Halfway There: An Honest Look at This Years Goals

It is almost summer and that means the year is already halfway done.

If you are like me, you made a list of goals to start the year off.  Making goals is a great first step to learning and growing, but it is always good to review them periodically and see how it is going.

So that’s what I am going to do today!  I will fill you in on most of my goals for this year and find out what ones I am doing great at and which ones need more focus.

I followed Zig Ziglar‘s wheel of life plan for making my goals.  It is the concept that there are 7 main areas of life that need to be balanced.  If one is out of line, then everything starts to get shaky.

Here are the 7 areas and my goals:

1. Physical: Lose 20lbs by the end of the year and get down to 135lbs.  Accomplish this through portion control, CrossFit at least 3x a week, swimming/running once a week, Paleo+butter and cheese.
2. Financial:  Become debt free by May 2012. Finish 3 month emergency fund by the end of the year.
3. Intellectual:  Read one business/self-development book a month.  Take 3 classes this year for college.
4. Family:  Go on more regular dates with my husband.  Call my mom and sister at least once a week.
5. Social:  Hang out with a girlfriend every 2 weeks.  Call a friend from home (Syracuse) once a week.
6. Spiritual:  Listen to a podcast once a week.  Spend an hour every week contemplating life and goals.
7. Career:  Score well on my Navy rating exam (for promotion).  Get a great evaluation at work.

So there they are.  Now it’s time to see how it is going.

1. Physical: Well, I haven’t lost any weight, but I haven’t gained any either.  Nutrition is my downfall.  I don’t drink alcohol or coffee so at least once a week I will have gluten free pasta or full on gluten filled pizza for fun.  Portion control when I eat these things unfortunately goes out the window.  The past couple weeks I have been feeling fed up with myself on this issue. I have now been a week of Paleo+butter and some dairy, and I am feeling good about keeping it up.  On the upside, I am seeing great improvements in strength and metabolic capacity from my workout program which is encouraging!
2. Financial:  We’re debt free!  As of May 15th we paid off our last school loan.  We have begun saving for our three month emergency fun and I feels great.
3. Intellectual:  I am averaging one book every 2 months.  A bit slower than I had wanted but still progress.  I am also in my second college class and on track to take a third before the year is out.
   

   My sis and I. It is really important to me to stay close when we live far away!

4. Family:  Dating my husband at least once every 2 weeks is a blast.  Getting out of the household routine is really fun.  I have been keeping in fairly good touch with my mom and sis as well.  Some weeks are really busy, but we usually make up for that.
5. Social:  Calling friends from home is great, especially since we are moving back in a year and a half.  However, I struggle with making time for girlfriends out here.  Everyone is married and several have young baby’s so it is sometimes hard to work that out with schedules.  I want to work on this area.
6. Spiritual:  No podcasts, but lots of time spent contemplating.  I think this is an area I would like to spend more time in.
7. Career:  I am really happy with this area.  I scored well on my test and am moving closer to promotion.  I also got a good evaluation.

Overall,  I am feeling fairly balanced.  A bit more time in the spiritual and social areas would do me good though.

I like having direction and goals to move forward to, but I also try to be realistic and cut myself some slack.  Goals should be inspiring, not a vehicle for guilt.

How are you doing on your goals?  Have you accomplished any big goals so far?  What do you want to change?