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 to live what I consider to be a spiritually meaningful life, in the ways I am able to. I am happy with this area of my life. I didn't visit the temple, after all (I had wanted to go on my mother's birthday, but, the monks were busy making preparations for a festival that was to be held at the end of the week), but, I was OK with that.
My goal in November is to continue to live a spiritually meaningful life in the ways that I am able to.
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 October, too.
My goal in November is to continue to have a close relationship with her and look forward to her upcoming visit over Thanksgiving!
Leisure/Crafts/Hobbies (10)(10): The goal is to relax doing something I enjoy doing for the pleasure of it.
I had a lot of crafting fun putting together various Fall/Halloween arrangements, redoing a wreath, decorating the house, etc. I also participated in the Monthly Photo Challenge. There were library books to read, time spent in the garden, and I did a few of the things I had listed in my Fall joyful activities list.
I am happy with the amount of leisure/crafts/hobbies activities I did in October. My goal in November is to continue to engage in fun, relaxing activities including crafts and hobbies.
Finances (10)(10): The goal is financial security:
I continued to budget and spend mindfully, with purpose, in October and I continued to manage well on my retirement income.
I will continue to budget and spend mindfully in November, too.
Garden (9.5)(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 did well in October, too. I continued to harvest a few green beans, some ripe cherry tomatoes, a few chilies, etc., and picked a few flowers to bring indoors. M has been doing some pruning and clearing, as well.
I am very pleased with how the garden performed in October. I am keeping the rating at 9.5.
November garden goals include more clearing and pruning with M's help and harvesting the butternut squash!
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 October. There were some food exchanged, too, with friends and neighbors, which is always nice!
I participated in the blogging community and in the online organizing friends group.
I am keeping my satisfaction rating at 9.0.
Goals for November will remain the same.
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
- 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!
On the whole, my health was being maintained during October. I took my flu vaccine, did a blood test, and maintained my weight (didn't lose anything, but, didn't gain anything, either)
I am keeping my satisfaction rating at 8.5.
Health goals for November will be to continue improving my overall health. I have two doctor's appointments scheduled for November and I need to schedule my Covid booster shot and a second blood test closer to the end of the month for the second doctor's appointment.
Time Management (8.0)(8.0): 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 lessI feel happy with how I managed my time in October. I've taken things fairly easy, but, I've not procrastinated as much and I am pleased. I am keeping my satisfaction level at 8.0!
The goal in November is to work on improving, or, at least, maintaining, my time management skills!
House (8.0)(8.0): 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
- 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
I kept up with the house cleaning and decorated it for Fall/Halloween. I've managed to keep the horizontal surfaces cleared. I did some decluttering, too, and managed to meet my goal of decluttering 31 items. The decluttered items included some clothing items, several brochures and catalogs, a jar candle, some expired medications, old greeting cards and correspondence, and a book.
I feel good about what I managed to achieve and I'm keeping my satisfaction rating at 8.0.
November goals for this area include maintaining and improving the state of the house. I will continue to do some deep cleaning of rooms as I decorate for Thanksgiving and continue to declutter. My decluttering goal for November is 30 items.
Once again, certain areas continued to get a high satisfaction rating while others remained the same. No areas increased, but, no areas decreased, either! I'm happy with what I managed to achieve in October. I think it turned out to be a very good month for me. I'm looking forward to November. It is usually my favorite month and there's my birthday and my daughter's visit over Thanksgiving to look forward to!
Did you make any goals for October and were you able to meet those goals or, at least, work towards them? Will you be making any goals for November?
Inspiring, as always, Bless.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping to have a bit of a reset during November, so I will be using this method as a way of re-evaluating these different areas of my life. X
Thank you, Jules. A new month is always a good time for a reset. I hope all is well with you and Lili.
DeleteNice and steady Bless, you certainly do have a balanced life. November is going to be a very good month for you I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Eileen. I'm looking forward to this month. :)
DeleteYou have done well to keep your evaluations steady. I suppose that there are always areas (the more enjoyable ones) which are easier to evaluate highly, whereas if you don't enjoy cleaning etc it's harder to (a) get on and do them & (b) evaluate them highly, as you may not have done them as often as you might have because of (a)!
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should do something like this. It might keep me more accountable - especially in my (almost non-existent) prayer life.
Thank you for your inspiration, and your interaction on my blog. I like being part of your community. :-) Love FD xx
Thank you, FD! What a lovely comment! Yes, you are right; some areas are more enjoyable and easier to rate higher; other areas are less enjoyable and I tend to avoid tending to those areas as well or as often as I should, and therefore, they rate lower.
DeleteI find it hard to believe that your prayer life is almost non-existent when I know you give sermons at your church on a regular basis. But, maybe you would like there to be more time spent in prayers on a daily basis? I generally start and end my days with prayers and I try to spend the hours in between living according to the teachings of my religion.
I enjoy interacting on your blog and I'm glad to have you as a blog friend. :)
You are very consistent with your goals each month. All with high ratings with just a couple that you want to tweak. Something for the rest of us to aspire to. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, June. Yes, my goals tend to stay the same, don't they? Goals are end states that I strive to attain (A pleasant, comfortable and welcoming home, for example) and then, I list the steps that I feel will enable me to attain that goal: regular cleaning and maintaining (I have a cleaning schedule that I try to follow), decluttering (I set myself a monthly number of items to declutter), etc. These steps are often measurable, so I can see if I accomplished them or not. If I accomplished them, then, that's a good month; if I didn't, there's room for improvement! :)
DeleteYou are still doing well with decluttering! I haven't decluttered anything like as many last month. I started this month decluttering a cereal bowl that slipped out of my hand when I was putting it into the dishwasher and it ended up in pieces on the floor instead! You did well with all the decorations. You must be really looking forward to Thanksgiving now and seeing your daughter!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bushlady. I'm feeling more motivated to declutter. Oh, so sorry about the cereal bowl. but, my mother used to say that when something like that breaks, it's a sign that bad luck has been cast out of the house! I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, but, still not allowing myself to get too excited because there's always the possibility that something could go wrong!
DeleteYou've really done well with your goals. I bet you're really excited about having daughter come stay. Definitely something to look forward to!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sharon. Yes, I'm looking forward to my daughter's visit, but, I'll let myself get excited once she's here! Things can go wrong between now and then and we've had visits postponed due to illnesses, etc.
DeleteYou've done well with your goals, as you always do. They are good to have so you can focus on what matters most to you. I should take a lesson from these, and perhaps someday set some goals!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Celie. I try to make realistic goals - something I can work towards without feeling too overwhelmed. Do you know what your goals might be?
DeleteOctober was a good month for you. All of your goals were met which must bring a sense of satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Debra; yes, October was a good month. :) I'm pleased that I kept the ratings same. There's room for improvement in some areas and maybe it is time to review some of the activities I've listed in some of the consistently high achieving areas, but, maybe I'll wait until next year to do that. I'm still in my "sheltering in place" mode although I've ventured out a little bit to the library, etc.
Delete