Whether you expect to complete it in 20 years or 20 minutes, what are you working toward right now and what's your plan to get there?
My own personal goal: To cut some of this fat I've gained due to the excess calories from powerlifting. I'd love to maintain as much muscle and strength as possible but it's tricky to do. It's mostly because I feel really slow and not too good about myself. As far as my plan goes, I just plan to track my macros a bit closer and incorporate more cardio. Running is the devil so hiking and biking are going to be my go to forms of cardio.. Probably some swimming as well since the weather is getting nice. My work/professional goal: To have a successful service line build out & also to have my department fund itself. We serve a large population of adults with disabilities and we're transitioning into electronic health records. We're doing it service line by service line (residential, case management, DDD, etc) and we are currently on our last one now. It's been a long road! But successful so far. As far as department funding, since we are just starting up with electronic health records (April 2014 was when we implemented it), our department is still very small with only 4 people. We fall under IT's budget right now since it's hard to generate revenue just as electronic health records. We just became an affiliate with the vendor we use for our EHR, so we can subcontract our license to other associates that don't want to go through the implementation process themselves (it's very expensive and for smaller companies to shove out at least 80k for implementation is not ideal). They would pay us a much less amount for services and we would provide them with help desk support, create their forms, all of that. Eventually we hope to be able to pay for our department and get out of IT. Exciting stuff to come for me!
Physically, I'm trying to get down to 200 pounds. I was a butterball as a kid, and I was obese as an adult, excepting the few years I spent in the military. I touched 289 about six months ago, realized I was back on track to be 300+ again, and decided not to do that. Now I'm down to around 240, and I have some new muscle coming in (lifting weights) and life is good. Professionally, I'm trying to get a degree in computer science. I plan to hit the next semester hard and get my GPA out of this slump.
I am working on being in the top canoe in my outrigger canoeing club. It's a racing team, and the best women are some pretty serious athletes. Last year, when I joined the team, I weighed 192 lbs. Now I'm at 160. I've got a long way to go still, but the journey has been pretty amazing.
I'm in the process of planning a walk across the country. I've been nose deep in maps, atlases, and books about the subject. I've also been slowly picking up the equipment I'll need for the journey. It's been a lifelong dream of mine to do this, and after some recent events, I feel I have the confidence to accomplish it. I also plan on collecting as many stories as I can from the people I'm bound to meet. I may share the stories in a blog. The purpose of the trip will be to really challenge myself, as well as shore up what I believe to be my greatest weaknesses. Unfortunately, my current living situation means I don't have a definite time line as far as when I'll be able to go, but when I eventually get the chance, I want to be ready.
Well, at the moment, I'm taking care of some family members who can't really take care of themselves. So, unless there are some drastic changes in the near future, I can't just run off and indulge myself. But I agree, the first step is always the hardest. Thanks!
I'm a student, so: improve my skills, expand my portfolio, graduate, find a job.
I'm finishing my second Master's and preparing my art exhibition for release. For the Master's I'm just droning on in class like everyone else. Writing papers that are boring and trying to stay awake in class. For the art exhibition, I am trying to solicit artists to work on the project. The poetry is essentially done, but I need 45 more art pieces for the project. So if you know anyone who wants to do an artwork then let me know.
Get back into shape! I had to take some time off after my wisdom teeth extraction. It's only been two weeks, but it has been surprisingly hard to drag myself out of sitting around and being miserable (while eating ice cream... how is that possible?). I went to the gym yesterday, thankfully my cardio is still great, I've just lost the muscles that I was fighting to maintain in the first place! I think the worst part of it all is feeling like I've taken a step back mentally... Being passive and unproductive makes me feel rather vulnerable to depression.
I'm trying to get into good enough shape to run a 10k in under an hour. I've been running 4-5 times a week for a little over a month. My first goal was the 5k in under 30 minutes which I beat about a week ago, but now I'm reaching farther. I never had good stamina, so it has definitely been a challenge so far.
I'm trying to implement a training program in my office. Everything I do seems to be working towards that goal, but generally I try to create classes that offer immediate, tangible benefits to participants then opens a path to less tangible, more difficult classes in the long run.
I want to get into the Rocky Mountain biological lab summer program next year, this means that I must get my GPA up. I failed some courses due to anxiety freshman semester, and now that I've dealt with that disorder I feel confident picking up the pieces of my life. So this next semester I'm re-taking those courses (on top of the 12 hours needed to stay on track of course). I will pass and the F's will be expunged from my record, which will shoot my gpa up high enough to where I can apply to that program without shame. I also am doing an hour of duolingo / khan / and writing for my other goals of learning Swedish, advanced Algebra, and writing a book.