GHD Resolution Review Day 6
Edit: I have 4 finished posts that I couldn’t post last week due to lack of connectivity while relocating from Orlando, FL to Dodford, UK. I don’t want to drop them all at once, so I’ll post an extra overdue article every day until I catch back up with myself again…
Five months and five days ago, I adopted David Seah’s Ground Hog Resolution Day idea, and made a list of my GHD resolutions. Dave’s brilliant idea is to not try and make resolutions on New Years Day, when exhausted and hung over from the excesses of Christmas & New Year’s eves, but to wait until Groundhog Day a month and a day later on 2/2. And then, every month-and-a-day after that, 3/3, 4/4 etc. to review progress and ensure the resolutions aren’t forgotten.
So, on 9/9 I was due to reveal my progress with my resolutions since last time, but with no net access between 9/7 and 9/10, I was enjoying my time away from the computer a little too much and forgot to write it up on schedule. Apologies for that, and apologies in advance that while I’m at my folks’ house in Devon this week, the net connection is flaky to say the least: This week’s remaining posts might turn up a week later than the dates they carry if staying connected makes uploading the articles as painful as this…
How’d it go?
I should confess that I wasn’t expecting too much this month as I wound down my activities in Florida and prepared for moving back to England for a few months. First mistake? Low expectations are all too easy to live up to. Taking things one resolution at a time…
1. Keep a regular morning routine
What with taking a 5 day road-trip around Florida during a 10 day visit from Octavia’s cousin Megan, and afore-mentioned relocation to the other side of the planet with attendant lack of jet lag avoidance I really didn’t have very much of any kind of routine during the last two weeks.
Until things went south, however, I was doing pretty good… so, discounting the last 2 weeks…
Result: Survived extenuating circumstances by a hair.
2. Read a book every week
With only two weeks of unmolested time in this period, I’m reducing my requirements to just 2 books. Ain’t it great to make up the rules as I go along? 
Even so, I didn’t really make the grade, finishing Journey to Ixtlan and reading the entirety of Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom, that makes one and a half books for the reduced period. Reviews in my Now Reading Library as usual.
Result: Bzzzt. Not even if I cheat with the book count.
3. Set aside time for martial arts
As predicted last month, and continuing this month’s theme of sucking at keeping my resolutions, I didn’t make any time for martial arts again. Worse, I was so consumed with fitting as many paid hours around the organisational hell breaking loose in the latter half of the month that I didn’t even get any gym time while Tave was in the pool almost every day 
On a (thankfully!) much brighter note, I spoke with my favourite sifu, Andre Martin of the recently reopened Coventry Multi-Cultural Martial Arts Academy, where I’m really looking forward to training again real soon now. I was careful to choose accommodation that is close enough to Worcester and Kidderminster that I’ll easily be able to socialise with my friends, but also as close to Coventry as I can manage to make the round trip much less daunting than the 100 mile marathons I used to do. 
Result: Looking forward to finally nailing this resolution.
4. At least 2 blog posts per week
Including this one, I count 18 posts since the last review. Posting frequency was a little patchy with back dated posts (written while offline) arriving after a silent week. Even so, that’s still approaching an average of a 2 posts every 3 days, another improvement on last month.
Result: A breeze!
5. Weekly Reviews
You’ll recall that my system was in disarray last time, and indeed I’m still surviving by jotting To Do items onto an index card clipped to the front of my Moleskine. Having said that, I seem to be surviving surprisingly well, which has given me an excuse to keep on running with things as they are. Of course, with no trusted system to review, I haven’t been able to do a weekly review.
Result: Total Bummer.
What went wrong?
I spent the last 2 weeks of the review period swanning around the Florida coast and generally enjoying myself rather than maintaining any kind of routine to fit my resolutions around. On reflection, this is a very healthy thing to do every now and again, and where most people take a week or two a year out of their normal routines by going to a new country for a holiday, the best I can do is to take a media fast and leave my computer behind for a few days every now and again. Regardless, I could still have made a better job of planning around rather than just dropping everything on the spur of the moment.
It looks like a bad month from a resolution point of view, where actually I’m making some good inroads in spite of myself: my morning routine is a habit by now, and it feels weirder when I don’t follow it; I’m fitting close to a book a week into my reading schedule when I stay focussed on it; despite being lazy with exercise last month, I have my martial arts training planned out for the earliest opportunity; and I’m sailing past my original resolution of 2 blog posts per week with ease these days. The one bug bear continues to be the weekly review resolution, which is currently spoiled by not having an up to date GTD system to review.
What to do about it?
More of the same on all counts, but there’s no reason to rest on my laurels.
- After a day or two to settle in to our new address, I should chase Andre for training times at MCMAA.
- I need to renew my efforts to smooth out my posting patchiness by keeping a couple of future posted articles queued in case I’m offline unexpectedly again.
- Now that I’m back up to date with my accounts, I really do need to reestablish a trusted system for my To Do items.
Related Articles
- Groundhog Resolution Review Day
- GHD Resolution Review Day 2
- GHD Resolution Review Day 3
- GHD Resolution Review Day 4
- GHD Resolution Review Day 5