goal setting – Page 3

March 3 in 30 Update

March 11, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

We arrive in our new home [fergcorp_cdt_single date=”March 14, 2012″] (or so–the countdown timer isn’t perfect–it doesn’t allow me to enter the time). Everyone is getting really excited. Every day on Skype, Sprout has said to her dad, “When are you coming back to Canada?” and every day, he’s said to her, “I’m not coming back. You’re coming here.” Then she says, “I know. I just like to hear you say it.”

Sleep well before the move and beat jet lag as quickly as possible after – Doing not too badly with this. There is one more sleep before we leave. I think I’m going to be ready for this, and I won’t have to stay up all night for the last sleep in Canada.
Maintain a healthy exercise schedule coming into the move so I can get back at it as quickly as possible afterward. Staying more or less on top of this. I’m loving my new exercise video: Tracey Mallett: Get Your Body Back. I fit three days of exercise in this week. Hoping to get another workout in Monday before the hours of sitting on the plane.
Finish packing before the move, unpack and organize the kitchen, bathrooms and homeschool room after the move to get things up and rolling ASAP. I’ve decided on some realistic goals we can accomplish prior to the arrival of the furniture, such as putting our books into piles for subject areas so that when the shelves arrive, the job is quicker. But we’re going to take some time to discover our new neighbourhood. I’m going to have the kids help me with a scavenger hunt to find some of the local essentials, like a market, a place to buy milk and eggs, where to get meat ground, and where to buy stationery supplies, that kind of thing. We’re going to enjoy this stage for all it’s worth!

How are you doing with this month’s goals?

- Carey Clark

March 3 in 30: Goal Setting

March 5, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

So this month was hard to set goals for, given that we move [fergcorp_cdt_single date=”March 12, 2012″]. I decided to try and keep it as simple as possible. I had my goals all figured out, then I forgot to post! So excuse me while I post yesterday’s post today, and get to Multitudes on Mondays later today. Here are March’s goals:

Sleep well before the move and beat jet lag as quickly as possible after – Daylight savings time is this Saturday, so we’ll lose an hour, then two days later, we’ll board the plane at 1:30 a.m., sleep on a North American time schedule, and wake to kill a lot of hours on the plane, then arrive in Hong Kong at 5:00 a.m. and wait for 12 hours until the next flight takes us HOME! I figure sleeping well coming into things can only help. If I could piggyback on this goal, I’d say I want to try to keep my water intake up. That’s one of the quickest ways to beat jet lag.
Maintain a healthy exercise schedule coming into the move so I can get back at it as quickly as possible afterward. Feeling strong and healthy coming into things will hopefully mean I won’t stay away from exercise too long afterward.
Finish packing before the move, unpack and organize the kitchen, bathrooms and homeschool room after the move to get things up and rolling ASAP. Could be a little tricky. We’re not going to have much furniture for a little while (more on that later).

Given what we’re dealing with, I figure if I can accomplish goals this month, I can do it any month! What are your goals for March?

- Carey Clark

February 3 in 30: A Bust

February 19, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Well, this month couldn’t be much worse for my goals. We’ve been running like crazy all over creation for dentist appointments, doctor’s appointments and other such last-minute priorities, and yesterday we packed in a frenzy and took JavaMan to the airport, which was a bit of a saga in itself, but nevertheless, he is off, and has officially completed the first portion of his trip. He’s in the Hong Kong airport as I type this, sipping coffee. His flight departed at 1:30 a.m. (so we all arrived home at 2:00 a.m.). He’ll spend the entire day hanging around the airport and will be boarding another flight into our city around suppertime there–or around the time we’ll be waking up.

All the hustle and bustle and last-minute activity means I just haven’t done much about my goals at all. JavaMan and I were up late almost every night this week, meaning I didn’t get up and get my day off to the start I wanted. Ever.

This has resulted in me feeling very stretched. However, in the midst of it all, I regrouped a little and decided to force myself to slow down and try to actually enjoy homeschool. (I’ll be blogging a little about that later this week.) I also sat down and used the CM Planner (something I can’t possibly misplace or pack in the wrong box or have trouble shoving into a suitcase) to finish planning the next few weeks of homeschool.

Originally, I planned only until December, since we thought we’d be heading back to China before then, and we’ve been taking things more or less one day at a time ever since, in something of a holding pattern. But I decided I had to know what I could pack and what I couldn’t, so I plotted the whole thing out–mostly with a concern for history, since that involves the most books for us–coordinating the following resources:

Our “spine,” The Story of the World
Courage and Conquest for additional focus on Canadian history
Picture books and historical fiction to accompany our lessons and bring history alive. (For example, right now we’ve just finished studying about William Penn’s Holy Experiment, and we’re concurrently reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond.)

The plan is still pretty optimistic in terms of what we might actually accomplish in the time that’s left, but I think it’s nevertheless doable. We walked to the library today to pick up some of the books we need for this week’s study.

All of that to say, that while I’ve stunk at performing on my goals this month, the month hasn’t been without its successes. I’m trying to think of it this way: now I don’t have to think too hard about what to focus on next month. I can just carry forward all my unmet goals! (Oh dear.)

My goals this month were:

Getting to bed on time. Fail.
Get up an hour earlier than everyone else. I’ve been getting up about a half hour to an hour earlier, but I haven’t been disciplined about my mornings at all. I have a little unwritten rule for this time: I do not allow myself to check email, social media or do anything else during this time. Okay, once again: Fail. Completely undisciplined.
Get back to consistent exercise. Do I have to say it? Fail. I’m not sure exactly what my problem is here. I think I’m bored with the exercise routine I was doing. I really wanted to try Turbo Jam, but the first time I did, I coincidentally started fighting a cold at the same time, and was achy and miserable. Now I can’t bring myself to exercise. I’m going to blame it all on the February blahs. That sounds reasonable doesn’t it? And the busyness? Sounds like I have the makings of a very good excuse here…

I have [sct date=”3/13/2012 21:22″ align=”none” size=”1″] until I see JavaMan again and jetlag has a chance to mess with things. I would like to be more fit and disciplined by then, so that the changes in time zone and routine don’t have a completely devastating effect.

So….if I can pull myself together for this last week and a half of February (doesn’t this seem like the longest month ever?) I’m going to attempt to get my act together and do these three simple things.

Starting with getting to bed on time. It’s 9:39 now. Time to call it a night.

February 3 in 30

February 13, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Perhaps you noticed that I missed posting my 3 in 30 post for the first week of February, or that this post actually belongs to Sunday, but I’m not posting it until Monday. Or am I the only one keeping tabs on my procrastination. Actually, it’s not procrastination. I’ve just felt the need to actually relax on the past two weekends because the weekdays have been so very full.

I have set goals, however, even if I didn’t tell the world about them. And for the first week of February, well, let’s just say I haven’t done all that well with them, but I they are things that I am determined to change as the month progresses.

Getting to bed on time. This is something I did not perfect in January, and if anything, February has been worse. For one thing, I need to get my husband on board with this. There are so many distractions late at night, it seems. But I still maintain that it is key for me because it affects how my day begins the next day.
Get up at least an hour (preferrably an hour and a half) earlier than my children, who wake up around 7:00. This gives me time for some critical morning routines and some headspace to start my day with.
Get back to consistent exercise. I care about how I look and how fit I am, but lately, I’ve been sacrificing that for a little extra here, or a few more minutes doing something else. If I care enough, I’ll exercise.

Again, I’m ignoring some larger issues, like the packing and so on, but I know the rest will fall into place when my days begin and end well–kinda getting back to the basics.

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