Mid Year Check In - 2010 - Part Two

Hello again, Hello!

In the first part of this post I spoke of my photography goals for the year.  Now it's time to take on the larger life goals that I set for myself on February 1st and see how I've done.

1. No more fast food.  Since January first I have not had any fast food.  To tell you the truth, I don't really miss it. Well I have had some fast food since February, but I can honestly say that I can count the times on one hand.  I'm still going very strong on this one and I think it's helped greatly with my weight loss that I've seen through the year.
2. Workout every weekday before work.  In January I managed to do this and work up from a thirty minute workout each weekday to my current workout which is one hour.  Although I haven't lost any weight, I'm ok with it, as the goal that I made was to get up and workout every weekday morning in January and I did it!  This will continue into February. Although this did continue through February, in March some things happened that really de-railed this goal.  I have since adjusted my thinking and my overall weight loss goals to be more in-line with a life change instead of working out everyday and burning myself out.  I am still working out regularly, so I think I'm doing just fine on this goal and I'm on track to lose 75 lbs by the end of the year.
3. Dive back into the technical side of things on the web world and re-learn Flash and Flex.  I've done a great deal and even completed my first freelance job in January.  I'm back folks. I was back - and now I have some ideas, but I haven't executed them.  Fail.
4. Post a blog entry per day every day of 2010.  If you've been following, then you know I've managed to do this through January as well! This is another fail, but I feel that I've been doing a much better job and I think the real goal of this should be to keep posting as it will help me improve my writing skills and since I enjoy it, there is no reason to stop, right?
5. Begin immersing myself into technology and business by reading more and listening to podcasts instead of music on the way to work.  Done. And Done - I still do this and have found that this has been a great source of ideas and inspiration both physical and mental.
6. Start to take my photography hobby a bit more seriously and learn more about the art and what makes a good picture.  I'm well on my way for this one, I do have lots to learn though, but I think it will be great.  If you've seen my Photography Goals for 2010 then you know just how much work I have ahead of me. I'm working on this one and the goals I've set forth for myself.
7. Cut down on going to the bar.  I've cut this back quite a bit and what I've found is that I like being at my house and feeling productive.  Go figure. I quit drinking for good as of March 16th.  I've learned from experience and from reading that this type of habit will lead to nothing good, in fact it actually helped put me in some situations that I would have not rather experienced.
8. Re-learn French.  I'm proud to say that with the help of Rosetta Stone, January has seen me make it through the first Unit of French.  There are four units per level and I plan to make it through a unit per month.  There are five levels total. As of March I stopped taking the French course, I will promise myself to begin this again before the end of August and complete the first level before the end of the year.
9. Take a moment or two to do a mental health check on myself.  Work on building self-esteem and self-confidence.  Courses like "The Psychology Of Achievement" and a couple from David DeAngelo have been helping out on that front.  I'll look to continue with these classes in February. This is an area that I've really dove into head first.  (no pun intended) and I've started studying the mind and why people do the things they do, what motivates us and how to be more socially confident. 
10. Launch a local user group.  I have been given the ok from Adobe to try to launch the Chelsea Adobe User Group. I look forward to this challenge and I'll that I'll learn by doing it. Still on the list, and I'm working on it.

 So out of the ten goals - I'm doing six well.  I think that's pretty good.  I'll keep working on the others and set some new goals to shoot for before the end of the year.  These will focus around my career and relationships.

Let the fun begin and Happy Birthday to me!