Being Intentional

As promised, I’ve been mulling over my goals for the last six months of the year. It’s harder than I thought to come up with a short list of key objectives that I’m willing to use as the guard rails of my life. Am I willing to be intentional?

Ultimately, I need the goals to be big enough to inspire but not too overwhelming, actionable, and well, interesting. They need to be real goals that I really want to reach, rather than a set of “should”s.

I’ve had those lists before. I should do yoga every day. I should stop eating sugar. I should do more networking. I should, should, should but I never do. Sigh.

So for my goal list, I’ve broken it down. The two work goals are probably the easiest. First, I want to focus and grow my marketing and communications consulting work. I’m so grateful for the good work I have now, but I’d love to get some work at the intersection of technology and public policy.  My real love is clean energy but I’m interested in how public policy needs to adapt to the next wave of technology innovations in transportation, health, work and elsewhere. So I need to be intentional about seeking more opportunities around those areas.

The second work/financial goal is to develop a paying side hustle. I’ve been intrigued listening to the podcast Side Hustle Nation about all the things people do to make money passively or otherwise in their “free” time. I want to develop and launch at least one side hustle before the end of the year.  Getting out of the idea phase and into action is the key. I think that’s doable.

On the personal health front, I’ve long had goals galore that were never reached. My goals in this area are usually a toxic combo of unrealistic goals and general lack of willingness. That’s derailed these efforts in the past. So I want to make goals that are specific and achievable but still lofty enough to be inspiring. I’m going to train for and run a half marathon before the end of the year (maybe two).  Over the years, I’ve done three so I know it’s doable and there is nothing like the feeling of being a rockstar who’s just done a 6 or 8 or 10-mile training run!  I have some secret time goals too because speed eludes me, for sure.

I think for a personal goal, I’ll start with baby steps to build better habits. I want to give up sugar and sugar substitutes. I want to do the Whole 30/Clean eating thing for two full months. I want to eat more mindfully, but I have a lifetime of failing these type of goals so I’m going to rein myself in. How about this.  Try not to eat anything, especially sugar, three hours before bed. Since I try to put myself down by 10:30, that means a 7:30 cutoff. My friend Oprah swears by this so I’ll give it a whirl.

My final goal is to just be present and enjoy today. I’m such a planner and future-tripper that I’m always looking for the next thing on the horizon. That kind of thinking has its benefits but it takes me out of today. More than ever, I need to be right here. I need to remind myself to make the most of what’s right in front of me rather than squandering the today’s joy for the hope of something better on the horizon.  Time to stop wishing my life away.  Time to dig back into my bag of tricks and double down with gratitude lists, meditation, and mindfulness.

There they are folks!  Anyone feel like sharing one or two of theirs? Let’s take them on together. Onward and upward!