Goal Setting.

I started my day with the intention of writing for 30 minutes and goal setting this morning, while I drank a cup of black coffee and the munchkins were still in PJs, content to watch something on Netflix. The Universe had another plan in-store, as I quickly realized when my nearly new (Christmas Present 2016) Macbook kept crashing after I logged in. I followed the instructions for a safe restart on the Apple website and finally had to submit a ticket to support. After about 30 minutes on the phone, being walked through various diagnostics, Apple support kindly had me reinstall my OS.

Deep breathing and a nice gratitude practice got me through it all with relatively little distress. I don’t generally store anything on my computer itself, everything is “in the cloud,” so I was not particularly worried about data loss; however, I was worried about a working computer. When you work remotely, sending off your computer to get fixed for two weeks is not exactly ideal! Apparently, reinstalling an OS is quite time to consume, so finally, around 7 PM this evening I was finally able to login. Whoop! Happy Dance! Not only did it work, but I was delighted to be greeted by the same tabs that I’d left open in Chrome and Safari when I signed off last night. As far as I can tell, nothing has been lost.

I don’t know exactly what happened or why, but Support thinks that it may have been an update to an App. My computer requested to install some updates when I shut down last night and since the issue seemed to happen after I logged in (not when I turned my computer on), my contact thought it likely that an App/update is probably to blame. This means that tomorrow I’ll have to look through my Apps and see if any of the are known to break computers.

But for now, I find myself here at 10:20 PM after the kids are in bed, with a cup of tea at my side, squeaking in a few goals and my daily dose of writing. I think one goal I may need to have, is to figure out what I need to do to implement a backup plan for working if my laptop goes out…ha!

My 2017 Goals center on being “my best self.” “You can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way,” writes Wallace Wattles in the Science of Getting Rich. Or as they say, put your oxygen mask on first, before helping those around you. This is a difficult challenge for many of us, especially for moms. It is so easy for moms to get caught up in making sure everyone else around me has on their oxygen mask that sometimes I forget to even breathe. And it is not much better when I am working, the desire to put my best foot forward and serve my clients, means that it is all too easy to find myself working at 10 PM or skipping my run, to get something finished. And this needs to come to an end.

There are three categories of goals and one overarching goal, which I have already mentioned. My overarching goal is to create an income stream that allows me express my desires and achieve the function of which I am capable, and provide opportunity for those around me.

  1. Spritiual
    1. Grounded: Most of my life I have experienced a strange dichotomy; when the shit hits the fan, I tend to be as cool as a cucumber. I can see right away what needs to be done to provide the most effective triage or pull-off the show without anyone ever knowing that something was amiss. At the same time, when my close relations (my son, my husband, my mother) do something that angers me, I can lose that cool with the flip of a switch. I have never been proud of this ability of mine, but I have discovered in the last year, that it is not only emotionally uncomfortable, but it is also physically uncomfortable. It makes my head hurt and my heart race. And I probably look like someone who is going to blow a gasket. And so, I pledge, I set the goal this year, to learn to keep my cool and talk it through later. I need to find a way to ground myself when the switch has been flipped. Maybe it is meditation, maybe it is awareness, maybe it is setting the goal here in front of you, publicly.
  2. Mental
    1. Meditation: I set the goal to meditate daily. At least 5 minutes. And once per week for 30 minutes. The times in my life that I have had the most clarity and had the greatest ability to tackle life’s little ups and downs have been when I had a regular meditation practice. Having kids, especially little ones that get up at 6 AM to pee, makes this a bit of a challenge. That said, for the last year or so I have been using the Breathe app on my phone. Many of the mediations are only 5 or 6 minutes long. There is one called “Lion Mind” that I am particularly fond of. When I am tired and unfocused, when I feel the world is all rushing in to crush me or when I forget to apply my oxygen mask first, I have found that even a 5 minute meditation can be as restorative as a good night’s sleep. It. Is. Amazing.
    2. French: After three years in the French school system, my son can both out grammar me and out speak me.
  3. Physical

Time’s up for the day…I will be back tomorrow. My goal is to set at least three goals for each category. Don’t worry, I’ll get the best of Murphy yet!