Goals for 2016

     This past weekend I put a lot of thought into what my (our) goals are for 2016. In preparation for goal planning, I enrolled in Ramit Sethi's Finisher's Formula. I was up late Saturday night with one of the final lessons and got inspired to start my goal planning that night. I was up until 1:30AM just getting all my thoughts onto paper! (And yes, some of these are obvious, like showering daily. If you don't schedule it, it will mess you up.)

2016 Goals

1. *Dialing In My Food, Sleep and Exercise - Down to 140lbs or 26" by June 2016
2. Earn $500/month on the side by March 2016
3. Pass the PMP certification test by September 2016
4. *Develop a home management system that is usable in small doses every day
5. *Develop a personal appearance system
6. Continue 2015 goal of Debt Payoff by 2018.

*Goals that focus on long-term sustainability through habit change.

The Details

Dialing In My Food, Sleep and Exercise - Down to 140lbs or 26" by June 2016

The Reason

     I am currently at an all-time high with my weight. In my last post, I shared what an exciting year it has been. With excitement comes stress. With stress, without control over it, comes weight gain. 165. I never thought I'd see that number on the scale. I very rarely weigh myself, instead I use a tape measure and how I feel in my clothes, but I can't even pretend that's muscle I've built. I had literally not exercised in over a month and had given into food as comfort. 

The bigger reason: Any time now, Aaron and I could "pull the goalie" and choose to have kids. I need to be in tip-top shape so I am healthy for the kiddo inside and out, for when they are inside and out. (Haha!)

The Plan

I will focus on building a series of habits to combat this weight gain. Thanks to Kevin's brilliant work in The Rebooted Body, I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do to fix this issue. This involves 3 key steps.

     Sleep
           Optimize sleep for 8-9 hours a night. I am re-evaluating my at home habits so that I am not watching hours of TV and refusing to go to bed until 10 or 12PM. Aaron and I both agreed we'd like to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier since we enjoy having breakfast together. Our goal is to get ready for bed by 9PM with lights out at 10PM at the latest. Goal wake up time is 5:30AM.
           Big key: Leaving the electronics out of the bedroom so the social media distraction does not keep us up.

     Food
          One of the things we recognized in 2015 is that we're not very good at eating vegetables that we buy for the entire week. We will be focusing on buying vegetables for only 2-3 days at a time, to ensure freshness and discourage waste. The second thing we recognized in 2015 is that we have a hard time sticking to meals with large ingredient or recipe lists.
          For 2016, we will utilize Kevin's Real Food Guide and we will focus on creating weekly menu plans that feature 3-5 simple recipes (or is something vague but simple to vary like stir fry with beef, which encourages us to just pick vegetables that sound yummy). I'll document these menu plans for use in the upcoming years.
          We will be eating all three of our meals at the dining room table. We will not bring junk into the house. We will not snack, instead we will focus on making sure our meals are large/nutrient dense enough to sustain us until the next meal.
          We will eat out only one time per month, on or around the 20th, which is the date of our first date.

     Exercise
          This one has always been difficult for me to sustain. 2016 will focus on making small changes stick by doing them daily. Here is the list of items for exercise that I want to iteratively add throughout the year. Some of them will stay, some of them may not.

•  1 mile run/sprint-drill with puppy in fair weather or sub 5-10 minutes of jumping rope in poor weather
• Sandbag weight workouts 2-3 times a week (M,W,F)/Bodyweight workout 3-4 times a week (T,TH,S,S)
• 1 mile morning walk to break up the day
• 1 mile afternoon walk to break up the day
• 1 mile walk after dinner to get Aaron and pup out of the house/aid digestion
• Pilates and stretching/foam rolling before bed
• Hike 5-10 miles on Saturdays
• Bike 10-20 miles on Sundays (once bikes are purchased for Aaron and I

          Big key: getting up and getting going in the morning. I tried the evening workouts but I would often just be too tired by the time I got home. I've noticed that morning exercise boosts my energy levels in the morning and gives me a "quick win" for a feeling of accomplishment. Even if the rest of the day is crap, I'll still have done one thing right.

     Stress Management

    The 2015 winter season at my work has been brutal. Basically from October to January, everyone wants their stuff pulled forward so it can be completed by the end of the year. We often see more volume in these months than we have all year.
    Saying "no" when something doesn't fit into my 2016 goal framework is going to be big. Focusing on Top Performer status at work and looking ahead at resourcing 2-3 weeks out will be important to avoid late nights, so that big rocks can be handled earlier in the week. Exercising every day, eating nutritiously and getting adequate sleep will be my main tactics to manage my stress levels.  

Earn $500/month on the side by March 2016

The Reason  

     I want to build a side business to help support my family when kiddos come. This means it has to be from home, which means virtual. As Dave Ramsey says, you need a boat close enough to the pier so you don't get wet. That's why I'm starting now. I don't know when kids will happen, but I know I can take action on the future we are planning.

    The Plan

 I am taking Danny Marguiles' Secrets of a Six-Figure Upworker course and Ramit Sethi's Call to Action course with the goal of creating a side business as a copywriter on Upwork that generates $500 a month by March 2016.

     SSFU This course covers strategic positioning so you can get the most out of finding work in a virtual marketplace (Upwork in this case). I plan to finish review of the course by 1/18/2016. There is homework throughout the course, but my big focus will be finding about 10 hours of work a week to meet the goal of $500 earned a month. I hope it is swift progress. I know from other members that his course is full of little gold nuggets that help you even if you are a seasoned copywriter, so I am sure I will review and re-review as time passes.

I can't really dive into details since the course is not a free course, but I will be reviewing one lesson a night, and do the associated homework, until I've graduated from the course. Then I will be tweaking my work and tactics as I gather experience and clients.

     Call to Action This course delves into the client mindset that you approach copy work from, along with best practices and how-tos. I will be starting this one after I finish SSFU, so I can refine my technique and put my best on the table for future clients.

Pass the PMP certification test by September 2016

The Reason

I was supposed to take the PMP test this year, but budget constraints with my company ended up in a rejected proposal. I've been working on projects since 2012 and want to focus on Technical Project Management for software companies in the future. The PMP is the first of several certifications I will pursue to demonstrate my authority and expertise.

The Plan 

In January I will submit a new proposal to take the requisite class during the spring term. I plan to take a 5 week class with 8 hours of class on Saturdays so I can use Cal Newport's study techniques. I'm not much of a crammer. I like to visit and revisit information in different settings so that I know the information backwards and forwards. 

Develop a home management system that is usable in small doses every day

The Reason

Aaron and I, having now purchased a home, want to make caring for ourselves, cleaning and maintaining the home as streamlined as possible. We plan to build a routine to tackle a number of different issues we've seen in the 3 months that we've been real adults in our own house.

• Menu planning
• Food preparation
• Cooking
• Daily cleaning habits
• Dirty dishes being the hardest recently
• Cleaning the living room
• Weekly cleaning
• vacuuming
• bathrooms
• dusting
• Seasonal home maintenance tasks
• Gardening (once it's no longer frozen)

The plan 

At the moment we want to focus on one item first: The 3 Ds. Dirty dishes, dirty laundry and dinner.

Dirty dishes are rinsed and go straight into the dishwasher. The dishwasher is run when full. Someone empties the dishwasher the next morning. The cycle repeats. Dirty laundry is much the same - when needed, do a load from start (wash) to finished (put away). Repeat. One load a day keeps insanity at bay. Dinner. Every night, write down what is for dinner the following night and take the needed items out of the freezer. 

Once the 3Ds are down pat, we can move onto streamlining other things.

Develop a personal appearance system

The Reason

I love to put my best foot forward and know I am looking my best. It helps you to project confidence and authority, as well as make you memorable. I have researched over the past year, several ways to ensure that I can do so easily and without too much fuss. 

The Plan

In 2015, I focused on identifying my "uniform". That is, the 2-3 outfits I wear most often. I love to wear fitted dresses with boots and tights in the winter and with heels or ballet flats in the summer. I also love pencil and circle skirts with the same. For pants, I wear capris with heels or ballet flats in the summer. I have created a capsule wardrobe of the same colors (black, white, grey, blue, emerald green, red/maroon, purple) so that I can reach in and grab whatever I feel like wearing with ease. Everything already coordinates together easily.

In 2015, I also identified my basic and made-up makeup looks, both of which I can do in about 10 minutes.

2016, I hope to refine hairstyles (I love the Grace Kelley and Lauren Bacall looks). I also want to have an if-then scenario plan to make taking vacations and attending events easier.

In short, most of the framework is in place, it just needs finalization and finishing touches.

Continue 2015 goal of Debt Payoff by 2018

The Reason

When I married Aaron in November 2014, I also married nearly $30k in student loans. (I paid off my nearly $30k in student loans between 2011 and the beginning of 2014. You can understand how irksome it is to be back at the beginning. -_-) Of course, we have acquired some additional items (car loan, honeymoon trip loan, credit cards) in our short time together. Still in preparation for having kids, I want to only have the house to pay for when that happens. That means we need to tackle roughly $65k in the next 2-3 years.

The Plan

I will be optimizing my main revenue stream as much as possible by becoming a Top Performer. I have laid the groundwork by identifying areas where my boss is spending too much time and taking over that task for him. In the future, I'd like to take on a more data-involved role since I love to handle items that utilize long-term expertise. I've already spoken with my boss about a possible transition in 2016, which may up my income a bit.

My side business will start to bring in revenue as well. I'd love to see an extra $1,000 by June 2016, but am realistically focusing on the March goal first.

Aaron is looking at going back to school so that his future income is more generous. He may take part-time work as well.

We will be paying off the items with the largest interest rate first (luckily happens to have some of the smallest balances), creating a debt snowball, that will send more money into the large items as the smaller items fall off.

Finishing off

I am very glad that I only had 6 goals that popped into my head last Saturday. These are all items that I've been thinking about throughout 2015 and want to finish in 2016 (excepting #6).

I will be completing a weekly review of my 2016 goals and scheduling action items, checking in on the status of the goal, and tweaking routines in order to meet them. Monthly, I will re-calibrate against the original goal list and make sure I am still on track.

2015 - A Whirlwind of a Year

I am very excited for a new year. 2015 has been a whirlwind. Here's a few things we did in 2015:

• In February, I got a new job ($11k raise - as a result of Ramit Sethi's Dream Job course) 
• In April, Aaron's grandmother passed away, prompting us to go to Wyoming and Iowa unexpectantly. We got to see family Aaron hadn't seen in several years.

Aaron's grandma in the pink. This was our first time visiting her in March 2014.

• In June, we got a puppy. 

  

  Lavender "Lavi" Smith - 18lb Rottweiler when we got her

  
  
• Between February and October, I learned SQL!
• In August, My sister got married and we went to Lake Tahoe for the first time!
• In September, We bought a house!
• We actually closed on the house on Sept. 11th and we left for Europe on Sept 12th. We only had enough time to walk through the house before we had to go back to the apartment and go to bed so we could get up early to catch our plane.
• In September, We went to Europe!
• We flew into Budapest, stayed one night there.
• We hopped onto a river cruise in Budapest and traveled up the Danube for 7 nights.
• Lots of great food and wine. (Aaron just requested a couple nights ago that we start having wine with our dinner.)
• Saw some cute little towns in Slovakia, Austria and Germany.
• Apricots and Sweets tour in Durnstein was great. So yummy!
• Did a 20 mile bike ride in the Wassau Valley (Durnstein to Melk). Gorgeous!
• Aaron and I played chess.
• We got off in Vilshofen, Germany and bussed it to Regensburg (I bought a durndl and Aaron bought lederhosen) and then onto Munich for the Oktoberfest. We stayed for 3 nights and had a blast with two other couples from the cruise ship. 
• We did an Austrian Lakes tour. Gosh, those Alps. They take your breath away.
• We saw Neuschwanstein Castle.
• We took the train from Munich to Paris and stayed 5 nights in Paris
• We did a 6 mile bike tour on Sept 27th - all traffic was stopped in the interior of Paris. Otherwise I would have been terrified!
• We caught a show at the Moulin Rouge
• Shetland ponies!
• Rollerblading!
• 20 ft snakes!
• We did a Pastries and Sweets tour 
• We tried about 6 different France-specific items. My favorite was the caramels from the only caramélier in France, Henri Le Roux.
• We did the WWII tour
• Saw the WWII museum in Caen
• Saw the beaches that the troops stormed on D-Day.
• We had 5 days left once we got back from Europe which we used to move straight into the new house.

  

  The "Hunting Lodge" in Munich - Aaron in his lederhosen and me in the durndl

• In October, Aaron had surgery
• In November, We celebrated 1 year of marriage and two years of our relationship!

  

  Our wedding at the Benson Hotel in Portland Oregon

  

Setting Goals You Can Actually Achieve

Time is the one thing you cannot beg, borrow or steal.

A few months ago I saw a post on Facebook that freaked me out. It was a simple representation of what the average life looks like, broken down by weeks.

As we get older, time seems to pass by more quickly. Before you know it, you’re back at the table during the holidays and discussing your New Year’s resolutions, only to have the same exact goals as last year. We put off accomplishing our goals for the promise of instant gratification and that “There’s always tomorrow”. At some point those tomorrows will stop coming and I personally don’t want to see some TV show character’s life flash before my eyes instead of my own.

Below, the representation of the average life span by week, originally posted on waitbutwhy.com.

We can instead utilize this time to accomplish our goals. All we need to do in pinpoint the goal, identify the baby steps to achieve said goal, and to write out a plan. Then consistently follow the plan.

1. Decide on a Goal

What have you been telling yourself you want to accomplish? Improved sleep? Better nutrition? Actually getting outside and moving your body? Maybe there’s a certification you’ve been meaning to get but you haven’t been able to study for it. Make a list of what you want to accomplish and order them by what is most important to you, or conversely, what is going to make the most impact on your life.

2. Pinpoint your Baby Steps

Say you want to improve your nutrition. The first thing I would suggest is to research what you should be eating. (Short answer, eat real food.) Next, I would evaluate your current habits and figure out where you are going wrong. I usually do this for about a week. Then I create a series of micro habits to achieve my goal.

Say you're studying to get certified in your field. Use each week to study a certain topic and build in quiz times. Before long, you'll have the entire gambit under your belt and be ready to take the test.

3. Document your Plan

I recently created a nifty chart that plots out my goals for the year. I keep it in a Google spreadsheet so I always have access to it, at home or work. For each big goal, I break it down into sub goals for each month and action items for each week, with individual progress tracking for each day. At the end of the week, I will document my observations, my roadblocks and my plan to overcome them for the next week.

Yearly-Monthly-Weekly-Daily Goal Template here

4. Be Consistent

This is the hard part. It’s easy to hit a goal hard the first couple days, but by the second week you start to wane and lose focus on why you’re doing it in the first place. That’s part of the journey. I find it is helpful to treat things as small experiments that align with my big goal. What happens if I do X? Stay engaged with yourself and it will happen. Adjust your sub goals as necessary.

5. Stay dialed in and move on

Once you have achieved your goal, stay consistent. If you hit a bump in the road, reflect on it, determine why and have a plan for next time. Just this past weekend, I had a very difficult trip to the Midwest with two different destinations for a funeral and interment. It is probably the worst four days of 2015 for me. There is no way I’m going to let that happen again, so I’m figuring out ways to avoid putting myself in uncomfortable travel situations for when I fly again in August and September.

You might slip a little, but staying focused and sticking to your new habit allows it to become second nature and for you to spend your energy doing other things.

Action steps

Work through the above steps on your own.

What have you been able to accomplish using this method that you were stuck on before? Did you experience any lulls in consistency? What did you do to pull through?

Current Goal: Sleep 8+ hours a night

I'm on the tail end of my current goal: Sleeping 8+ hours a night. 

I've been tracking the hours that I sleep and whether I hit snooze in order to not only evaluate the duration, but also the quality of the sleep I get. I also wanted to identify if I had any bad habits that were making me stay up later than I needed and to correct them using micro habits.

Tools:

• At first I was just recording my time and observations in my Success Journal (a tool utilized by the Total Body Reboot program).
• On 4/2/2015 I downloaded the Sleepbot app, which allows you to "Check in" on the app when you are sleeping and "Check out" when you are awake. It can monitor your movements and sounds, but I only do movements (I keep the phone under my pillow so I don't see the light). Once you start moving in your sleep toward the end of your REM cycle, it tries to wake you up in a more natural manner that aligns with your normal sleep cycle. On mine, it is a very gentle alarm so it doesn't jerk you awake. I intend to only use this for a short period so that I can begin to recognize when I should be waking up and do so without hitting snooze, instead of relying on a traditional alarm clock that is just dependent on time. 

Below is the data and chart that represent my sleep. The hours are in increments of six minutes. And yes, this is me geeking out a bit. 

Date	Hours	Snooze?	Percent of Goal Achieved
3/17/2015	8	Y	100.00%
3/18/2015	8.1	Y	101.25%
3/19/2015	7.6	N	95.00%
3/20/2015	8.1	Y	101.25%
3/21/2015	10.5	N	131.25%
3/22/2015	8.5	N	106.25%
3/23/2015	8.1	Y	101.25%
3/24/2015	8.6	N	107.50%
3/25/2015	8.2	N	102.50%
3/26/2015	8.6	Y	107.50%
3/27/2015	7.5	Y	93.75%
3/28/2015	9.6	N	120.00%
3/29/2015	8	Y	100.00%
3/30/2015	8.2	Y	102.50%
3/31/2015	8.3	Y	103.75%
4/1/2015	8.3	Y	103.75%
4/2/2015	8.2	Y	102.50%
4/3/2015	9.5	N	118.75%
4/4/2015	7	Y	87.50%
4/5/2015	7.6	Y	95.00%
4/6/2015	8.5	Y	106.25%
4/7/2015	7.8	Y	97.50%

  

Observation from data:

1.     Last week, I noticed that when I hit snooze, I end up feeling really groggy and less well rested, so I am going to tweak my goal to include 8+ hours a night without hitting snooze. I should also add a column for how rested I feel. 

2.     Those big spikes tend to be weekends, though toward this past weekend they tapered off because we stayed up late watching Seasons 3-5 of The Walking Dead when really we should have been hiking or being active (a later goal).

I am definitely doing well with only 5 days with less than 8 hours of sleep. This is really great progress and lays a really nice foundation for overall health. At some point I'd like to test how my body reacts to caffeine levels and how certain foods affect my sleep as well.

Observation from habit evaluation:

1.     Avoid ANTI foods and excess caffeine during the day.

a.      This is a goal I am currently working on and will post about soon. As I mentioned above, I am curious to see how the things I am putting in my body are affecting the quality of sleep I am getting. At present, I am limiting my caffeine intake to 16 oz of coffee a day. I will be testing this amount in the near future.

2.     Be upstairs, getting ready for bed by 9pm.
3.     Lights out at 10pm.
4.     Put things out of mind between 9 and 10

a.      I run into the hamster wheel of worry around this time and so I’ve had to put special effort into keeping my thoughts light before bed. If I am really having issues, I’ll do a quick brain dump into my journal.

Having trouble sleeping? Check out Kevin’s REM Rehab ebook to get back on track.

Upcoming Goal:

·        Avoiding ANTI foods

o   Journaling foods consumed and challenges

o   Evaluating habits and implementing micro habits to make better (i.e., more varied and nutrient dense) food choices

o   Tweaking amounts of food depending on energy levels and expenditures