And just like that, we’re finished with the first month of 2015. I know these months are going to fly by and before we know it, we’ll be ringing in 2016. January had its ups and downs. The highs were high and the lows were low, but I’m not going to dwell on those lows. I am happy with where I am, happy that I’m learning to stand up for myself even when my opinion is unpopular, and happy that I know how to listen to my heart. And I feel really, really excited about what the future entails for me. Good things are happening, even when life seems a bit murky and unclear at times, and there is so much to look forward to.
So, all that said, let’s reflect on January and all the brilliant moments it brought.
In January, I…
- Visited St. Augustine. I loved St. Augustine. I’ve wanted to visit it for a long time, and it completely lived up to my expectations. It is a beautiful city, so full of life and history and beauty. I’d go again in a heartbeat.
- Started running again. I signed up for a 5k, which meant it was time to tackle one task on my yearly goals list – train to race a 5k. All I want to do is improve on my previous 5k times (which are not impressive at all!), train smart, and enjoy the race come race day.
- Started working on a big freelance project. This freelance project has been a lot of fun! I get to stretch my creative muscles in an entirely different way, and the experience I’m gaining is wonderful.
- Had two great nights out with girlfriends. I love my girlfriends. We met for dinner on a weeknight when an out-of-town friend was in town for a short time, and then we had book club another night where we had dinner and then visited a brewery to play games. I have the best time with them!
- Booked a cruise with my mom. We leave in 103 days! I cannot wait!
I also want to take a moment to take a look back at the yearly goals I set and talk about the progress I am making towards some of them. I won’t recap all of them, just the ones I feel necessitate talking about.
Yearly goals progress…
- Complete the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge and read 52 books. I read seven books in January, two of which were for the challenge. And I’m now certain I lowballed my book goal for the year… at this rate, I’ll probably read around 70+ books! Heh.
- Put 20% of my income towards savings/debt each month. FAIL. Huge, huge fail. I think I wound up putting 3% of my income towards savings/debt in January. I have to step up my game for February.
- Race a 5k. Training for this one! And it’s super hard. But I’m doing it. Sometimes.
- Master the 80/20 rule of healthy eating. I’m doing better with eating healthy. There is so much I need to improve on, but I have a whole year to figure this out. I would say I’m eating healthy maybe 60% of the time.
How was your January? What did you do?
January was an OK month for me. It’s always a blah time of year for me as we are coming off the high of the holidays and the weather is usually so dark and gray here and we can go days without seeing the sun… I did some fun things this month, like spend a weekend with my parents up north, but all in all it felt like a month that stretched on and on. I also had some random foot pain which kept me from working out as much as i did which contributed to feeling more blah! But it’s a new month and I’ve got lots to look forward to between my birthday and our trip to Santa Barbara!
Well January might have had some ups and downs for you, but you made some great progress on your goals!
I feel like January was a push/pull kind of month – part of me felt like it dragged, but the rest of me can’t believe it’s February! February is busy busy for me so I think it might go by really quickly!
January was busy, really busy. I think part of that was self-inflicted as distractions to get through this month but I also think it’s because life is just busier this year, or I’m more present. While it went fast, it also went kind of slow, so it was interesting overall!
Lots of reading, planning for events with friends, hanging out with our neighbors up the street, getting back into my exercise groove (for real, it feels so good!), and focusing more on my relationship with Knight. The lows, like yours, were sucky but I think that’s to be expected for my lows in January going forward.
January was a pretty blah month for me and I’m glad to see it go! While it was blah though it also included lots of healthy eating, lots of saving money and lots of quiet time. I just felt so overextended after December – so much excess in eating, social time and spending money so I majorly dialed back on all three of those in January and that felt good. The month just seemed to drag on and on and on for me! I’m very much looking forward to our trip to Maui in almost exactly two months!
I felt like January was pretty blah for me. I had my cousin’s baby shower which was fun and I got my mojo back as far as eating healthy and exercising is concerned. Other than that I don’t think too much happened that was exciting so I’m OK with it being February. I am so looking forward to more daylight hours and LESS SNOW please and thank you!
Good job on your goals lady even if there were some ups and some downs. I feel like January flew by, my favorite thing was our weekend trip to San Luis Obispo. it was so nice to have some good ole time together before life gets all sorts of nutty.
I can’t believe you’ve already read 7 books this year! My goal this year is one a month and I’m already behind. 😛
Yeahhhh, I would say I am also more of a 60/40 healthy eater! haha! Maybe 70/30 is an honourable goal? 🙂