Monday Moment for Health - The Last 85 Days

If my math is correct, today should mark 85 days till the end of 2008. Last week I committed to publishing my top goal to accomplish before the end of the year. Boy oh boy, there’s nothing like making a goal public to increase one’s commitment to achieving it. Suddenly I’m accountable to you as well as to myself. Yikes!

Believe me when I say that I gave careful consideration to which of my goals would get such public acknowledgement! I reviewed the roles I play and the 5-10 goals I set in each role at the beginning of 2008.

Some goals I was pleased to check off my list. Done! Hooray! My long kayak trip! My trip to Florida! My bathroom floor! Promoting and filling my child care classes!

On some goals I’ve made good progress and will likely complete by the end of the year. I’m over 80% on my way to swimming 100 miles. I maintain my 300 minutes a week exercise record. Ray and I go out on dates at least twice a month. I’ve been pretty diligent about writing something once a month for my writers group.

Some goals just haven’t proved realistic. Getting teachers in our community to contribute stories for a book about our Character Education Initiative just hasn’t fired anyone’s passion but my own – and that not enough to do alone. Some goals were great ideas when I set them, but I haven’t been able to maintain my initial excitement for them – planting 20 new trees, buying a new – and hot – car, a variety of writing projects.

But some goals do indeed represent an aim that I want or need to achieve, but just haven’t yet received the attention they deserve. I’ve decided to focus my efforts on two of those goals in the 85 days I have left before 2008 will be a memory.

First, I will resume my quest to drop weight. Oh I know. We’re heading into high-calorie time, and that will make it harder. But I did very well in the early part of the year, dropping about 10 pounds, and then I lost momentum. I’m going to aim at a modest loss of 5 or more pounds in the next 85 days. I can do this. I know how. And now I’m accountable to you as well as to myself.

Second, I am going to finish re-writing and updating my book, Find the Love of Your Life! I’ve sold nearly 500 copies since it was published in 2000, and it’s time to put out the second edition. I’ve found though, that a straight re-printing is not what I want to do. I’ve changed and grown since I wrote the first edition, the world of meeting people has changed, and I know I can help folks successfully navigate the internet process of meeting a prospective partner. After all, I’ve done it – my method of finding love has worked – twice! I’m over halfway through the re-write process, and I commit to have this second edition ready for publication by the end of December, 2008.

There – two goals that I can and will achieve. Knowing that you know what I’m aiming at will help me stay on target. As will focus. I know that if I attempt to do fifteen things, I won’t do those things as well as if I were to focus on just one or two. William James says that to make a change – which is what meeting a goal certainly is – you must 1) Start immediately, 2) Do it flamboyantly (as in sending a blog to the world) and 3) Make no exceptions.

So tonight while Antique Road Shows is on television, I’ll be listing everything I ate today and working on Chapter 7. What will you be doing tonight – and for the next 85 days?

Sally