But this isn't just about my writing. It's about how I'm doing on my new year's resolutions. . . and ultimately me - making me feel better - making myself feel less shitty every day. It's an update. . . and I figure if I tell it out loud (and as I'll explain later, if I actually RECORD and look at the data) I'll actually get better. Because who wants to look like a failure . . . well if you do, then we are probably not friends. Failing is one thing (you learn from it) WANTING to look like a failure - that just makes you stupid (and I hate stupid people). .. man this post is getting hostile. Ok. ..
Here's the data on my resolutions (and unfortunately for you today (did I mention I've been UBER crabby this week) - my thoughts on that):
1) Stay more connected to my mom, sister, niece and nephews, my in-laws - my family
So, I'm doing better on this. It has been a "little" hard to quantify because I haven't exactly recorded it in a spreadsheet. . . however, I do know that I have spoken to my family at least two or three times a month which - let me tell you - is WAY more than I ever used to do. So, the lesson here, is that I need to record it - and yes, I have it now in my spreadsheet (aren't you excited about my recording of stuff?)
2) Write every day
Um, yeah, not doing so well. . . Here is the graph - looks like I was the best in January. . . which of course makes sense. But now, I have to get better.
3) Post to my blog at least twice weekly
You know best about this. . . but here are the numbers
There have been 15 weeks - that means there should be 30 posts. . . yeah, I have ACTUALLY posted 9 times. . .
BUUUUUTTT - I have actually STARTED 20 total posts. . . this does not help you, or frankly me. . . so - I must do better.
4) Give myself a budget and stay on the budget
There will be no numbers here. . . that's a little too naked for me (and mostly for those people that will steal that information. BUT, I'm not doing AWFUL. I have money in my savings account and I am putting money away for travel, bills and charity. I go OVER my budget every month, I think. . . (I haven't quite figured all the stuff I need to figure out about the budgeting tool I'm using - it's not Excel, so my learning curve is higher than I'd like) BUT I do see that I have spent less this month than the previous month and less the previous month than the month before that. . . so I'm headed in the right direction.
5) Lose 10lbs
so - this is vulnerable, and I'll share with you. . .note that top dotted line and the bottom dotted line is 10lbs. . . so I made it close to losing 5lbs.
so the deal with this one is that you can see I really recorded my weight every day starting in February and did pretty good into March. . . then I stopped. And the interesting thing here is that I stopped pretty much doing ANYTHING around the same time. . . no writing. . . no calling. . . no posting and likely more spending occurred.
I'm using this app called my mood tracker - check it out here . But the problem is that when that whole "dip" happened somewhere in March, I stopped tracking that too. But it's a cool app that has me record several things. .. my mood, my pain (if I have it), my pill intake (like aspirin or muscle relaxers or pain medication for my neck), my alcohol intake, my sleep, and my exercise. It's super interesting because you can totally see where I was doing really well and when I'm not. . . AND it totally correlates to whether or not I'm doing well on my other goals.
Why do you care about this? Well, likely you don't, but I've learned some really interesting things about 1) myself 2) why I feel this way and 3) why I should keep doing this recording crap.
Early in the year a wonderful and supportive friend brought me to a lunch "seminar" with her doctor and the talk was about being healthier. There were two very important things that I took from that (and is why I did so well during a 30 day period so thank you my lovely!). I learned about the alkaline diet (and it's not really a "diet" - it's actually food that is more alkaline than other food and there are reasons this food is better to eat than others. . . it's actually scientifically based and I'm in).
But most importantly, I learned this quote
"Record takers are record breakers"
- the doctor told us that he had learned it from a teacher back in his high school days and it has stuck with him (and it has now stuck with me). I looked it up online and found only one other reference to this quote - oddly it's from a chiropractor and he's in Australia. . . the doctor that told me about it is also a chiropractor.
But oddities aside, this quote completely caught me and I started recording things. It's also why I'm sharing it with you. Being aware of it makes you want to get better. Especially in my case because I'm a ridiculous data/metrics geek. And seeing that bar move or the pie chart change. . . is very satisfying.
So - important things I've learned from this post - and know I learned it right along with you reading. . .
- keep recording things you fool
- just write - it actually improves your mood and will get you back in the swing
- my failure here is just a small failure, I have three quarters to help myself get better. . . and let's be honest 75% is way better than 33% and way better than 0% which is where I was last year.
- I need to write a posting on my writing process. It's starting to make me feel crazy, so I figure if I write about it, maybe that will help.
- I need to tell you the duck story because this whole post - was me talking to my duck. . . this will make sense to like 4 people in my life.
Anyway - my kitty is here with me hanging out while I write and watch In Cold Blood from Investigative Discovery. . . I probably should tell you about that weird obsession too. . . and the angry birds problem I'm having which is likely getting in the way of all of the above mentioned shit.
much love and thanks for hanging with me!
