On May 1st, May Day, I wrote a post inspired by Kimberly Wilson, the Tranquilista. (Again, thanks to my pal, Amanda, for introducing me to Kimberly’s blog!) I laid out my May goals, a monthly ritual that I am going to take up. The days move by too quickly, and this ritual provides me with some structured reflection time every month. I don’t want to get to January 1, 2011 and think, “where did the year go and what did I do in 2010?”
May goals turned accomplishments:
1.) Complete my 200-hour yoga teacher training and testing, and celebrate it.
I completed the training and got all of my required hours and materials in. I celebrated the event with my teacher training pals at a delicious Indian dinner at Balucci’s in midtown. I also celebrated this accomplishment by starting my own business, Compass Yoga.
2.) May is a stressful month for me with visitors, a heavy workload, travel, and the general feeling that I need a serious vacation. I’m going to make the effort to build in some much-needed downtime, letting myself rest and relax between the burst of energy needed. This is interval training to the max.
The stress mounted in May, and then a funny thing happened: by writing out this goal of building in rest and relaxation, I did relax. I focused on the task at hand, and enjoyed the people I was with at every moment rather than always looking ahead to the next activity. And then over Memorial Day weekend, I took off for Florida for some fun with the fam.
3.) Complete my travel plans for my Radical Relaxation yoga retreat.
At the end of this month, I will take off for Greece on a radical relaxation yoga retreat and teacher training with Shiva Rea. Plane tickets to Greece were more expensive than I imagined. I got a decent deal, and luckily the retreat costs less than I planned so in the end I’m on budget with my total vacation costs.
4.) Maintain my meditation practice.
18 minutes a day of quiet lets me tap into my intuition in a more profound way than I could before my meditation practice began. On vacation over Memorial Day, I cut back the time I meditated everyday in exchange for more time with my niece, Lorelei. Every minute of my time counts with her since she lives so far away from me!
5.) Continue building my plans for my own business.
A huge, beautiful milestone. I exceeded my mark on this goal: launched my website for Compass Yoga, drafted a full business and marketing plan, and recognized that I didn’t need every question answered to get going. I also didn’t need to spend a lot of money to get up and running – a wonderful realization. A business is a dynamic, living, breathing being. I know I will make changes and adjustments along the way. I am scared to death and thrilled all at once. I also created the goal of making at least half of my personal income from my own business by my 35th birthday next March.
6.) Setting up some new writing goals for the second half of 2010.
I made one big writing goal: to only write pieces that serve my greater life goals. I synced up with a new social media company via a review I wrote on Yelp, a pleasant surprise that I will talk about in detail in a not-so-distant post later this week. I also made the tough decision to let go of my column on Examiner.com, a column I started writing in February 2009. I wanted to consistently write for Examiner for 1 year, and I exceeded that goal. Time to move onward and upward! Going forward, I will feature inspiring entrepreneurs on this blog instead of on Examiner. I will compile the best of the interviews I wrote for Examiner in an e-book this month. This month I will also begin writing a regular column on relationships, a new writing topic for me, on the re-launched Owning Pink. The Compass Yoga website also has a blog where I will post pieces on health and wellness.
7.) Stay present and in the moment during each task at-hand.
Being a recovering multi-tasker, I created this one as a stretch goal and am really pleased with my progress toward remaining present. I enjoyed the people I was with, the activities I was doing, and the places I went. The more present I stayed, the happier I became.
June goals:
1.) Complete my e-book based upon my Examiner.com column. The book will feature the most inspiring entrepreneurs I interviewed during my 15 months writing for Examiner.
2.) Enjoy every moment in Greece without thinking about any stresses from home. I will be entirely off the grid during that week. I will write ahead for this blog and schedule posts – with modern technology, no need to let the blog waves grind to a halt while I’m soaking in the sun! Rest assured, I will be writing every day from the mountains of Santorini and share all of my adventures here on this blog once I return in early July!
3.) Plan another trip to Florida to welcome my new little niece into the world. She is due June 22nd.
4.) Apply for my International Yoga Alliance certification once I have my teacher-training certificate from Sonic in-hand.
5.) Kick-off my Owning Pink column on relationships, and spend more time on my personal life (which fell a bit to the wayside because of my crazy May schedule.)
I’d love to hear how May went for you and what goals you’re working on in June!
Holy moly! You are a force of nature, Christa. What an incredible amount you accomplished in a single month – including building in a commitment to self-care and relaxation. I am so impressed.
I marvel at your ability to set such clear, concrete goals for yourself… at this point, my goals are so much mushier: “Figure out what I want to do.” (!) Maybe we’re just at different points on a spectrum – maybe you already went through a period where a lot of these ideas bubbled up, and now you’re in action phase…?
CONGRATS on your new business (I’m about to check out the site), and on completing what sounds like an incredibly enriching AND demanding teacher training experience. I am so excited for you to go to Greece and celebrate and relax and enjoy
Thanks, Amanda! I like this monthly ritual of charting what I’ve done. I have a tendency to beat myself up for being behind on my goals so a post like this helps me realize that every day I am actually am taking anotehr step forward. I feel like I’ve spent 34 years rummaging around trying to figure out what to do with my life and only now is it coming in to focus.
Mushy goals are fun – life’s messy so it makes sense that our goals are sometimes messy, too. What this post boils down to is the same as the goal you’re looking at so much right now: “figure out what I want to do.” That’s really all I’m doing, too. Trying lots of things I like to see what sticks.
Christa, this is a great ritual! Your goals are so detailed. Do you feel like writing them down has helped you reach them? Also, congraulations on completing yoga training and starting your business. I imagine getting off the ground isn’t easy, so that’s a big accomplishment!
I definitely don’t have such clear-cut goals for June. I guess if I had to choose one, it would be to find an internship in the fall at a consumer magazine. I write grants and articles for an alumni magazine now, but I’d like to write for consumer publications.
Have a great time in Greece!
Thanks, Jen. Writing down my goals and sending them out into the world on this blog absolutely helped me get clear about what I want to do. It created a self-fulfilling prophecy for me. I was not clear at all on exactly how I wanted my dreams to take shape until I started getting them down on the screen.
I am so excited about your June goal of looking for consumer magazine work. If you want to connect on linked-in, take a look through my contacts and see if there’s anyone in my network you’d like to speak to.