October Review & November Goals

I knew that October was going to be a busy month and it certainly was! There weren’t really any surprises though which is something – at least I knew what was coming. The first part of the month was a bit of a blur, work was frantic and there was a lot of juggling around that put my usual routine out of whack.

We had a lovely break at half term, the weather was pretty kind to us and we managed some days out and down time on the south coast. Once we were back, it was into the caravan. The weather on arrival was freezing and wet, but at least we got to test the central heating and I can confirm that it’s toasty in there, so at least we don’t have to worry about it being cold over the next few months.

The house project is moving on which is good news, and things seem to be on track at the moment. So, the October goals… well, there were highlights and low lights:

  • Do the HM in sub 2 hours 10 mins – goal nailed! I think all the hill training really helped me run faster on a flat course, as it was by far my quickest run in some time.       Unfortunately I managed to pause my stop watch taking my top off, so I had to wait until the end to find out my official time, but I did 2hrs 2 mins and 31 secs which I was super happy with.
  • Introduce sacred Sundays – nope. I knew this would be a challenge in October, but now we’re settled in the van, I’m hoping I can implement this in November!
  • Find another race to enter to keep my focus up over the winter – I’ve decided to go for the Wokingham Half Marathon in February. It’s local, flat and I haven’t done it before.       I haven’t entered yet, but I’ll do that in the next couple of weeks.
  • Start sorting out the bedroom and study – well, both rooms have been cleared out so the building work can start, and I have been slowly getting rid of stuff, including some old kitchen appliances and clothes. The trouble is that we’ve had limited time to get everything packed up, so a lot of what we’ve done is just pile stuff up in other rooms, which makes it quite hard to get to. But the goal was to start, so I’ll consider that achieved.
  • Draw up my marketing plan through to the end of December – I’m feeling like I haven’t done too much in this space up to now, but I really need to pull my finger out. I joined a really inspirational webinar a couple of weeks back run by a lady with a similar back story to me, who is now making a success of her business as a Nutritional Therapist. I’ve joined a 5 week business bootcamp starting this week which will give me a bit more structure and focus which is exactly what I need at the moment!

 

I’m planning on a quieter November (she says, optimistically). On the plus side, we’re not moving again, so at least we can settle where we are. The big project at work has come to an end, so I can actually work on some more strategic projects which will be good.

My day working on my business has got a little lost recently – we have three inset days on Fridays this term, plus I have a couple of nice things organised (spa trip and a weekend away with Paul). Part of my feels a bit guilty about this, but part of me says to enjoy it whilst I’m not so busy, and as long as I’m spending some time on the planning and getting the foundations in place to really ramp up in the new year, not to worry. I do have my boot camp to keep me focussed, plus I’m attending a freebie session on building the business too. I also plan on focussing on my CPD (continuing professional development) this month and ensuring that I have that covered off for this year too. I’ve attended some sessions which will go towards that, but there is lots of exciting on line content that I’m going to watch too – the learning never stops!

Fitness is ticking over this month, I’m still enjoying my PT sessions and the running is going reasonably well too. After a lot of eating out over half term, I’m back to focussing on eating well too. It’s going to be a different approach in that we have the world’s smallest fridge, so I’ll have to shop more frequently and rely on quick and simple meals that don’t require a very well stocked store cupboard.

I think staying in the caravan will be an interesting experiment in living with less and being tidy. Even after a few days I’ve become much more conscious of putting things away, otherwise it gets unbearable pretty quickly. That’s obviously a lot easier the less you have. Being able to take only limited amounts of stuff with me has really made me question what we have and what we actually need. We’ve already cleared out a fair amount of stuff, but need to do much more. Some can happen now, but unpacking once the house is finished will be a really good opportunity to evaluate what we really need and what we can do without. We already know that we’re getting rid of some old furniture, some of which has served us well since we got married 19 years ago, but has seen better days. I don’t want to go mad on spending on new stuff, so we need to be a bit choosy about where we invest.

Goals for November are:

  • Launch myself into the business boot camp and immerse myself in all the activities.
  • Settle into caravan life and keep tidy!
  • Continue with my exercise routine, introducing some interval and tempo sessions to help my running speed
  • Get some of my cleared out clothes on eBay.
  • Make sure I make time for those sacred Sundays!

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