July Goals Follow Up & August Goal Setting Combo Post!

Welcome back to another edition of the Thumos.Life blog! I meant to make this into two posts but life caught up to me yesterday which resulted in me not being able to complete the post. So instead of two posts, I decided to combine them into one post for efficiency.

Back on July 1 I set an assortment of lofty goals for the month, and I proceeded to have a mixture of success and struggles with trying to remain consistent with the goals that I set for myself. Here is my checklist where I kept track of my progress on each goal that I mentioned in my earlier post.

	Wrote a blog post	Minimum of 30 minutes physical activity	Work on Thumos.Life Resources Page	Take Evelyn to the Pool	Read The Daily Stoic	Meditate for at least 10 minutes
July 1	X				X
July 2		X	X		X	X
July 3		X			X	X
July 4		X	X	X (Lake for July 4)	X	X
July 5					X	X
July 6		X			X	X
July 7					X	X
July 8					X	X
July 9					X	X
July 10					X	X
July 11					X	X
July 12					X	X
July 13		X		X	X	X
July 14	X	X			X	X
July 15			X		X	X
July 16		X	X		X	X
July 17			X		X	X
July 18		X	X		X	X
July 19		X	X		X	X
July 20					X	X
July 21			X		X	X
July 22					X	X
July 23		X	X		X	X
July 24		X	X		X	X
July 25			X		X	X
July 26					X	X
July 27					X	X
July 28					X	X
July 29		X	X	X	X	X
July 30					X	X
July 31	X	X	X	X	X	X
Month Total	3	13	13	4	31	30

As you can see, I did a lot better at other goals then I did with certain other ones. Here's a summary of how each goal went, as well as what I found helpful and what obstacles got in the way:

• Post a minimum of one blog post each week

  • I struggled with this one for a handful of reasons. One big issue that came up that I had not anticipated was how much my impostor syndrome (more to come on this in the future!) made me struggle when it came to writing.

  • That being said, I think this goal is an important one for me to continue working on for the same reasons I listed in the earlier post, so I will be continuing it during the month of August.

• Engage in a minimum of thirty minutes of physical activity at least three times per week

  • This one went ok, but I know I could have done a better job. In my heart of hearts I know that I want/need to be more physically active, not only for my physical health, but for my mental/emotional health as well.

  • Similar to the blog post goal, this one is important and meaningful for me to continue making progress on (and ideally improving upon in the future), so I plan to keep it as well.

• Finish adding options for people to the Resources section of my website.

  • This one is roughly 90% completed at the moment. While the Resources section of my website will essentially always be a work in progress, since I know I will learn about new books, media, and other things I want to share with people in the future.

  • I've currently added a butt-load of books to the page, but need to add a few more in the future. Make sure to check it out often to see what helpful gems you may find!

• Take my daughter to the pool at least twice this month

  • My daughter is absolutely killing it with her swimming practice this summer. If you count a trip to a lake with family for July 4 (which I did), I killed it on this goal. What made it easy to do better at this goal was getting to see the incredibly joyful smile on my daughter's face every time she got to go swimming and show me what she learned. I can't wait to see how much she continues to improve in this area!

• Read the Daily Stoic each day

  • This goal went great, and was a great reminder to help me be more mindful of my inner thoughts and emotional experiences (the theme for July in the book was Duty). I'll continue to read this on a regular basis, but I do not know if I will need it as an established goal moving forward.

• Meditate for at least ten minutes each day.

  • I managed to check the box for this one most days, but I definitely think it is something I need to get better at in the future. Despite continuing to take some time to be mindful most days, I also got some feedback from my wife that I was "checked out" more times than I am comfortable with happening. So I plan to modify this goal for August, not only setting out to try and practice mindfulness, but also try to be "checked in" to what is happening around me during the day.

That's my check-in for my July goals! To summarize briefly, here are my goals for August that I hope to make progress on:

• Post a minimum of one blog post each week

• Engage in a minimum of thirty minutes of physical activity at least three times per week

• Meditate for at least ten minutes each day, and try not to "check out"

• Convert my old group materials and handouts into new digital versions that I can share with people more easily

Thank's for joining me today! I'll definitely be trying to post more this month, but if nothing else I will make sure to check in on my goal progress at the end of this month. In the meantime please have a great day, and if you are interested in potentially working with me for individual therapy feel free to reach out to me!