feeling about life at the moment. Weekly goals are smaller tasks that will help me meet my monthly goals.

This month, my focus is simple – keep living life as normal. Keep setting goals and working to achieve them. Keep meditating, keep working out. Keep up with friends – both local and far off. Keep thinking about the big picture, but don’t forget to take care of the day-to-day.

Here’s what’s on my list this month …

Okay – thinking about intentional living, I came up with a few goals to keep life productive. They may not seem like much, but achieving these will lift weights off my back and maintain sanity.

Meditate 3x / week – I’ve talked a lot about the value of meditation. When life gets busy, it tends to be one of the first to go, when really, it should be the one thing that stays.
Figure out how to use the furnace in my apartment – I’ve lived in my apartment for more than two years now and have this awesome functional furnace that, shocker, I’ve never touched. I’d like to keep my electric bills down this winter, so I’m making a point to figure out how it works.
Learn how to properly use my DSLR – My awesome aunt handed down a nice DSLR camera, and for the past year, it’s been sitting in auto mode. It is on my bucket list to learn how to use it and the year is coming to an end. Making time this month, so I don’t have too many items left when December hits.
Read a classic novel – Like the above, this is a bucket list item I don’t want hanging over my head next month. This will be a great activity for my flight to Florida for Thanksgiving.
Make appointment with a new doctor – My primary care physician retired last month, right at the time I was about to go for my annual check-up. Side note: is it still called a check-up for adults or is that a kid phrase?? Anyway, I need to find a new PCP and make an appointment.

As always, I think these goals are realistic time wise, but will keep me on my toes throughout November. Do you ever find yourself wishing away the year? If so, what do you do to stay present?