Tracking My 2017 Goals: January

At the end of 2016 I wrote about welcoming the new years challenges ​by focusing on five key areas of my life: Financial, Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Emotional health. I've decided I'm going to hold myself accountable to this throughout the year by looking back and doing a quick recap of how well I did in each of those areas for each month of 2017. Here goes.

​JANUARY 

​Financial Health:
My long-term goal for 2017 is to get some investments going. Before I can do that however I need to get the rest of my financial life in order.

What I did so far:

1. Created a savings plan for my emergency fund (yeah, before this year I didn't have one.) 
2. Applied to get my student loans refinanced. Right now I'm being charged between 4.2 - 6.5% APR. on a few different loans. 

How am I feeling about achieving my financial health goal by the end of 2017? Hot.

Physical Health:
​My goal for 2017 is to make exercising a normal and fun part of my daily life. The reality is exercise is NOTHING like taxes, although it can feel just as arduous a task when all you're doing is thinking about how you have to do it instead of doing the damn thing. Plus every time I exercise I feel SO good afterwards, not so much with filing my taxes. 

What I've done so far: 

1. Downloaded my gym's free app so I can set goals, track workouts and enter 'challenges' they host which can lead to perks that save me money if I win. Even if I don't win a challenge, it will feel rewarding to complete goals I set for myself. I'm beginning to take advantage of exercise gamification.  
2. I currently work on the fourth floor of a building in NYC and rather than wait for the always-full elevator to (finally) stop on our floor I'm just taking the stairs down, every time. Getting in a couple minutes of exercise and speeding up my trip home. 
3. My boyfriend got his hands on a VR set to do research for a job he's got coming up and I discovered VR games are an EXCELLENT way to get exercise without my even realizing it's happening. I did about 1 hour and 20 minutes of squats, ducks, and punches while shooting down robots to defend a space station. Far out. 

How am I feeling about achieving my physical health goal by the end of 2017? Luke-warm. I want to exercise A LOT more in February than I did in January. 

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​Mental Health: 
My goal for 2017 is to read books about subjects I wouldn't necessarily find interesting. I'm going to expand that to include listening to podcasts I wouldn't necessarily find interesting, and other kinds of material including articles and essays. 

What I've done so far: Big fat nothing. This is a really challenging one to do. 

How am I feeling about achieving my mental health goal by the end of 2017? Cold, so cold. It's really hard to decide to step out of the neural pathways I'm most accustomed to traveling. Also, I use up time that could be spent reading new material watching TV sometimes - I hate it, but it feels so good.

Spiritual Health: 
My goal for 2017 is to incorporate meditation into my daily life more. 

What I've done so far: Nada. 

How am I feeling about achieving my spiritual health goal by end of 2017? Numb. I'm kidding, but I wonder why I haven't gotten started on this yet. I can feel the need for it because stress is real. 

Emotional Health: 
My goal for 2017 is to keep meeting new people, nurture friendships I already have, and spend lots of time with family. 

What I've done so far: All of the above. 

1. In the past week I visited my mom and sisters apartments and caught up on life (we all live in NYC lucky me!)
2. I  met up with friends and invited them over to my place, and even ate some Moldavian food for the first time ever. 
3. I made plans to connect with someone I haven't met before who reached out to me after seeing an interview I did about my metabolic disorder PKU. 

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How am I feeling about achieving my emotional health goal by end of 2017? Warm & fuzzy. 

​As February gets ready to fly by I'm going to focus on my mental and spiritual health which fell behind a bit in January, but also keep taking steps towards physical, financial, and emotional health.

​I listened to Tim Ferriss' podcast today, and in one of the episodes I checked out he touched on the concept of 'decision fatigue'. He says you want to eliminate the number of decisions you make in a day so you can focus on the creative ones that matter most. I'm hoping that as I continue to focus on making health a priority, in all its many facets, I'll eliminate the need to make a choice to be healthy. If I automate healthy decision making in the basic areas of life by making them a habit, I'll be freer to make choices that allow me to soar in other more exciting ways. 

Till soon,
​Lillian