blog to discovery

Time really does go quickly when you’re busy and I can’t believe it has been a month since I last did this exercise. Unfortunately, because I’ve been so busy I haven’t been able to put the effort into progressing my wheel, however I feel most things are the same as last month although I have marked a few as slipping backwards.

During the last month, I suffered a headache for almost a week, which I just could not shift. When I saw my chiropractor she told me my back was doing really well, but because I have been stressed at work I have been tensing my jaw which had caused the headache, within a few moments my jaw was manipulated and my headache was gone.

Having decided the next step in my goal development is to develop a personal mission statement I have been doing some research. Just about everything I’ve read suggests there are many benefits to developing a mission statement, but the key ones are greater self knowledge and improved decision making, so obviously the more effort I put into developing the mission statement the greater results I will see.

During my research I have identified several blog posts that appear to be useful and that I am intending to revisit to help me complete this stage of my goal identification exercise.

This is my mission statement

What’s the difference between mission and vision?

Detailing my mission statement into guidelines and goals

Should you write a personal mission statement?

15 questions to discover your personal mission

how to write your own personal mission statement

Despite a significant amount of resistance I finally completed the next stage of the goal setting tutorial, the brainstorming exercise.  The aim is to draw out the subconscious thoughts that show what you are really passionate about and therefore help identify the goals that will fill you with desire.  The idea is to brainstorm things that will improve your life in four areas; personal development, career and economic, adventure and contribution.  Then by reviewing each idea to assign the timescale by which you want to complete it, it is possible to select one goal in each area that you want to achieve with the shortest timescale.

I completed the brainstorm, but didn’t find it as thought provoking as the as the one I did as a mind map after completing the past, future and present review.  In fact, I think the main reason I procrastinated with this exercise is because I knew it wasn’t what I needed to do next.  I want a framework to define what I’m working towards in my life, a structure that helps me select my goals.

When things start getting difficult you know things do not progress as you would like,  so subconsciously you stop measuring them. I can not believe that the last wheel of life review I did was over three months ago. Anyway, I’m back to measuring and it is reassuring to see that I have made some progress in the last few weeks.

There has been an equal number of areas decreasing and increasing, but I feel the overall movement is forward because I have got some of the difficult areas improving such as vision and career.

I have completed another exercise which is moving me towards identifying my goals and I will be writing a post on it soon, before I move on to the next step which I think will be more difficult, but will also have a great impact on my life.

Hmm, has anything changed since this time in September?  I  think if I haven’t made progress then I have in fact moved backwards because I’m not keeping the momentum and building on what I’ve already achieved.  Therefore  I have reduced my score  for several areas.

The one highlight is money.  My husband and I were looking to move house, but after a year of trying  we are now considering how can we improve our current house instead.  One options is to build a conservatory and while looking in to our finances it was reasurring to discover we could afford it more easily than we had expected.

Another interesting point is the health bar.  In many ways I’m doing better with my health which is positive, but the negative side is that I have reduced my exercise sessions and discovered peanut M&Ms, I have never liked them before, but I can’t seem to get enough of them at the moment.  This has meant I’ve stayed the same as last month.

The last month has been slower than I would have liked with regards my progress, but worryingly the last 30 days have disappeared very quickly (I’ll be 30 before I know it).

I am still exercising, but I have not been as strict the last few weeks. My appetite has decreased though so I am now (usually eating) smaller portion sizes.

I am waiting to hear about my annual pay rise at the moment. In the six years I’ve worked for my company I have never heard this late and it has always gone into my August or September pay, we aren’t desperate for the money though and it is likely to go straight into savings or the mortgage.

As I mentioned in the August Wheel of Life post, I have made progress on identifying my goals by completing the first exercise of the Goal Setting College tutorial. The exercise asks you to look back five years and score your life, score your present life and score your life five years in the future if you continue as present. This exercise highlighted some interesting features of my life; here are some of my thoughts.

Declining scores

The most obvious line on the chart is for Health and fitness but that wasn’t a surprise to me and explains why I chose to start working on this area at the beginning of August. However, it was a surprise just how much the lines decreases.

I’ve made progress during the last month in a few areas, although I have to admit that it doesn’t feel like I’m progressing very quickly. Plus, looking at the wheel of life, it doesn’t look like it is getting any more balanced.

In terms of health, I have started exercising regularly and improving the quality of my diet. I am not rushing in to a big diet and exercise programme, instead I am taking it slowly and concentrating on developing a habit. I have also seen a chiropodist about my feet as my doctor suggested I had lots of problems with my feet, but great news, the chiropodist suggested they aren’t too bad.

My husband and I have done well recently meeting up with friends and family. We spent a long weekend with my parents and have one with my inlaws starting today. We have also been to visit friends and met up with others at Twickenham (my first visit to the home of English rugby).

I chose to start this blog to record my path to a simpler, happier and more productive life, however I seem to have forgotten this in the excitement of starting to write publicly for the first time. I have decided I need more structure in my life to help me work towards where I want to be, plus I suspect this blog would benefit from a bit more structure.

I am intending to review my personal progress at the end of each month and discuss how I’m doing and perhaps ask for help if I’m struggling. I know I already have my posts about the wheel of life, but at the moment I see these as a separate topic, but maybe I will combine in the future. I also have my posts reviewing what happened in the previous month, but I intend to leave them as a review of my blogging progress.

I have felt tired and lethargic during the last month and forgot to take action to improve the balance in my life. However I believe my relationships and close family score have increased because I have started making more dates to meet up with friends and family, in fact we had friends round for dinner on Saturday night and took the opportunity to use as much of our wedding china as possible, producing a 4 course dinner. I have decreased the level for money because I have not done any of my usual routine during the last month, such as checking statements. 

What I am most disappointed with is that I have not worked on identifying my goals, let alone taking action to achieve them. In fact, I have been lying to myself that I am working on them when actually I’ve just been faffing and stalling.To make up for this I am going to sit down with some paper this evening and make some good progress at the start of the next 30 days.