Six Month Check-in

Here we are half way through 2012. It is now July, so the first six months are complete. Back in January I blogged about my goals for 2012 and I thought this would be a really good time to revisit those goals and see how I am doing!

Goal #1: Improving my health. I would say that in general I have succeeded in this goal. This is, of course, an ongoing goal that I will need to maintain for the rest of my life. I have managed to continue with my eating goals (more veggies, less junk) and exercise goals (walking 30-60 minutes a day) and have managed to lose another 18 pounds since January of 2012. This brings me to a total loss of 58 pounds. I had hoped to drop another two so I could be at an even 60 for this blog, but 58 is a great accomplishment!

Goal #2: Perform the cello in public. I actually only did this on July 3rd. When I was in high school I used to perform with the Fredericton Chamber Orchestra, and I continued playing with them every time I would come home from university for Christmas or in the spring. I heard that they were doing a summer concert this year and sent the president of the orchestra an e-mail to see if I could play cello in the orchestra. It was a great experience and I am delighted that I did it! Playing in a group is completely different from practicing at home on your own. I think that more public performances need to happen, but this one was a good start with a pretty low-pressure concert.

Goal #3: Give back to my community more. I still need to work on this one.

Goal #4: Be more proactive in my business. I would say that I have achieved this goal, although, like goal #1, this is an ongoing project. I have gotten my e-mail in-box under control and only allow a total of 50 e-mails to reside there. I am only allowed to file an e-mail after I have dealt with it, so that means that I can’t ignore e-mails, or at least not more than 50! 😉 The problem I was having is that my in-box is set to display the first 50 e-mails, so once I had more than 50, the oldest e-mails would slip down off the screen, and out of site is out of mind. The other big change I have made is setting aside one day a month to go through my records and make sure that everything is up to date. This will make tax time next year much easier!

Goal #5: Record and release a CD of Christmas music. This project has been tabled for right now as I don’t think it should be my focus at this time. Perhaps you will see this goal pop up again next year!

Goal #6: Start a series on intimate concerts in the style of house concerts. Success! I held four concerts last year in my “Folk & Barqoue” concert series. They were a success and I am now in the planning process for next year. I will be hosting 3 concerts in the fall and then 4 more in the spring, so a total of 7 concerts this time.

All in all, it seems to me that things are going well. So many of these are on-going projects, so I hope at the end of the year, next year, 10 years from now, I can report that things are going well. We shall see how it all works out!