The first period of six weeks has come to an end. So it’s time to look back at the total progress on the goals I set myself. And it’s time to set three new goals for the coming period of six weeks.
Progress report on goals
Goal 1: Get rid of 100 things
Goal 2: Strength training everyday
Goal 3: Make music
The six weeks are over and although you can see that not all bars are at the 100% level, I consider this first six weeks a success! First of all, the 100 things goal has reached the 100% mark. This is the stuff I got rid of:
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100 things less in the house, it really cleared up some spaces of the house, but at the same time it only scratched the surface of all the stuff that we own. This exercise really makes you aware of how many stuff you’ve got around, and how many stuff you actually use or actually want to keep.
A nice side effect for this exercise was also that I found all kinds of stuff that my wife had lost 
I could’ve reached the 100% mark earlier, but I ran everything through the “Spouse Acceptence Test”, and a lot of stuff I was ready to say goodbye to ultimately ended up not passing the SAT.
The Strength goal was a success as well. I did not make it to 100%, but over the course of the 42 days I reached a 75% success rate. This means that I did some exercises on 3 days out of 4. Which is way more than I did before the six week period. I’ve also noticed some progress on stamina for some of the exercises, I really improved in my ability to do push-ups. 25 was tough in the beginning, but now I can do 50 without overexerting myself.
The Music goal was a goal for fun. I wanted to make more music, and I succeeded at that. I made NO music before this six week period. And in this period I almost hit the 40% mark, which is awesome! I also worked my way around the problem of not being able to make noise when my family sleeps. A new keyboard with headphones, just me and the music, without waking anybody up.
This was an awesome period. Life besides the goals was a little hectic though. I’ve felt out of control on many occasion, but things are getting better now
It’s time for three new goals.
New Six Week Goals
Time for three new goals. One results goal, one effort goal and one fun goal.
Results Goal:
Write 100 blog posts
This one is ambitious, but I’ve been behind on writing blog posts. I really want to write more, and I want my blogs to grow. Blogs, because I’m talking about this blog and about De InspiratieKamer, the Dutch blog I started with Remco Langeler.
100 posts is more than 2 posts per day, so this is going to be a lot, and falling behind on the goal is going to be a problem. I won’t be publishing all 100 posts in the 42 days, that’s too much. I will definitely publish a lot, but I’ll also have posts available for guest posting. And it’ll be a good feeling to have some posts “in stock”.
Effort Goal:
No candy or chips
This is another goal in the “shape up” goal, just like the Strength goal in the previous period. For the coming 42 days I’m not going to eat any potato chips or candy. They are weak spots for me, I usually turn to them in the afternoon or late evening when I feel a little hungry. That’s a choice, but it’s slowly growing into an unwanted habit. So this goal is to break the habit forming characteristic of this goal.
Fun Goal:
Photography everyday
After working with music for the last six weeks, I’ve decided to move to another hobby I’ve neglected for a long time: photography. I like looking at the world around me and I like creating images that show the world in different perspectives. Or to show parts of the world that are overlooked or taken for granted. So for the coming six weeks I’m going to take pictures everyday.
The new six week period starts tomorrow, tuesday april 6 and ends on monday may 17.
Blog performance
The blog metrics:
- Average daily visitors: 307 (-10)
- Average subscribers: 290 (old feed) + 951 (new feed) = 1241 (-26)
Ouch.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Congratulations on the great progress toward your goals. I’ve been doing some purging too…it isn’t easy, but it does feel great. I admire you for setting new goals after you’ve just finished with one set. Best of luck! I hope you’ll post your pictures….and I look fwd to reading your posts! That’s really ambitious! I’m running out of steam a little on my 30 Notes project, but I know it’s important, so I’ll keep at it. I haven’t counted how many notes I have left, but maybe a week or so. I’ll be thinking on my next goal, too.
Thanks again for the inspiration!
Jane
Thanks Jane!
Yeah, I want to get the six weeks to be a rhythm for my goals. It’s long enough to really do something, and short enough to keep you going without procrastinating. I’ll probably be posting my (best) daily picture in the daily reports I post on my tumblr blog.
Your 30 notes project is still on my list, but for somehwere in the near future. I thought about doing it now, but I want to be able to give enough time to any follow-up that might occur, and looking at my schedule over the coming six weeks … I’m not sure I can follow-up on that.
Congratulations on accomplishing so much in six weeks!
Your blog goal intrigues me because I have a hard time imagining writing two posts per day. Do you mind if I ask how long it takes you to write a blog post and if you have any tips for achieving such a high level of output? I’m just curious because I would really like to find ways to write some of mine more quickly so that I can write more posts, including some for guest posting. Since I am due to have a baby in six weeks and want to have some pre-written posts by then myself, maybe I’ll make my own more modest six-week goal for number of posts!
Good luck with your next goal sprint
Two posts a day is also an ambitious goal for me
I’ve noticed however that whenever the time between posts gets longer, I find them harder to write. This goal is really a test to see whether “high intensity writing” is a better strategy to keep the juices flowing.
The time it takes me to make a post varies quite a lot. I usually have the basic text in 30-45 minutes, but polishing it may take double that time.
The last six weeks of pregnancy are not the easiest
I hope yours will be easy though. It’s awesome to be in that anxious anticipation, don’t you think?
Hi,
I’ve been following your blog for few weeks and am interested in it for I’m on the same kind of journey.
As a musician, I was wondering if you want to keep your “new habit” of playing. I don’t think you mentioned it, but according to me it belongs to the real challenges as well as the real interest of getting new habits.
Also, having more and more goals reminds me of our consumption society. I’m afraid you might lose track and get confused after a while with so many targets. Fun? Surely. Efficient? Time will tell. Exhausting? I guess so.
Nice blog, it’s in my favourites, I enjoy reading it.
Greetings from Switzerland
Hi Alex,
I did not mention it, but yes, I do want to keep up with the “new habit”. You’re right to put it between quotation marks, because it’s not quite the habit yet
In the past couple of days I have actually played on the keyboard and I did some exercises. I’m not planning on stacking all kinds of new habits in my day to day life, but replacing some bad ones with some good ones never hurts right?
The results goals are goals that really end after six weeks, so they don’t really carry over to after the deadline. The effort goals do in a way, and the fun goals are there for fun. I have no results or effort goal in mind for them, I play because I enjoy playing, and I take picture because I enjoy taking pictures.
Your remark about having more and more goals intrigues me. I’ll give it some thought. It doesn’t feel like having that at all, and they’re all rooted in my core values and my guidelines. In a way they’re all aspects of the same underlying principles… but I’ll keep your remark in mind. Thanks!
(And I love Switzerland! I’ve been there many times, in winter and in summer.)
Hey Ludovic (I guess it’s the French version of your name :p),
I agree on what you’re saying about changing your habits. What about evoking the habits you want to replace? That’s inspiring to people who believe it’s not possible, and it gives a better view of the big picture of the process. I guess this absence made me think that you’re filling your life with activities rather than improving your quality of life.
NB: I like the very little smiley down on the right side of your blog.
I think it’s nearly impossible to unlearn something. That’s why I usually use a strategy to replace one thing for another. Changing habits is more or less the same, I think I’ll write a post about it soon.