Time to really focus

 I have said to myself recently that I have reached the point in my life where I don't have big plans. I always had plans to find a better job, make more money, go to school, things like that. Well, I'm at the point in my life where I have most of those things. I have a job I love and I will likely stay at until I eventually retire. I'm making decent money. Could I make more? Maybe, but I don't want to work as hard as it would require me to do that. Work-life balance has become too important to me at this point. I used to want to take classes and learn new things. While I still want to learn new things, taking classes is not what I want. I had pursued a PhD, but stopped. I thought I wanted another master's degree, but no. I'm at the point in my life where I'm good with the way things are and while I want to keep moving forward, I'm not really chasing anything anymore. As a side note, I lived most of my life feeling like I was chasing something. I constantly was looking for the next new thing or the thing that would make this great. It was exhausting living like that. So when I get planners and they want you to list your goals and focus on making them happen, I would struggle. What are my goals? To me they seemed very vague and lightweight. I want to live a happy life. I want to have money to retire. I want to travel. I could never see how I could make those into long term goals with steps and everything. Then I started my little business. Suddenly I had all kinds of goals. I want my business to make money. I want to run an online business that keeps me busy but doesn't overwhelm me. I don't want to work all day, every day, but I want to keep busy. I would like my business to supplement my retirement income. So yeah, suddenly the goals started popping up all over the place. And I found that I needed a way to focus those goals. A way to figure out which ones were important and the steps to work on them. And that is where the full focus planner comes in. 

I ordered it last week and it arrived but I didn't have time to go through it. Last night I sat down and watched the videos and learned how to use it and I'm inspired. But now I need to but my goals, my big goals, into words. I have one goal that was fairly easy to lay out. That is my business. My goal is to make $500 for 3 months in a row. When I achieve that I will purchase myself a larger, portable engraver. That was a fairly easy goal to set up. Once I reach that goal, then I will aim for $1000 a month and so on. But I have to have other goals, that can't be the only thing I focus on. 

I'm trying to come up with a good goal for working out. I don't want to set a weight loss goal, because honestly the number on the scale is not important at all. But at the same time I do want to be fit and healthy and stay active for a very, very long time. So how do I frame that as a goal? That's  why I'm here. Let's work it out. 

Goal: To be fit and healthy into my 80's or 90's. To work out regularly and be very consistent with it. To reduce my body fat. To remain as active and vibrant as possible for as long as possible. To keep my body in tip-top shape. 

To me none of these feel like a decent goal. How do I measure these things? How do I know if I've been successful or not? I could use the reduce body fat as a goal. I could set a number, like get down to 20% body fat. But what if I don't? What if I don't want to work as hard as that would require me to work? I want to be fit and healthy but I don't want to devote my entire life to that. Also, there are time constraints as long as I'm working and that will be for a few years. 

I could use the workout regularly and be consistent. I could set a weekly goal for this. I would like to workout 3 days a week and also do the strength sessions on Tuesday nights. I could set that as my initial goal. But, how long should I do that for? 1 month? 2 months? 3 months? I like the idea of 1 month because that is something short enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but at the same time I want it to last longer. 2 months might work, not too long, not too short. 3 months seems a little long right now. I haven't done this at all and to commit for 3 months seems a little bit excessive right now. Maybe to start I can commit to 1 month and see how that goes. If I could get 1 month of consistent workouts in, I now that I would feel amazing and it would be fairly easy to keep going. There is no hard and fast rule as to how long a goal should take and this one will be a moving target. Once I hit 1 month, then I'll go for 2 months, then 3 months, etc. Until it becomes such a part of my life I don't have to make it a goal anymore. 

So here's my goal. I will go to classes 3 days a week and I will attend the strength sessions on Tuesday nights for 1 month. In order to make that happen I will need to: pack my clothes on my workout days, make sure I leave work on time, carefully plan my workout classes so nothing interferes with them. And drag my butt to the Tuesday night strength class. I know that I will start to feel amazing if I do this, so let's feel amazing. 

Now, what will be my celebration for doing this? 

Update: I went to the gym and the chiropractor. I showered and I've started working on my ornaments. And I still have no idea what my celebration can be for this. Not a clue. I could buy new workout clothes. The thing is, I buy those whenever I see a good deal anyway. Maybe I could not buy any for a month and then my reward will be some new ones. That might work. Hopefully at the end of a month I'll be a little bit smaller too so I'll have to buy smaller ones. 

Okay, I have two solid goals in my planner. I need more. There has to be more I need to work on, I'm just drawing a blank right now. Oh, I just thought, I could add in social media marketing. I will consider that goal and what it may look like.