New Years Resolutions, Not My Thing. But Goals Are!

Happy New Year my blogging friends!!!

Sorry, it's been a few weeks.  I took one week off blogging to just relax and enjoy the Holiday's and family times.  But then last week I caught a bad cold and just decided to take another week off too.  I keep hoping I can shake this cold, but it is starting to seriously kick my butt.  I didn't think colds were supposed to last longer than a week, I sure wish this one would stick to that timeline rule!

Although I had been enjoying our unusual extended fall weather, I knew it would eventually come to an end.  We finally received our snow here, in the form of a White Christmas.  Literally, we didn't get the storm until Christmas morning where the valley's were finally blanketed in that beautiful white stuff:)
With the snow came of course the cold temps that come with it.  So with catching a cold shortly after Christmas I have been skipping the single digit morning temps and not going out in it for runs... yet...

I know I have mentioned this before, but I'll just say it again.  I actually don't believe in making New Years Resolutions and haven't for many years.  Why?

Well, according to Forbes, they say only 8% of people who make a New Years Resolution actually achieve their goal.  So I have always said to myself.  Why set myself up for failure:)
So yeah, that is why I don't set New Years resolutions.  However, if you know me, you know I am totally and completely goal oriented.  I start and make new goals all the time, I just don't make any specific new goals on January 1st and call them resolutions.

Many of you know I am a Fitbit user, and I love it!  I've only recently been adding a few friends on it, and getting into the competitions.  (Not sure what took me so long.:)
I have two sisters with Fitbits, one that crushes 30,000 steps in a day like its nothing.  Who doesn't add anyone to her friends account.  Which is okay for now, but in a few months when I am closer to that, I would love to take a crack at beating her in a day!

One of my other sisters just received one for Christmas, she's currently more a little more on my level.
She jumped right in on it, and added me and others immediately, and started pounding away at goals and competitions on it.

It was all awesome and great until I got sick, and then after two days in bed, and still getting challenges send over by her, with her beating me.  She texts me and tells me she's also got a bad cold, but that she is still going to kick my butt in daily steps.

(If you don't know already, I have a very competitive family:)

Of course, I can't let sickness keep me from beating her especially if she is sick too!  So for about four days in a row I got up, worked out for a 45-50 minutes to get my 10,000 steps in.  Then I would collapse in my bed and sleep off the rest of the day with cold medicine.
But each day she kept beating me, and it was driving me crazy.
Well in true competitive spirit she would keep up with me, and then when she knew I had gone to bed, even if it was 11:30PM, she was up running around her house so she could leave me in the dust on the challenges.

Once I figured this out, I picked one day and hit my goal and then late at night went another 4K steps and didn't sync it until almost midnight so she wouldn't have time to beat me.
Ya, sadly that is the only day I have beat her yet.
My cold seems to be coming back again so even my competitive nature couldn't keep it up over the weekend, and I am just sleeping things off a bit and hopefully will feel better soon and can get out and get running each day again, and then I can crush her in step goals each day!

It's all good and fun, and I am also enjoying the challenge competitions others friends invite me into as well.  I just feel bad I am not much competition right now.  But soon, that will all change!
If you don't have a Fitbit, and your thinking of getting one.  No matter your fitness level, they are awesome and really great motivation.  Especially when you start getting into daily challenges, looking bad just doesn't become an option and you immediately want to show others just how motivated you can be each day!


I was going to share with you some of my goals for the past year, what I have achieved and what I haven't yet.  But then I realized on my Monday posts I keep that part of my life pretty open, so I decided not to bring up things I talk about all the time:)

However, I will make a few mention.  A few months back I said I was aiming for a March Marathon, as my first after coming back after my 2 year forced layoff from them.
I am still deciding if I can be ready by then.  I am keeping tabs on the race and it hasn't sold out yet, but probably will sometime this month.  So January 15th is my goal decide date.
If I think I can do it, I'll pay for it all and start booking the trip.  If I think I need a bit longer, I will  aim for April.  So fingers crossed, and we'll see what the next few weeks bring as I am making the decision.

Another couple of fun goals I decided to give a try this year.  I actually have to give a shout out to my friend from down-under over at Run Mum.  She actually inspired this goal idea from what I read on her blog this year.
She has been working on a Handstand goal.  It got me to thinking about several weeks back when I tried to teach my niece how to do a back bend and then eventually a back bend walkover.  In my mind I still feel young, I only realize my body has changed when I actually go and try to do something that was so easy when I was younger.  When all of a sudden things hurt like never before, and I wonder where the heck all the flexibility went:)
In short, lets just say my niece still walked away not sure how to do it because I was so bad at the attempt to show her how haha.
So I have three similar goals I hope to work on this winter/spring (summer if it takes till then), I'd like to:

Do a back bend, and eventually turn it into a back bend walkover.

Do a freestanding handstand and be able to actually hold it for 15 seconds.

A perfect cartwheel:)

Why those three?  Well they all kind of go together, I think:)

No, I'm not trying to be a gymnast, my gymnast days are long in my past.  But I would like to be able to do those things again, just really for myself.  That and it might be fun to be able to whip one out when others aren't expecting it, haha...   So yup, those are the goals and ya I did steal one of the idea's from Run Mum:) 

I'm still deciding on if I will mention on the blog which race I will be attending before, or if I will wait until after.  I've always been an after the fact blogger/social media poster especially in the past with running.  Mainly for safety, since I am a solo traveler.
I know others do it, and don't have problems with it.  I know my blog has evolved a lot in the past few years.  I just don't know yet how I feel about it for myself yet.  But even if I don't mention which race and state I will be visiting.  If I notice other bloggers I know may be there, I may just reach out to you privately and possibly we could meet up at the starting lines and have a fun chat:)

I've got a lot of goals I am working on right now.  Some personal, some business related and a few that may even change my life quite a bit.  I am always excited about the future and what it may bring, even in all it's ups and downs!
I will say I am so thankful for each and every one of you who have stuck with me and follow my blog.  Blogging would be so boring without you my wonderful followers.  I look forward to blogging with you all in 2015!

If your stopping my my blog for the first time, feel free to leave a comment below.  If your a blogger, please leave me a link to your blog so I can come and visit your blog as well!

Do you make New Years Resolutions?  Or just work on goals all the time as you need or desire them?  What are some of your current goals.
Are you an after the fact blogger, or do you blog about things your going to be doing and places you'll be in the future?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on that, both sides actually since it is something that is quite a bit on my mind on what I should do for myself!

A Little Bit of Everything

Do you ever have those times where you have a jumble of thoughts and as you go to write your blog posts, instead of one or two things you end up jumbling a little bit of everything together?
I apologize ahead of time because today is one of those days.  However, in case only a few things interest you, I put headings so you can skim and read only what you'd like:)

LAST WEEKS WORKOUTS
Monday - 6 Miles
Tuesday - Rest Day
Wednesday - 5 Miles
Thursday - 6.2 Miles
(I worked too much on my feet this week, so Friday, Saturday and of course Sunday were all rest days.  My tendon started swelling up later in the day Thursday and has been a bit painful and bothersome.  Sunday it was feeling a little better so we will see what this week brings.  I have already picked a lighter work schedule for this week (less time on my feet) so my tendon inflammation can go down and the pain can subside...hopefully...  I know there is a chance this maybe how I have to deal with it going forward.  But I can't help but have hopes and prayers that it will eventually heal and I won't have to schedule my life around it's pain and swelling levels!)

BYE BYE BLACKBERRY... OR MAYBE NOT...
Okay, so some of you know I am one of those rare people who love the Blackberry phone.  I've been loyal to the Blackberry and At&t for many years.
However, when my family got together we decided to see if we could all save some money by signing up for one of those "Family Plans". Once we looked into it, I realized for myself alone it would save me about $40 a month which is $480 a year savings and that is significant.  That pretty much was enough to push me into doing it.
Sprint does have Blackberry, but the price lets just say was several hundred more than I wanted to spend.  So I bit my bottom lip and hoped I wasn't making the biggest mistake ever and went with the Samsung Galaxy.

It wasn't 24 hours later that I was hating it and tearing up at the thought of my loss.  The things and the ease that I had before with what I used my Blackberry for, were not as easy with new phone.
Mostly I missed my keypad, and the ease it was to write up things and emails, posts...
Everyone keeps telling me I just have to get used to it.....  It's debatable at this point.  I am tempted to go and exchange my phone for a Blackberry and I have now 12 days left to do so.  The problem is, if I do, because of the price of the phone, I really wouldn't be saving much and I might as well stayed on my old plan???
Decisions, decisions.  Right now I am not sure if it is worth the savings.
Sure I will admit there are 2 pro's that I have found with my new phone.  But frankly, I am not sure they out weigh my other loss.   So I guess this decision will be, to be determined....


YEARLY TWITTER GOAL MET
In January I set a few "Blogging Goals" for myself.  Some of them were with my blog itself, others were in the form of social media.
One of them was to hit 5,000 Twitter followers.  That one snuck up on me and happened earlier this month.  That is pretty awesome, and I thrilled that so many fabulous people enjoy following me, and visa versa!

SCHEDULED POST GOALS... SLIPPING
Another goal I had was to be several weeks out in posts, except for my Monday posts.
Truthfully, I was doing fabulously all the way up until September.  I used to have 15-20 posts finished and written and scheduled to go live on their appropriate dates.
Doing this gave me the needed time I wanted so that I could spend more time following other bloggers and reading their posts and so on.
But the past month I have pretty much been doing them "day before" and I really need to take a day and spend it post writing and scheduling because I really liked when I was ahead and could spend more time chatting with my blogger friends.
Also, you've probably noticed less posts on my blog lately.  I just figured not to run posts on days I didn't have enough time to put a good effort into it.
So it is my new goal to get back on track like I was before the end of the year, starting with this week!

MAKING MONEY BLOGGING
I haven't ever talked about this one on my blog before, but yes I do enjoy blogging for fun.  But I also enjoy doing it for side money and free products I actually can and will use.
I don't earn an income that you could say is substantial by any means.  However, some months it is a great part -time job:)  if you call it that.
I had monthly goals, and lets just say they are pretty high so I haven't exactly met them yet.
However, September was a great month and at around $800 (Yes I did just put that out there.)  I am closer than I have ever been to hitting a monthly goal.  So we will see what the last 3 months of the year bring.  Also, I have done this on a Blogspot blog, which so many say you can't do, so that in itself proves that you can actually make a little money even on a free blog:)

JOBS AND CAREER GOALS
Earlier this year I shared with you that I was planning on making some major changes and I think I even mentioned I would let everyone know my plans shortly thereafter.
However, after a lot of thought I decided not to share those plans for a while.
First, I did go out and I was offered some amazing (desk) jobs.  Some that a few people think I am a complete idiot to have turned down.  Even turned down a job with a major TV network that would have been a seriously promising future in more than one way.

Why did I turn them down, especially after working so hard to get them?  Well when it came down to it, I looked at each of those jobs and I asked myself.  Money aside, will these jobs make me happy? Will I enjoy waking up and going to work each day?
When I searched my heart & soul, the answer was No.  Which is why I turned them all down.
Which put me out to thinking about what WOULD make me happy.

Now I love weddings, and I love what I do and I have zero plans on letting go of the wedding decoration company I own and love.
However, the economy has taken some hits and despite what the government says, the reality is things are not picking up and people are cutting back.  Which has given a decline in revenue, especially this year.
So yes I am looking for a new full time job, but do plan to keep being a wedding planner part time.
But not for just any job, the job has to be the right one for me.

I am not going to tell you exactly what that perfect job will be, because I haven't exactly interviewed for it yet:).  However, if you follow my blog you know that I love Running and I love Traveling and I love People and I love to be Happy!  So I have recently been setting my sights onto new things, and pursuing things in an entirely new direction, in the direction of what I listed above.
I don't need to rush, I can take my time and when I find that amazing job, and that thing that will make me happy.  I'll grab it and at that time I will share it all with you!


CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS
Okay, so this will sound odd but in the past I have tried not to share too much of my opinion and be a little more neutral (although it comes out a lot I am sure my blog followers can tell:).
The truth is, I have a strong opinion on lots of things.  I have wanted to start writing on a few running topics that not a lot of people say much about, and even when my opinion goes against "trendy current running trends."

I kept hesitating doing it, in fact if you look at my "Posts in Progress Folder" I have over 30 of them just sitting there waiting to be finished and shared.
Then the other day I was talking to a patron at the library where I work and after sharing my opinion with them I realized why not share on my blog???  After all, previous to my work injury I was able to lead a healthy running life mostly injury free for over 15 years.  I was trained by a father who ran over 30 years without injury.  So it's actually possible that even going against trends, I may have a little useful information for someone to consider:)

So my first controversial topic  is coming up Thursday.  I re-wrote it to be slightly less opinion and tie in some education with it.  So we will see how it goes, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.  Because I have a few others I have also been editing to put out in coming weeks.

BLOG HOP
This month I experimented and paid to have our blog hop listed on some National Giveaway Directories.  I haven't talked to any of those participating, but for myself I have had a significant and when I say significant, I say over 900 of more entries than in previous months.
I'll be curious to see if other bloggers noticed a spike in page views for this hop (I hope they did), and if they are having a more successful hop as well.
I fully plan on paying out of my own blog pocket:) to have the November & December hop listed in these directories too.  So if your a blogger and your interested Join up Today for our November Hop HERE.  Its open to ANY blogger, this is a hop to thank our followers, so it's one of the only "almost no rules" hops I host.

Additionally, today is the LAST day to enter the current, Get your Run On Giveaway Hop.  You have until Midnight tonight to visit and enter the 13 blogs participating.  You can start entering for your chances to win HERE.



Which leads me to my questions for you for the week.  
Have you ever been hesitant to write on certain topics, because you were afraid you might offend someone?  Did you hold back or do it (tastefully) anyway?
Do you make blogging goals, even if you blog for fun?