cynosure

Summer is looming towards us. (…in the Northern Hemisphere, at least.)

Or perhaps it’s already started for many of you! But for me, summer starts this weekend. And with it, a handful of new goals that I’m not only announcing to the world as I have before, but will dutifully report on every week so you can be right there with me as I am challenged to grow ♥

I’m moving towards becoming more transparent and also, living a better and better life every day. In the expanse of just one year my actual implementation of ideas and goals has increased more than tenfold. (My ambition grows every day, as well, but I’ve always had ambition, and always will. Before, though, I lacked the self-discipline to actually carry out much.)

For my life up until now, I’ve always had to motivate myself, and I was the only one holding myself accountable for my goals. Most other people around me just didn’t seem interested in improving themselves. That’s another bit I need to work on… my social life (or what semblance of it I have left ).

So I just have one question for you…

Will you be my accountabilibuddy?

Schedule: I’ll be swinging around Los Angeles county for a week, going back to the Bay Area for another week, and then going to Montreal, Canada from June 26th to August 3rd, and then back to the Bay Area, where I don’t know what’ll be in store!

State of Mind: Reading

• Finish Les Miserables. (I started this book right before the last time I went to Montreal 2 years ago. And read 500 pages or so until I realized I had been reading the abridged version. And have not started over on the unadulterated version since. It’s actually one of my favorite books, even if I haven’t read the whole 1100 pages or so.)
• Finish Anna Karenina. (I started it last summer. Dayum.)
• Finish His Dark Materials series. (I just finished The Golden Compass, aka Northern Lights, recently and am astonished I never read these novels when I was younger! Then again, I’m glad to understand them with much more clarity now than I would have then.)
• Read 50 books. This was my goal last summer, too, and I read… about five. But I didn’t really try. And this is still something to reach for, for me, but it’s not my priority. To actually do so would mean to finish at least one every two days. Actually…

I’ve always loved reading (I once remember accidentally paper-cutting myself in the eye with the page of a book when I was little! it was so painful… but anyway) and I’m pretty sure I’m reading more this year than I ever have consistently in my life. It just takes a bit more mindfulness and thought to consciously choose to do it and make it a habit

State of Body: Health

• Wake up at or before 7am each morning. (My first goal is 8am, never going past 9.)
• Move for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour each day. Preferably in the morning before it gets too hot, but make it a priority.
• From my 43 Things: Walk to BART. For those of you unfamiliar, BART is a very convenient form of public transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the closest stations are about 5 miles from my house. Perhaps I’ll run there instead…
• Be able to Run 5 miles nonstop by September. I added the goal “Run 10 miles without stopping” to my 43 Things over 3 years ago, after a day when I walked for 10 plus miles straight. I’ll get there eventually!
• Climb Run up Mont-Royal again. It’s not really a mountain. According to geological terms, it’s actually a large hill. Last time, I jogged and walked up. Perhaps this time I’ll run the whole way. I’ll climb a mountain someday. Maybe Everest?
• Run 800 meters in 2:22. This goal is a remnant of the whirlwind three months that I was in track in high school. I had never, literally never, run before, and on the first day I had to run 5 miles. Or three. I don’t remember. Either way, back then my fastest time was 2:34, and I was still the slowest person on the team. I’d completely forgotten about this goal since I don’t time myself anymore, but maybe I’ll try my hand.. er, leg at it again.
• Be mindful and curious and gentle with yourself. Be present for your own life. Show up. Just a reminder.

I have ambivalent feelings about running. On one hand, when I am running, I love it. On the other hand, when I’m not running, I don’t. (I don’t think I’m alone in this either ) But I’ve realized I just can’t reach an equilibrium with myself in both body and soul without moving my body. I love walking, for sure, and I love hiking even more.

For too long I’ve focused on only what I eat and how I eat it as the key to health that I’ve avoided that not-really-all-that-pesky business of utilizing my beautiful body, what I’ve been blessed with, to make myself feel even better. In fact, after I finish writing this I’m going to take a short walk at three in the morning.

State of Heart: Relationships

• Pick up the phone. Even if you feel a tingle of fear. Do it. And don’t distract yourself while on the phone. Give that person your full attention.
• Attract new friendships and take the chances to build them.
• Talk to strangers. Really! And take pictures of them, too.
• Be fully present for all interactions with other people. Be fully present for all other interactions, too. No distractions. Don’t talk to them while reading, texting, etc. Talk to them while talking to them. Listen to them while listening to them.
• Make new and lasting connections with ambitious, successful people who motivate and inspire. Seek them out yourself.
• Be more patient and accepting of family, knowing nothing you say or do will ever change them. This is one I’ve needed particularly to work on.. and have been for years!
• Recultivate independence and your relationship with yourself, your most precious relationship of all.

These are a bit harder to gauge but I’ll provide a summary. The point is courage, to act above fear, to not just do what’s easy and comfortable. To take that little leap.

But mainly, my goal this summer is to… (talking to myself here)

• Surprise yourself.

At the end of the summer, I want to be pleasantly surprised at how far I’ve come and how much I’ve grown. And I hope you will be too

I won’t be reporting back on every single one of these each time, especially the more specific ones (what’s the point of talking about a mountain– er, large hill– in Canada when I’m in California, after all?) but I will share my progress and all the challenges I endure along the way.

As I feel myself inclined to write about my goals and how I achieve them, I’m still not sure in which direction this site is going… just like my life (at least, what I’m doing for a living). But one thing’s for sure: my writing will always come from a place intending to inspire, to motivate… and oh, let’s not forget, to love. To be able to share with you my musings has been more than a blessing.

Thank you for being here. I don’t say that often enough. Thank you.

♥

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tags: goals, personal development, project: summer 2010!, reading, running

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 03:05 and is filed under growing, moving your body. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.