29 Things: Week 18

Haha, it is New Year's Eve which means tomorrow I will be full of renewed confidence and drive to get my goals done, right!

1. Work on my poetry (Poetry Journal) - year round

PROGRESS - I have written several new poems and am reworking some older ones from my journals.  I think I'm up to 43 real poems; I think most of them could probably still use some work, but it is exciting to see so many when a few years ago I had maybe 12 and the idea of having more than 30 was really daunting.

2. Lose weight - year long

No Progress.  I feel like I lost weight but I haven't weighed myself in a few weeks.

3. Learn rudimentary Spanish - year long

No progress.

29 Things: Week 16

I keep thinking that I will accomplish everything in the week I have off for the holidays.  But that is foolish. I think I need to spend a day reexamining my goals and doing some planning and setting small benchmarks because otherwise I forget what my big goals really are when trying to decide how to spend my time on a daily basis.

1. Work on my poetry (Poetry Journal) - year round

PROGRESS - I spent a few hours over several evenings redrafting some new poems from my journals and editing.  A few of them are in bad shape and a few are in good shape.  It is hard to ever think of anything as finished.  I am constantly making small adjustments.

2. Lose weight - year long

No Progress.  I didn't even get to the gym at all this week!

3. Learn rudimentary Spanish - year long

No progress.

29 Things: Week 14

This past week got a bit crazy! I'm really hoping to refocus and get back into the swing of things with the new year.  In my head, I'm already at the Christmas holidays, so I've got to take the next several weeks to get more focused and recenter myself around my goals.

1. Work on my poetry (Poetry Journal) - year round

PROGRESS - I went on a short poetry-inspiring excursion this week and drafted about 2.5-3 new poems.  I'm trying to become more aware of when I'm getting inspired, and the write things down immediately.

2. Lose weight - year long

No Progress.  I didn't even get to the gym at all this week!

3. Learn rudimentary Spanish - year long

No progress.

4. Make a film of some kind each month (outside of work) - year long

No progress.  I had a really good idea for this but I didn't do my one for November! Tsk tsk.

5. Actually do my blog post each month - year long

No progress.  Perhaps I can remedy this this week.

29 Things: Week 13

What's new?  I still haven't really been focusing on things, and especially due to the holidays, I just sort of threw my hands up this week! I'll be lucky if I made progress on anything!

1. Work on my poetry (Poetry Journal) - year round

TINYPROGRESS - Drafted another poem.  I should really stop a moment and work on editing some of these.

2. Lose weight - year long

No Progress

3. Learn rudimentary Spanish - year long

No progress.

4. Make a film of some kind each month (outside of work) - year long

No progress.

29 Thingst: Week 12

Still been slacking off.  Trying to figure out how to be more productive at home after work!  Where does the time go in the evening?  Also, trying to cut back majorly on my binge watching of tv.

1. Work on my poetry (Poetry Journal) - year round

TINYPROGRESS - Drafted several new poems

2. Lose weight - year long

No Progress

3. Learn rudimentary Spanish - year long

No progress.

4. Make a film of some kind each month (outside of work) - year long

No progress.  I have an idea for what I want to do, I just keep forgetting to make time for this!

29 Things: Week 9

I've been slowing down on my focus on my goals.  Got to get it together.  Keep my eye on the prize--- self-actualization!

1. Work on my poetry (Poetry Journal) - year round

TINYPROGRESS - I got two or three new poems

2. Lose weight - year long

No Progress

3. Learn rudimentary Spanish - year long

No progress.

4. Make a film of some kind each month (outside of work) - year long

PROGRESS - I edited some of the videos I made on vacation.

29 Things: Week 6

I was a bit tired this week.  Not super sure why. But I've not had the psychic energy that I've wanted when working on writing or Tarot much this past week.  Hopefully I can be more consistent this week. I've really got to start working on looking for a dentist though!  I've been enjoying making progress on the easier things, and not working so much on the more difficult and un-fun goals.

1. Work on my poetry (Poetry Journal) - year round

TINYPROGRESS - Switching my work to every two days has helped. Of course my brain wants to write poetry on the 'off' days rather than on the days I've chosen!  I've had a few bouts of inspiration as well.  I also want to work on finding a way to have someone else review my work and give me some advice for improving.

2. Lose weight - year long

PROGRESS - I technically weighed 4 lbs less last time I checked.  Also I went for a short run for the first time in a while, and I've been going to Zumba! I also tried an easy yoga class; I'm curious to try 'Cize' which is a new fitness class, I think based off of hip hop dancing?

29 Things: Week 5

And just like that we are almost at the end of the month. I feel like I have been working pretty hard and been rather productive!  It helps that I have moved to a new office, and the hustle and bustle has helped me to stay focused on getting things done--- and there is lots to do because there are lot of changes and new things happening.  Being productive makes me feel really good about myself, go figure!

I have also started using Habitica to help motivate me and keep me oriented on my goals.  I am also try to break some bad habits and start new ones.  The prospect of having to log in and subtract points for drinking soda has kept me from indulging.  This week I've started to make a point to bring my lunch to work and give myself the chance to hit the (+) button!  I still need to work on going to bed on time (and therefore getting up on time) and exercising. I even have a 'No Netflix' button that I get to hit . . . sometimes, thanks Star Trek Voyager.

How am I doing with everything else?

29 Things Before 30

I'm going be 30 soon!  It's scary and exciting!  It's motivating to get some sh!t done before then!

I've been fine tuning these for over a week and now I'm going to force myself to stop and post them or I will never get on with it.

28 Things Progress Report: Week 23

Boy do American politics make it tough to get anything done!  It seems like every couple days there is something crazy going on that requires time to read up on and decide how to react--- laugh, cry, scream, organize.  I'm trying to stay focused on my goals when I can, but it is hard with so many important things demanding my attention in addition to the usual--- work, school, doggie.

1. Finish #52FilmsByWomen challenge (goes until end of 2016)

PROGRESS:  I drew up a fab plan to get the remaining 7 films watched, but I fell behind last week.  Instead of 4 films I only watched two.  I finally watched Double Happiness (yes, internal library loans!) and I also watched After the Wedding after I heard Hugh Laurie praise the director at the Golden Globes.

28 Things: Progress Report Week 20

Week 20! That means my 28th year is nearly halfway over!  Eek!  Time flies!  I also feel like I lost most of November and December to a black hole of post-election/NoDAPL attacks/work drama depression.  I had a restful holiday week and am hopeful that my funk in drawing to a close and that I'm looking forward to getting back into the thick of things in this next year!

I am expecting 2017 to be tough, probably tougher than 2016.  But I did a tarot reading for myself for the year, and although it predicted a few rough patches, it was surprisingly positive and promising much success.  That's a bit perplexing for me, but I'm going to try to run with it (albeit with a bit of skepticism).

Since this is the start of the new year, I'm also taking the opportunity to revise and/or change some of my goals a bit if I want.  I did not take into account how taxing it is to be back in school, and I've got a lot on for the spring semester so I maybe want to dial down the number of big projects I'm assigning myself.

While I didn't accomplish all 70 million things I wanted to get done during the holiday week, I do feel like I made some good progress on several thing.  Let's see if I did . . . 

1. Finish #52FilmsByWomen challenge (goes until end of 2016)

PROGRESS: Ok, so I should have completed this by Dec 31st, but I'm a little behind.  I went back through my list and I only need to watch 7 more films.  Not too bad!  I already have them planned out so I should be able to complete this by the first week of February.

Over the past two weeks I also got some good viewing time in and checked off 5 films.  I watched--- May in Summer (ok I guess, interesting because it is not set in the US but in Jordan), Your Sister's Sister (eh, more white people giving themselves drama/depression due to relationship problems), Under the Tuscan Sun (cute romantic feel-good movie set in beautiful Tuscany, Sandra Oh is there, has a nice message about love and family not having to be the husband/wife/nuclear family kind), How to Make an American Quilt (I really liked this!), and because I liked Quilt, I watched The Dressmaker (quirky, cute, darkly and subtly funny) which was directed by same director, Jocelyn Moorhouse.