Nov 1

If you don't already read my cousin Liz's blog, you should. I linked to a post that spoke to me, but, truthfully, all her posts are amazing. She is so wise at such a young age. Everytime I read her blogs, I get inspired.
In her recent post, she talks about goals. I remember goals. I used to have them. I even had them in Philly. I have them at work (sort of). But I usually don't have goals. Since our move here, I have felt fairly discombobulated. I just don't feel settled. We still have boxes. I don't have furniture. My schedule is all whacked. I'm not sure how to fix it. My life is so different from what it was in Philly. I don't really have friends here and Alex and I don't have the outlets we had in Philly (friends, bars, running/biking paths). I would like to feel more settled. I would like to have some goals. And I think that following Lizzie's advice is the way to go.
Since this is Nov 1, a brand new start to a brand new month, I thought I would set some goals. Liz suggests starting with these categories, although you can add or subtract any categories you would like: Financial, Spiritual, Career/Personal, Health and Physical. I've added Organizational. She suggests starting with big goals, and then make smaller goals to help you achieve those goals. So, here goes:
Financial: Buy a house someday
Spiritual: Live in and for each moment, appreciate, breathe.
Career: Become a professor at a university
Health: Eat well, mostly plants
Physical: Wake up earlier. Be strong.
Organizational: Be organized. Don't miss meetings, big dates, tasks.

OK, seems like a good start, but how can I address all these goals at once? Well, here goes:
Financial: Put $200 away in savings this month. Pay off my one credit card bill. Bring my lunch to work each day.
Spiritual: I'm stealing this one from Liz: meditate 5 mins every morning. Read a little bit in a book (for pleasure) every night.
Career: Attend my future faculty seminar class. Get my pilot experiments up and working before the end of November. Read more science papers.
Health: Get used to biking 100 miles a week. I am still adjusting, but I would like to add in a little bit of time doing something other than biking, so maybe running once each weekend and stretching every morning or evening.
Physical: Set a sleep/wake schedule and stick to it. Pushups every day.
Organizational: Make a To Do list every day. Allow myself to not accomplish it, and put tasks on the list for the next day. Each week, reassess my To do list and make sure the goals are accomplishable (is that a word?). Get house under control!

OK, so this is my baseline start. These are my goals for the month and I am going to try to accomplish them in some form or another. Everyday I will look at my set of goals and reassess. What do you think? Are you ready for November?