How'd I Do for August?
My August Goals:
1. Lose 10 pounds.
I didn't lose a pound; I didn't gain a pound. I stayed right where I've been.
How to change this? I chatted with my lunch buddies and we are cutting waaaaaaaaay back on going out for lunch. We are bringing our own lunch and still getting out of the office. By making my own lunch, I know I will lose weight. The times I've lost 8-12 pounds in a month has been when I bring my own lunch.
I also told my lunch buddies my weight loss goal for September. They will keep asking about my progress. When people are asking about progress and really hoping to hear it's good, I feel that extra drive to ensure I hit my goals. So...here's my September weight loss goal...
For September: Lose 10 pounds.
2. Write for an hour a day.
I've been hitting 20-22 hours writing a month lately.
August, I only got about 15 hours. I didn't even track time in the spreadsheet I use for tracking writing time.
Not logging time was a mistake. It became easy to write when it was convenient, but not necessarily make time for writing. So that's gotta change.
Another thing: I'm writing more stuff I shouldn't be writing. Friends and I were recently chatting about multitasking and how it slows progress. I wrote my first novel when I only worked on the novel. Same thing with the second novel (on lunchbreaks, no less!). Screenplays...same thing. Most things I complete, I complete when I only focus on them and nothing else.
So no writing challenges or anything like that for September. Probably no writing challenges until spring, I'm guessing. Because I have a goal:
For August: Put at least 25 hours into Promise. I will submit and query during this run, but as far as fiction, I only need to be working on one thing: the novel! I need to finally finish that damn thing...
3. Eliminate five things from my 101 in 1,001 Days list.
I went a month without watching our TV, and I gotta say, it was a great experience. Now that we have a working TV again, it's barely been on. When it's on, I find myself getting edgy.
I've come to see how annoying the news is. I like reading the news. I like researching the news. But I don't like the assault of one-way news thrown at me, with pundits arguing about every point instead of discussing it. I don't like how anxious anchors seem, and how everything seems so damn loud!
I would say I am more informed than most people out there, and I always will be. I love knowing what's up in the world, but 24 hour news stations, and even the latest local news...so much of it isn't real news.
I like the TV, but I like having it off more than I have it on. For the first time ever, I missed almost the entire Democratic convention, and I will miss almost all of the Republican convention. I watched Obama's speech; I will watch McCain's speech. But I'm not missing a thing by watching hours and hours of people in funny hats cheering for every word spoken.
I'm a fan of public speaking, but I gotta say--for me--I'm much calmer not having watched the Democratic Convention, or as much news as I used to watch before the TV went out.
Okay, so that's one goal on the big list: Not watching our TV for the month. How about other things from the list?
Nope!
For September: Eliminate three things from my 101 in 1,001 Days list.
4. Keep working on things with Cynthia.
Things that normally would have probably resulted in tension didn't stress us out.
We're having fun hanging out. The past 4 weekends, we've had people over for dinner a couple times, and been invited to other people's places a couple times.
So things have been better in so many ways.
For September: Keep working on things with Cynthia
5. Jog Three Miles.
I was happy and amazed the night I was jogging when Cynthia started jogging with me. Keeping pace. For awhile.
She really loved it, and I loved jogging with her.
The 106 degree days, though, weren't good for long runs. It will still be hot throughout September. I need to change my goal from running all at once, to stretched out over time.
For August: Jog 15 miles over the course of the month...