September Review & October Goals 2018

I’m really glad that our building work is happening at this time of year, because now the children have gone back to school, this part of the year disappears in a flash! I love the autumn, so despite the days drawing in, I’m feeling upbeat and ready to end the year on a high.

September has been a busy month at work, with a major project that’s currently at its peak. It’s meant a lot of calls in the evening with North America too. I also launched my own business finally and I’ve seen my first paying client! That said, I can see that it’s going to take time to build things up and I’ll need to be patient with it.

In terms of what I set out to achieve in September, I’ve not done too badly all things considered.

  • Exercise – having goals has done wonders for my motivation, it just makes it so much easier to get started and get on with it! I’ve been consistent and built on the good habits I started to establish in August, so I’m really pleased with this.
  • Nutrition – good, I’ve been focussing on planning and that helps, means that there is always a healthy meal to hand. Time and equipment has been short, but knowing the plan definitely helps.
  • Business – see above. I achieved my short term goal here, now to build on that.
  • House – well, things have moved on in leaps and bounds. After they eventually managed to drill out the floor, work could start in earnest and the walls have gone up pretty quickly since then! We sold the old kitchen on eBay which was good, and we have accommodation sorted for the next few weeks (ok, months) while we move out. Having to move our stuff into one side of the house has made me realise that we have a lot of, well, crap that needs sorting out. Whilst we’ll have more storage etc once the work is done, there is lots that just needs to go, so that will continue to be a focus.
  • Friends and family – have caught up with some friends this month and arranged a few things for October and November which I’m looking forward to.
  • Money – hmm. I’ve certainly been more conscious of my spending this month and things have been reasonably good, but there is still room for improvement. My day to day spending hasn’t been bad, but still needs focus.

 

If September was busy, October is looking like more of the same. I’m really hoping that once half term is out of the way, things will calm down a bit. Sometimes I think that I’m the architect of my own overwhelm because I take too much on and perhaps hoping is the wrong expression to use. October has a few work things which have necessitated swapping round my non-working day though, plus an inset day which takes up another whole Friday. I’m really struggling to carve out time to spend on the business at the moment, I need to be more proactive about promoting myself but that takes time which I don’t have currently. I do have one client in progress currently, so I will focus on her and spend the rest of the time available this month honing my marketing strategy for the remainder of the year.

 

It’s felt like I basically haven’t sat down in September, so my aim for October is to introduce “sacred Sundays”. The aim of this is that I have one day a week where I don’t have to do anything – no work (business or job), no child or life admin, no chores (other than cooking). Of course there may be enjoyable things, it’s not that I’m planning to clear my diary as such, just that I don’t want to sit there with my tea at breakfast time on a Sunday feeling guilty because I’ve got a to do list as long as my arm! I might actually get to see my family 🙂

October sees my first half marathon about 4 years. I feel like I’ve trained reasonably well for it, and whilst I’m not expecting a PB, I should get round in a decent time. The strength training is also going well and I’m seeing progress there, so that’s good.

The building work is now moving on nicely. The kitchen was sorted in September, but we’ll need to clear out our bedroom and the study in the next few weeks so that the interior work can start. Feels like a good opportunity to get rid of some more stuff too! We’re a bit peripatetic this month too. Once Paul’s parents are home, we’ll impose on them for a few more days before decamping down to my parents’ house in the New Forest for the first few days of half term. We’ve then booked a short break on the Isle of Wight and when we return at the end of the week, we’ll be moving into a static caravan at a local holiday park for the remainder of the build. It’s similar to what we stay in on holiday, so I’m under no illusions that it’ll be compact, but there is heating and we’re not there most of the time. Although if one more persons says to me “ooh, that’ll be an adventure!“….

The main goals for October then are:

  • Do the HM in sub 2 hours 10 mins
  • Introduce sacred Sundays
  • Find another race to enter to keep my focus up over the winter
  • Start sorting out the bedroom and study
  • Draw up my marketing plan through to the end of December

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