Hey, howdy, hey there reader! I hope your 2021 is off to a lovely start! How are we already closer to February than we are to the New Year!? This year is already chucking along at a rapid pace and you're either struggling to catch the train, holding on by your fingertips or sitting comfortably in coach (until the kid next you spills his hot chocolate all over your lap). Or, I guess you could be in another category of where a person could be...not even trying and shutting themselves in their room cave away from the world for all eternity. I hope you haven't reached that level of seclusion friend! Keep that chin up! Every day is a blank slate for you to write your story!
I've decided to update you on how my goal accomplishment is going now that we are three weeks into the year. If you remember, my daily goals include: Exercise at least 15-30 minutes, journal and/or blog, identify at least three things I'm grateful for, write five positive affirmations, be on social media (Facebook and Instagram) for less than an hour, do a minimum of 10 minutes of cleaning, make my bed, compliment someone, get 10,000 steps, and drink a minimum of 60 oz. of water. 
I would love to report that I've achieved these goals every day...but that would be a lie. Heck, it would even be a lie to tell you that I've made it through a week of consistently checking all these boxes. I've had to make some adjustments to my activity level at times due to still being in the recovery process of my ankle injury. That's the noblest of the excuses I have. The other days that I haven't made my list have either been because I've been in some type of social situation where I didn't utilize my time wisely before to do so or I truly feel like my body needs rest.
The goals that I have been the most inconsistent with achieving are the 10,000 steps, 10 minutes of cleaning, and less than one hour of social media. The goals that I've had the most consistency with include drinking 60+ oz. of water, journaling/blogging, and my affirmations. I know that achieving goals is about building consistency and I hope to have that full complete week of daily goals met. In defense of myself, the increase in my daily activity is jarring after being stationary for almost three months. I also don't expect myself to be perfect overnight, so this means that I definitely have room for improvement.
Not only am I working on daily accomplishments, if you remember from a previous post reader, I've got weekly goals I'm working towards as well. Every week, I hope to accomplish the following: three to five cardio workouts, three to five strength training workouts, three to five yoga workouts, one to two "me" nights, five to seven days of meditation, write a letter, read at least three chapters, four self-care activities, four from home lunches during the work week, doing laundry (including folding and putting it away). 
I have not completed a weekly checklist yet. The goals that I'm most consistent with on a weekly basis include meditation (this I have done every day of the month of January), laundry (this one shocked me), writing a letter, and reading three chapters. The goals which I have struggled to achieve weekly have been checking off all of the various styles of exercise and four self-care activities. Now reader, the first week and a half of doing this, I tried to do extra exercise on top of my ankle exercises (assigned from my physical therapist) as well as everything else. I have been getting up at 5 AM and I wouldn't be going to sleep until after 10 PM trying to complete my list. Not to mention I had basically zero social life due to my focus on accomplishing my goals. Trying to give myself grace as I'm in the early stages of recovery, I decided to count my ankle exercises as exercise and if I am lucky enough to add another exercise to the day then great. Otherwise, I've been replacing that time in the morning with my journal and accomplishing my other daily goals. This has opened up my afternoons significantly for social endeavors and has actually helped in building more consistency with my daily goals. My weekly goals will suffer for a bit until I can progress in to the next phase of my recovery, but I've got to be realistic about where I am.
The fact that I've not achieved the four acts of self-care each week has surprised me. In my mind, self-care is like getting your eyebrows done, doing your nails, doing a facemask, etc. I wasn't doing these things, therefore I felt like I wasn't accomplishing this goal. However, after doing my own research and with the help of the SHE podcast, I'm realizing more that self-care could be taking 20 minutes to sit and chill on busy days, choosing to make dinner instead of eating out, choosing a  Zipfizz over an energy drink, talking to a friend. Basically, self-care is anything that is for you which helps to improve you physical, mental, and/or emotional health. Knowing this now, I think that is a goal that I can definitely achieve moving forward. I just have to change my expectation of what self-care is and recognize it for what it is in the moment. 
Overall reader, I feel like I've been making good strides to develop positive habits and routines in my life, but I know I've got a long way to go. I've noticed that emotionally I'm more stable. If I have a negative encounter, I can get to rationalized thinking quicker than when I used to just let my emotions take over and simmer. I still have difficulty not immediately sharing bad news when I receive it, but that is why we're calling it a work in progress. 
Anyway, I thought I'd keep myself accountable in one more space reader so thank you for bearing with me. I hope that your work towards your goals has been mostly positive and that you've built a community of support and accountability to help you get there!
I'll keep you updated on my journey periodically throughout the year, along with other various, random topics I decide I want to talk about. One of my monthly goals is to blog three times within the span of the month. If I'm not mistaken this is two of three for the month of January so you'll be hearing from me at least one more time before the end of the month. :)
As always, be the reason someone smiles today! 
Until next time....

​Jordan :)

AReader! How are you!? Did you have a wonderful holiday season? Whatever you celebrate, I hope it was a great time. Have you committed yourself to any New Years resolutions? Have you already broken them? Are you remaining strong and disciplined? Did you give up before you started and not make any? Regardless of your decision on resolutions, I hope your 2021 is off to a promising start. 
As you know, I've committed myself to quite the list of things to make positive changes. This first month is proving to be quite the eye opener for me how dedicated one has to be when making a lifestyle change. The first couple days of the year were kind of recovery based and therefore I didn't check off all of my boxes. The third day of the year was a Sunday though and I no longer had excuses for why I couldn't check off my boxes. Thankfully, I was very motivated that day and got all the things accomplished. 
Every day since the third, I have completed my daily checklist. Not always because I wanted to, more so because I created a space of accountability and now I would feel like a bit of a failure if I didn't accomplish my tasks for the day. However, my motivation levels ebb and flow and are highly connected to my emotional state. 
Being such an emotional person has it's benefits and it's downfalls. Currently, I would say a downfall is how much my emotions impact my overall environment and how much I struggle to continue with my day without them consuming my thoughts. I will say, since I've begun meditating and with the podcasts and books I've been incorporating into my life, I have noticed more emotional stability overall. I am better able to get to the reflective stage of my emotions quicker. I also have noticed less of a heat behind my negative emotions. Like I still feel negative emotions, but at the same time they aren't all encompassing or making my soul feel dead (hopefully that makes sense without sounding too depressing!). 
What I do think that has helped me quite a bit so far, is that I literally made my goals the minimum of what I believe I can achieve each day. If I were speaking in my job terms, I'm working on establishing a baseline for my behavior/daily activities. Whenever a professional speaks about goal achievement, they talk about breaking down your big goals into small attainable steps and I feel like I've have succeeded in doing that. 
Another thing they address when discussing goal achievement is consistency because goals don't happen overnight. While I know this is true, I feel like my brain goes one of two ways when I think about timeframe and goals. I guesstimate that I am further ahead than I actually am, or I feel like it is taking forever to get where I want to be. Patience may be a virtue, but it is something that is a mighty struggle for this soul. I think part of this comes from being so inactive for so long, now that I'm back in action, I feel like things should be just snapping into place. As the Grinch would say, "WRONGO!" This is completely false. 
​Goals are completed by consistency and discipline. Waking up every morning with intention. Following through. Honoring yourself and the promises you made. It comes from digging deep on those days that just suck the life out of you and you have to find a way to keep it running. 
I don't know if I've had an actual goal that I'm working towards in a while because these are things that I know, but it feels foreign to put them in motion. 
With that being said Reader, I have a few more things left today to accomplish before I can officially check all my boxes for today so I'll keep this short. If you made any time of resolution for this year, I hope that too are making that choice every morning to commit to yourself and what you're working on. I hope that you too find that oh so important accountability factor and find a system of support that will be there for you throughout your journey. 
Please, be the reason someone smiles today and kick some butt in regards to getting shit done! I believe in you! :)
Until next time!
Jordan