So, About Those Goals...
Feb. 20th, 2012 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebeLast week I made a simple list of five goals to accomplish by yesterday. I also told myself that I'd be accountable for following up to see how I did. This...is at least the accomplishment of that. I didn't actually get to do that much else last week because...well, I'll have to explain myself a bit.
+ Meditate every day. FAILED. Wednesday was my worst day. I stayed up pretty late the night before celebrating Valentine's Day with my husband, and I woke up hungover. Stayed in bed for as long as I could before throwing on some clothes and stumbling off to work. I didn't really recover later on that week either; it appears that I have a bit of work to do as far as recovering from setbacks go.
+ Write every day. FAILED. I was actually doing pretty good here for a while, but the weekend came and destroyed me. Wednesday was also a bad day for it; I didn't write over lunch at work for some reason or another, and by the time I got home that evening my brain had turned into a pumpkin. I'm hoping to jump-start back into the swing of things today since I have it off, and that will hopefully carry me through the rest of the week.
+ Run at least five miles this week. FAILED. This is the one I'm most ashamed of. I didn't get out and run at all this week, though I actually did have every intention to do so on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. When it came down to the decision point, though, I just...didn't. That happens far too often, and that needs to stop.
+ Set aside at least three hours for reading this week. FAILED. I don't know what to say about this. I really need to make this a priority, and I'm simply not right now.
+ Eat my own food more often. DONE. I know it's kind of lame giving myself a pass on the most nebulous goal I set myself, but I really did cut way down on my restaurant eating...up until the weekend, that is, where we ate out for basically every meal. I'll be trying to give up processed sugars over the next forty days, though, so that dovetails nicely with my goal here.
So, I couldn't get four out of five goals done. At some point my willpower for this sort of thing just breaks down, and I end up missing a day. That's to be expected when you're trying to build a new habit, but what I could be doing better with is refocusing more quickly and trying again. So that's what I'll be doing this week. My goals for this week are the same as they were last week, and I'm going to push harder to make sure they're kept.
Valentine's Day, as wonderful as it was, is the thing that slipped me up. Well, not really, I don't want to blame a wonderful dinner out with my husband and far too much wine for my lack of dedication. I could have picked myself up on Thursday and kept going, but I didn't. I think that was just because I was...tired? That's not the right word for it, but something like that. When it came down to doing something that I knew I should, I took the path of least resistance every time.
I think what's really at stake here is the simple ability to push myself harder. That was something I've never really had to do, and unfortunately I think I was cursed with an easy time of it in grade school and middle school. I picked things up really easily and never had to work hard; by the time I made it to a pretty tough high school, I didn't know what discipline was and my grades just tanked. I never really recovered.
I don't want to beat myself up over this, and I keep saying that time and time again. But what do you do when you never seem to get the hang of being disciplined enough to really go after what you want? How can you trick yourself into working the way you know you can? Those are questions I feel like I need to answer if I'm going to have a hope of actually meeting my goals.
The goals for this week? The same goals as last week. I'll be trying to push myself a lot more, and keeping on myself publicly to see if that helps at all. Wish me luck, gang. :)
+ Meditate every day. FAILED. Wednesday was my worst day. I stayed up pretty late the night before celebrating Valentine's Day with my husband, and I woke up hungover. Stayed in bed for as long as I could before throwing on some clothes and stumbling off to work. I didn't really recover later on that week either; it appears that I have a bit of work to do as far as recovering from setbacks go.
+ Write every day. FAILED. I was actually doing pretty good here for a while, but the weekend came and destroyed me. Wednesday was also a bad day for it; I didn't write over lunch at work for some reason or another, and by the time I got home that evening my brain had turned into a pumpkin. I'm hoping to jump-start back into the swing of things today since I have it off, and that will hopefully carry me through the rest of the week.
+ Run at least five miles this week. FAILED. This is the one I'm most ashamed of. I didn't get out and run at all this week, though I actually did have every intention to do so on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. When it came down to the decision point, though, I just...didn't. That happens far too often, and that needs to stop.
+ Set aside at least three hours for reading this week. FAILED. I don't know what to say about this. I really need to make this a priority, and I'm simply not right now.
+ Eat my own food more often. DONE. I know it's kind of lame giving myself a pass on the most nebulous goal I set myself, but I really did cut way down on my restaurant eating...up until the weekend, that is, where we ate out for basically every meal. I'll be trying to give up processed sugars over the next forty days, though, so that dovetails nicely with my goal here.
So, I couldn't get four out of five goals done. At some point my willpower for this sort of thing just breaks down, and I end up missing a day. That's to be expected when you're trying to build a new habit, but what I could be doing better with is refocusing more quickly and trying again. So that's what I'll be doing this week. My goals for this week are the same as they were last week, and I'm going to push harder to make sure they're kept.
Valentine's Day, as wonderful as it was, is the thing that slipped me up. Well, not really, I don't want to blame a wonderful dinner out with my husband and far too much wine for my lack of dedication. I could have picked myself up on Thursday and kept going, but I didn't. I think that was just because I was...tired? That's not the right word for it, but something like that. When it came down to doing something that I knew I should, I took the path of least resistance every time.
I think what's really at stake here is the simple ability to push myself harder. That was something I've never really had to do, and unfortunately I think I was cursed with an easy time of it in grade school and middle school. I picked things up really easily and never had to work hard; by the time I made it to a pretty tough high school, I didn't know what discipline was and my grades just tanked. I never really recovered.
I don't want to beat myself up over this, and I keep saying that time and time again. But what do you do when you never seem to get the hang of being disciplined enough to really go after what you want? How can you trick yourself into working the way you know you can? Those are questions I feel like I need to answer if I'm going to have a hope of actually meeting my goals.
The goals for this week? The same goals as last week. I'll be trying to push myself a lot more, and keeping on myself publicly to see if that helps at all. Wish me luck, gang. :)
