As if we’re coming to the end of Q3 already 😫. I honestly don’t know where the last quarter has gone, and I’m overwhelmed with how quickly the end of the year is approaching.

However, from a goals point of view, I always feel like the last quarter is about seeing and appreciating results rather than the hard slog.

The last quarter has been challenging for many reasons. A lot has happened that has impacted the progress of my goals and also how I view them.

Here’s a little reminder of what my 2022 goals are and where I’m at with each of them.

Walk an average of 10,000 steps per day.

After two-quarters of progress, this goal makes my legs hurt just thinking about it. 

Over the last couple of months, I’ve hit a mental and physical block with this one. 

Although I know my average number of steps is still good, and I’m not that far from reaching my target (on average, I’m walking 9358 steps/day), I’ve found my motivation waning. 

There are two headaches walking is currently causing me:

1. My legs hurt. I feel like I’m constantly pounding the pavement. I’m trying to look after my legs by easing the pressure on them when I’m not walking and by elevating them regularly, but they still hate me. Meanwhile, the rest of my body is cursing me for having zero fat on my calves, but the top half of my body looks no different!
2. There’s no time to do anything else. Walking takes time (roughly an hour and a half of time to walk 10,000 steps). Because I prioritise walking so much, it’s stopping me from doing other things, and I’m starting to resent it. 

I love walking. But I don’t want it to feel like a chore. 

So, it’s time to change things up. 

ACTION REQUIRED

It’s time to re-invest in my overall physical health. I used to love going to the gym but have been reluctant to invest in a gym membership since I became self-employed. But I feel like it’s time to give myself a full-body workout and not just rely on walking as a form of exercise.

I went to look around a local gym earlier this month, and I plan to join before the Winter begins. I want to go back to enjoying my walking and not just as a form of exercise. 

Hopefully, my calves will start to like me again too.

Track my refills.

Whilst my love affair with my local refill shop continues, I’m still not ‘officially’ tracking the plastics I’m throwing away.

I recently thought I had found a solution to buying cheaper fruit with less packaging. I stopped by the fruit and vegetable market in Kingston to see what their prices were like and was thrilled to find affordable produce. However, the strawberries and blueberries seemed to go over quite quickly, solving one problem and creating another – food waste!

Some things from the market lasted well, such as bananas, so I will continue to go there for some things, as I like the idea of supporting the market, but for other things, it’s back to the supermarket for now.

There seem to be mixed reviews online about the possibility of the beauty industry doing more things to curb the amount of plastic they use. Whilst refills don’t seem to be a solution for all products (due to old and new variations of the product mixing, especially if the product only has a certain lifespan), there do seem to be more refill products starting to appear.

For now, I feel I’m doing everything I can refill-wise. I’m happy to have created new habits around buying food and household products and considering whether there are alternatives which would be kind to the environment. 

Increase my income.

At the end of the last quarter, two of the steps I wanted to take towards this goal were focusing on finalising my website and starting to work on passive income ideas.

Although my website still isn’t the finished article, I have been putting more time aside to make improvements. I’m currently using Ahrefs to help improve my SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and slowly working through the glitchy parts of my website. 

I plan to have the website done by the end of the year, so I can start 2023 without having to make any more structural changes to it for a while. 

I’m also in the process of working on a couple of passive income ideas. They’re not ready to be shared yet, but I’m excited to have set some time aside to start working on these.

Business remains steady with some new potential projects on the horizon. It’s mad to think I was still a full-time employee this time two years ago with redundancy hanging over my head. Now I have a business I’m proud of, and I’m excited to see where it might take me next.

ACTION REQUIRED

Make sure I set aside some dedicated focus time each week to prioritise working on my website and passive income ideas.

Read at least 12 books.

Bizarrely, this was the first goal to slip over the summer after such a good start earlier in the year.

I think the warm weather played a part in this. In previous summers, I would find myself adventuring and taking my book out to read in parks etc. But this summer, I spent more time indoors escaping the humidity! I also think my therapy sessions had something to do with it, as there has been a lot of information to process. I seemed to spend much more time mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. And do you know what? I’m actually ok with that. 

Since the humidity has disappeared and my therapy has finished, I’m back to reading, and thanks to how well I started the year, I’m still on track to achieve this goal. 

ACTION REQUIRED

Refocus on bedtime reading, and put my phone down when I go to bed!

Take a minimum of 20 days of annual leave.

As I’ve been writing this post, it’s dawned on me that I’ve smashed this goal!

I’ve taken twenty days of annual leave this year, with a few more days coming up between now and Christmas!

I shouldn’t have needed to add this as a goal, but after not taking enough breaks last year, I needed to make it a priority this year.

Conclusion

Although I’ve veered off track a bit over the last quarter with some of my goals, thanks to getting a head start at the beginning of the year, there’s still time to get things back on track before the year is out.

But before I dig a bit deeper to get back on track, I’m off to celebrate having taken plenty of annual leave this year and for not letting burnout consume me 😁

Did you set yourself any goals this year?

Have you found yourself veering off track at any point during the year? How did you get back on track? Or did you give up?

What challenges do you need to overcome to achieve/progress your goals before the end of the year?