As part of being more accountable to myself and keeping focused on the goals I’ve set for the year I’m aiming to check in monthly. This post is mainly for my own benefit…
REVIEW THE GOALS
My professional goals and progress toward them:
- Letting Go – I’ve felt quite calm professionally this month, and full of purpose. It’s helped me to further let go of things which are no longer or not currently right, and commit to the things which are. Great month of work on both content strategy and record label sides. Progress: GREEN / COMPLETED
- financial – still feeling really thankful for our current position, and feeling positive about the times ahead as an individual and as a business. Starting to put longer term ideas together to keep this all going in the right direction as much as I’m able. Progress: GREEN
- learning – our home-schooling is pretty light when compared to the curriculum but we’re loving reading together each day as a family, finding opportunities on our daily walk to learn about nature, our environment, and the history of where we live, as well as doing some experiments at home with what we have. My professional learning has seen a refresh of skills I’ve not learnt for a while and a renewed interest in informal learning through reading blogs and paying closer attention to community chats. Progress: GREEN
- writing – I’m still not blogging here but may change that in the next few weeks with some thoughts from my current projects and discussions with other practitioners. I’ve also written over at Popoptica, and – unexpectedly – written some fiction and lyrics too. Perhaps my creativity is coming out of rest over winter, and beginning to flourish again with the spring. Progress: GREEN
- health – we are all currently healthy in the context of the pandemic but lockdown diet needs some improvement, although I’m being more consistent with daily exercise. Progress: AMBER
- reading – I’ve read a little in April – a novel, and reading each day with / to my children. I’m really enjoying some of the books they’re recommended and love being able to discuss the stories and get their ideas! I’m still not feeling the full to read more voraciously for myself but when I do I’m thankful to be surrounded by plenty of choice of what to dip into. Progress: AMBER
- travel and adventures – I’ve not travelled beyond how far I can get on foot in an hour each day for nearly 8 weeks now. I feel completely at peace with this and am not tiring of the paths around our village. Each day brings something different – the changing hedgerows and wildflowers, a Peacock butterfly settling on us for 10 mins so we could get a close look at its wings, bird song, the smell of bluebells. There is a million worlds to explore within even a small radius. Progress: GREEN (within current possibilities)
- volunteer and pro-bono work – working within the possibilities and the time I have. A lot of time is taken up with work, the label, and home-schooling so I’m not proactively seeking pro-bono opportunities. That said we’ll probably do some experience sharing from the label soon and I’ll try and fit in free consults with any bands or artists which need it. Progress: AMBER
SUMMARY
All things considered I’m feeling great about my progress on these goals.
More than that I’m thankful for my current situation – my experience of the lockdown and all that comes with it comes from a fortunate position of being safe, being secure, and being surrounded by kindness and calm. That has meant these goals and aspirations, while slowed in some cases, haven’t been consigned to the before times but have re-shaped for where we are now. That is more than I could hope for and certainly gives me perspective on what’s important as everything starts to move forward again.