Saturday, December 1, 2018

December Balanced Life Monthly Goals

It's time to post my monthly goals for a balanced life in December.

As I've explained before, my monthly balanced life goals are similar to the spokes on a wheel, with the length of each spoke representing my satisfaction in that area of my life, from 1 to 10, with 1 being most dissatisfied and 10 being most satisfied.

My December goals for a more balanced life are:

Spiritual (8):  The goal is to live a spiritually meaningful life.
- Continue with daily prayers and gratitude; focus on being positive
- Take time for meditation - add 5 minutes to the nightly prayers to meditate
- Almsgiving - scheduled for December 22
- Cultivate non-attachment - focus on letting go of attachment to material possessions - declutter 31 items
- Attend the monthly rosary prayer gathering, if possible - Scheduled for December 8; I will attend only if I can get a ride; don't like night time driving, anymore. 

House (9):  The goal is a clean, tidy, uncluttered house:
- Focus on deep cleaning and maintaining cleaned areas in preparation for the almsgiving
- Declutter 31 items
- Continue to sort out the 3rd bedroom, a.k.a. The Dump! (It is looking a little less of a dump, now, though!)

Garden (8):
- Maintain (water 2x per week; weed)
- Buy and plant bare root fruit trees - at least 1 peach and 1 orange or tangerine
- Paint the front security door - buy paint

Daughter (10):  The goal is to continue to have a close relationship with her
- Daily texts, phone calls, emails, and video chatting
- Enjoy her planned visit home for the holidays (Christmas and New Year)

Family & Friends (10):  The goal is to keep in touch with various family members and friends.
- Regular phone calls and emails
- Invite family and friends to participate in the almsgiving
- Send out holiday greetings cards (Christmas and New Year)
- Will be seeing several members of the family and friends at this month's prayer gathering
- Weekly calls with neighbor T
- Visit neighbors for Christmas
- Go out to lunch with friend R - Scheduled for December 2
- Call and wish friend T for her birthday
- Call and wish niece for her birthday
- Celebrate Christmas with friends

Community (7):  The goal is to become more involved in my community.
- Continue to participate in the blogging community
- Continue to make hats for the American Heart Association
- Visit my neighbors

I have scaled back my expectations in this area, for this month. 

Finances (9):  The goal is financial security.
- Continue budgeting and spending mindfully, with purpose
  - Keep track of spending
  - Review budget and adjust as needed

Health & Well Being (6.5):  The goal is good health.
- Attend the appointments with my various medical doctors
  12/14- Do lab tests
  12/17 - Oncologist follow-up appointment
  12/20 - Podiatrist appointment
  12/28 - Primary care doctor
- Continue to work on the following life style changes:
   - better diet - eat more vegetables, less carbs
   - better hydration - drink 8 x 8oz glasses of water, daily
   - better sleep habits - get at least 7 hours of sleep/try to go to sleep before 4:00 a.m.!
   - more exercise - walk 30 minutes 5 days/week
 - Lose some weight - I'll set myself a goal of 5 lbs. for this month

Time Management (8):  The goal is to find a good balance between what I have to do and what I want to do.
- Be mindful of my time and how I spend it
- Plan my days/balance the "leisure" with "productivity"
- Implement the schedule my daughter and I came up with (with slight modifications, as needed)
- Procrastinate less!

Leisure/Crafts/Hobbies/Me-Time (8):  The goal is to relax doing something I enjoy doing for the pleasure of it.
- Focus on holiday gifts and crafts
- Work on charity crafts - red hats for heart association (need to be mailed by end of December)
- Participate in a winter photo scavenger hunt!  I am looking forward to this!  I am not a photographer as such and I only have my cell phone camera.  But, I like the idea of going a bit beyond my comfort zone so, I am going to try!
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Those are my goals for a more balanced life in December!  It's going to be a busy month with both my year-end almsgiving and Christmas/New Year preparations.  But, with a bit of planning and hard work, it should be a nicely balanced month!

Is anyone else making goals for December?  

6 comments:

  1. October and November were very busy for me. I was in overdrive, and for the first time in my life (I think), I have come into December with all my Christmas preparations finished. I may do some baking in December for myself and to gift others, but mostly I dream of just sitting back and appreciating all things Christmas. I will continue to work off my mile-long to-do list on the deep cleaning front and I will take some time to reflect on what I would like to accomplish in the coming New Year. I also want to revisit my budget again this month and make some changes. I am sure there will be many more opportunities this month for socializing.

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    1. You certainly were busy these last few months. Knowing you, you'll be busy in December, too, no doubt! But, I'm glad your Christmas preparations are done and you are able to sit back and enjoy it. Your goals for the month sound good - deep cleaning, plans for the New Year, and revisiting the budget. :) Enjoy the holiday gatherings and visits with family and friends, this month. We'll all tighten our belts in January!

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  2. Winter photo scavenger hunt sounds very interesting.
    I hope you will write about it later. :)

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    1. I will, Nil. I will be linking to another blogger who has posted a list for the scavenger hunt. :)

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  3. I'm so please that you are joining us on the Winter Photographic Scavenger Hunt. It's good fun and can be a reason for getting out of the house. Don't worry about not considering yourself to be a 'photographer' as the photos you've shown on your blog are lovely, and some of the other participants only use camera phones. The important thing is to take part and have fun ... the more people joining, the better.

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    1. Thank you for the welcome, Eileen. :) I need to check your blog again for the rules. I've already taken one photo for one of the items on the list - do I wait until the end to post it? Or do I post the photos as I go?

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