Goodbye September, Welcome October
Wow, time sure does fly by. I cannot believe that it is already October. The days here have become much shorter. The temperature has been dropping and soon it’ll be coat weather. When I headed off to work this morning I could see my breath.
September was supposed to be a month of putting my head down and getting to work on creating a business. Well, that changed pretty quickly. Around a week into the month, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to create this business.
I was spending two to four hours a night after work trying to learn how to run Google ads effectively. On top of that, I was trying to learn the basics of business, lead generation, cold outreach, and how I was going to price my services.
I was quite stressed out. Trying to start a business and constantly thinking about other hard hitting questions were draining me mentally. I wanted to create my own business to bring me more freedom and happiness in my life, not make me stressed and irritable.
So I switched my goals for the month. Instead of focusing on creating something new, whether a business or a new habit, I focused on strengthening the things already working.
Refocusing My Goals
My goals for September stayed the same, minus the business, but I decided to double down on exercising, meditation, and yoga.
During the month of August, I had a long stretch of being unproductive and wasn’t consistent with my habits. I was experiencing burnout. I was trying to do too much at once. I was able to sustain the level of work I was doing for a few weeks, but eventually it would catch up and then I would hit a wall. I would need a few days to recover, leading to periods of being unproductive and inconsistent with my habits.
That’s why for the month of September I refocused my goals to the stuff that works. I know that I can consistently follow through with exercising, meditation, and yoga; and rather than draining me and leading to burn out, they give me more energy.
Long Term Goals (3-5 Years)
One of the deciding factors of letting the idea of my own business go was because it didn’t align with my long term goals.
My main goal, the most important thing to me currently, is making sure that I can get back out to do more long distance hiking. This means being able to leave everything for two to six months at a time and enjoy the outdoors.
I realized there was no way I would be able to create a business and be able to leave it for that long within the next few years. My best bet to achieving that goal is to stay at my current job and save money.
That is not to say that my dream of starting a business is dead, it is still very much alive in the back of my brain, now just isn’t the time. I am also hoping that with more time to think and experience life I can come up with a better business that will align with my beliefs and interests more.
Here are some of the ideas I have for my goals over the next 3-5 years:
- Hike the northern half of the Appalachian Trail (Finishing my LASH of the AT)
- Hike a shorter trail (1 Month of time; Vermont Long Trail, Colorado Trail, Cohos Trail)
- Buy a piece of land in northern New England to start building a tiny cabin
- Contribute at least 25% of income to retirement accounts (Max Roth IRA + Work retirement account)
- Another adventure of any kind (Paddling, biking, road trip, hiking, traveling)
How September Went
September was a very uplifting month. After a few months of being extremely overwhelmed, I took a step back and really enjoyed myself.
I had many thoughts about all of the different places I want to explore and all of the things I want to do. I also had many great ideas about life in general. I know that I can be great and make a difference, but what area do I focus on?
My idea is to mix my two passions, trees and hiking, to focus on the ecology of the forest along the Appalachian Trail.
Other than dropping my goal of a business everything went well. I did have an unfortunate fight with a bush and the ground while playing tag and ended up bruising my rib. This slowed down my progress at the gym considerably, as I wasn’t able to go for three weeks while it healed. I did still manage to make pretty good progress in achieving my goal for exercise by biking.
My goal was to not miss more than two days in a row of exercise. I had one run of four days in a row with no exercise but other than that it was smooth sailing.
Overall, September was the month of cycling. I was able to total 98 miles on my bike last month. In addition to that I hiked 18 and exercised 19 days of the month.
I also read four books, meeting that goal, but only posted five blogs, missing that goal by one.
I almost forgot, September was my first time outside of the United States. A friend and I visited Quebec City, Canada for a weekend and I got to experience a new area and culture. I am hoping to see more places soon to broaden my worldview.
Goals For October
My goals for October are very similar to September:
- Miss no more than 1 day of meditation
- Miss no more than 1 day of yoga
- Miss no more than 1 day of journaling
- Miss no more than 2 days of exercise
- 6 Blog posts
- 4 Books
But I’ve also added a few:
- Bike 100+ miles
- Do some soul searching
- Learn about happiness
The last two are not quantifiable and will be hard to know if I really achieved my goal, but the point isn’t really to achieve a goal. Rather, it is to learn more than I know and inspire new ideas that may improve my life.
As October has already started I have been plugging along at these goals for the last nine days. I have a feeling I might knock the miles for biking out of the park (I’m at 42 already).
I do have to admit however, that I have already missed two days in a row of yoga and meditation. This is because I had a lazy day right before a day I needed to leave extra early for work. My excuses do not justify it but they do give insight into why this happened and show areas I need to improve for the future.
The leaves are in full swing creating a very colorful landscape. I hope October goes as well, if not better, than September. Until next time, peace.
