Balanced Life Goals - August Review and September Goals

As always, my overall goal is to live a life that feels well balanced to me.  To that end, I have created several areas of importance to me to focus on.  I try to evaluate each area, rating my satisfaction in that area of my life from 1 to 10, with 1 being most dissatisfied and 10 being most satisfied.  Ideally, all the areas get equal and high rating, but, lower satisfaction ratings indicate that these areas need more work.  My ratings for each area are shown within the parentheses, with the beginning of the month ratings in (black) and the end of the month ratings shown in (blue). 

These are the individual areas of my life and their ratings for August:

Spiritual (10)(10):   The goal is to live a spiritually meaningful life:
I continued with daily prayers, meditation, and, what is most important, living my daily life in accordance with the teachings of my religion.  What that means to me is living my life in a manner that does not intentionally harm others (to the extent my non-vegetarian diet lets me!) and being generous, kind, and compassionate in my thoughts, speech, and actions.  While there is room for improvement in this area (I could strive to become a vegetarian, for example), I am happy with this area of my life.

My goal in September is to continue to live a spiritually meaningful life.

Daughter (10)(10):  The goal is to continue to have a close relationship with her:

Daughter and I continued to keep in touch by phone, texts, and video chats in August, too.  Although we are not planning any visits during the summer, she did offer to come home to take care of me when I had some hip pain, at the very end of the month, although I assured her that I was fine and able to manage (the hip pain is getting better).

My goal in September is to continue to have a close, if long distance, relationship with her!

Leisure/Crafts/Hobbies (10)(10):  The goal is to relax doing something I enjoy doing for the pleasure of it.

The biggest leisure/crafts/hobby activity I did in August was crocheting a lap blanket with yarn I had in the stash!  I started it on the 10th and had it done by the 24th!  

In addition, I spent some time reading some library books and participated in the monthly photo challenge.  I am also participating in the Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt, which will end in September. 

I am happy with the amount of leisure/crafts/hobbies activities I did in August.  My goal in September is to continue to engage in fun, relaxing activities including crafts and hobbies.  I have a couple of quilts waiting my attention and new yarn to start knitting!

Finances (10)(10):  The goal is financial security:

I continued to budget and spend mindfully, with purpose, in August and had a consultation with my financial planner to take care of a few matters.  It's been almost 5 years since I retired (where did those years go?) and I continue to manage well on my retirement income.   

I will continue to budget and spend mindfully in September, too.

Garden (9.0)(9.5):  The goal is a garden that is productive, yet drought tolerant:

- Maintaining (water, fertilize, and weed); M will continue to visit twice a week

The garden was wilting at the beginning of August, but, it perked up when we were blessed with an unexpected day of rain as hurricane-turned-tropical storm Hilary moved past us!  

This month, I picked the last of the tomatoes from the first two plants we put in (Early Girl) - there was a plentiful crop of tomatoes, but, they were all very, very small, about the size of cherry tomatoes!  There are other tomato plants coming up - one of them is a volunteer plant and might be a cherry tomato; the others are from a mixture of 10 year old seeds that I had - I didn't expect much from those seeds, but, I'm pleasantly surprised to see some plants coming up!

I also harvested some potatoes that I had grown in containers (from supermarket potatoes that had sprouted before I could use them all up) which was fun! And I harvested all the onions, too, although they bolted before the onion bulbs grew to be of any size and I let the onion flowers bloom because they were so pretty. 

 

I picked all the Asian pears before they were ripe because one of the branches broke under the weight of the fruit.  The fruits were small, but, there were many - I think, next year, we will thin out the fruit when they start to appear.  I've picked some of the passionfruits, too, and they've made some delicious drinks, this month.

I am very pleased with how the garden performed in August, given the fact that we are in the middle of the summer with temperatures in the triple digits (100F+) on some days.  I've raised the satisfaction rating from 9 to 9.5

September garden goals include keeping the plants watered, especially the seedling tomato plants and the squash plants, and the garden weeded and tidy with M's help.  

Family/Friends/Community (9.0)(9.0):  The goal is to have a close connection with family and friends and be involved with my community:

- Regular phone calls and emails, etc., to keep in touch

- Participate in the blogging community and the online organizing community

There were regular phone calls, texts, emails, etc., with family, friends, and neighbors in August.  I had a very pleasant in person visit with neighbor S and her mother L, showing L how to crochet a shawl similar to the one I had crocheted and given her as a gift a few years ago.  As always, there were several exchanges of gifts of food with neighbor S and her family and with gardener friend M!  LOL. 

I participated in the blogging community, as well, and to a lesser extent, in the online organizing friends group.  

Goals for September will remain the same.  Former neighbor T and her daughter K both informed me that T's house has been sold and escrow will close at the end of the month; I get to look forward to having new neighbors and getting to meet them in September.  I hope they will be good neighbors!

Health, Self-Care & Well Being (8.5)(8.5):  The goal is good health:

- Focus on continuing to improve my health through diet, hydration, adequate sleep, etc.
- Attend my medical appointments
- Continue to take my medications as prescribed

- Continue to take necessary precautions against viral infections

As I've stated before, improving my health through diet, hydration, etc., is an on-going effort!  

I had an appointment with my oncologist in early August and I was happy that my blood test results were all good.  I received my bone density booster injection at that visit.

I had scheduled a flu vaccination in August, but, the pharmacy called to say they didn't have the required dosage for me and cancelled the appointment.  

On the whole, my health was being maintained during August, but, at the very end of the month, I've had some hip pain, which I am hoping won't be another sciatica flare up.  My daughter thinks I might have been dehydrated, which is quite possible because I tend to get dehydrated rather quickly.  I've been making it a point to drink more water and the hip pain is much better, today.  Still, I'm taking it easy and resting.    

Health goals for September will be to continue improving my overall health.  I need to schedule my flu vaccine and, once the hip pain subsides, restart my daily walking which sort of ground to a halt earlier in the month for one reason or another.

Time Management (7.5)(7.5): The goal is to spend my time in a mindful manner:

- Spend time purposefully, mindfully

- Continue to focus on making my schedule work for me

- Procrastinate less

Hah!  I can manage plenty of time to crochet myself a lap blanket, but, to do housework or paperwork or organize?  Not so much!  Obviously, I make time for what is high priority for me!  LOL.  But, I did get a few important things done in a very prompt and timely manner and I think I did OK, overall.  There is always room for improvement in this area and one day, I will get to it!    

The goal in September is to work on improving my time management skills!  

House (7.5)(7.5):  The goal is a home that is pleasant, comfortable, and welcoming:

- Clean - Clean the house as needed 
- Organize - Continue to find a place for everything and keep everything in its place
- Well maintained - Keep "erasing the evidence"; implement daily and weekly cleaning schedules
- Decluttered - Continue with the decluttering process

The house is looking very "lived in" currently!  LOL.  I'm good at creating messes, but, not so good when it comes to clearing the messes.  I tend to leave evidence of my activities for all to see, well after I've finished those activities!  This is something I struggle with.  However, no one is coming to see and, if they do, I hope they'll overlook the mess and enjoy the cup of tea I will offer them.

As for the decluttering, I had a goal of decluttering 31 items in August and I tried.  I tossed a few items including some old make up, dried up nail polish, and torn socks (not the knitted ones which I darn), recycled several items including brochures, plastic food containers, and cardboard boxes, put aside a few things including some clothing items and books to donate, and watched motivational videos on decluttering.  But, in the end, I didn't meet my goal of decluttering 31 items.  However, I get bonus points for resisting picking up those plastic storage containers that neighbor T's daughter had put out!  LOL!

September goals for this area include tidying, cleaning, organizing, and decluttering.  I have a goal of decluttering 30 items in September.  

Once again, certain areas continued to get a high satisfaction rating, one area (garden) increased very slightly, and others remained the same.  None of the areas decreased in my satisfaction ratings, which is good.  All in all, August was a good month, even if I didn't meet all my goals.  I'm looking forward to September.  

Did you make any goals for August and were you able to meet those goals or, at least, work towards them?  Will you be making any goals for September?