January 2020 Progress Report

January 2020 Progress Report

January 2020 marked the start of the transition to Quarterly planning. It’s been both harder and easier than I expected.

VirtueDecJanNotes
Pleasure: Adventure
Plan and take an international vacation late Q3/early Q4.
😐In the main, I’ve just looked at the dog and felt guilty about planning a trip to take place after her demise. But I’m pretty sure Tokyo and Seol will be on the agenda.

However, I wrote five short stories, started a new long story streak (9 days) and wrote 12,470 new fiction words.
Pleasure: Recharge
Read 78 books
🙂🙂Off to a good start with five books • A Lifetime of Impossible DaysCountry RoadsEverything is FigureoutableBraving the WildernessRising Strong • Must try to read more fiction.
Friendship: Friends
I love meeting new people, and as I am friendly and outgoing, I make friends easily.
🙂🙂I joined a writer’s forum last month, and I’m enjoying it a great deal. And I read an article about the benefits of talking to strangers, so you can guess what’s coming next.
Friendship: Creatures
My creatures are happy and healthy and find my garden a haven.
🙂🙂Poor Pretty Girl is becoming increasingly frail, and it’s heartbreaking to watch.

Our other poor creatures don’t know if they’re coming or going – one day it’s 40° the next it’s 20 and bucketing down. The other day I had to shoo a possum drinking water off the road!

But I’ve been adding additional water sources around the garden and I think they’re going to be okay.
Friendship: Contribution
I share my knowledge, time, and money with those who need it.
• Develop a charitable works programme.
😐🙁Haven’t done much this month – still resisting the call to start the new year.

Though I thought about respecting all people.
Beauty: body
I enjoy exercising my lean, healthy 59 kg body several times a week.
• Eat < 5g of salt and sugar per day.
• Walk 10,000 steps per day.
• Sleep 8 hours each night.
🙂
68.8 kg
🙂
68.8 kg
My weight is wobbling about a bit with the fluid retention, but I’m grateful it isn’t worse. Starting to move more, but not as much as I could. Starting to do more to avoid salt and sugar.

Found myself falling down an Ayurveda rabbit hole, fascinated to find that some of my cravings and problems relate to the dosha I came out of the quiz with. I’ll be doing some more research.

Sleep continues to be an issue – I bolted out of bed at 1:30 in the morning the other night, but too slow to get Pretty Girl out before she puked on the carpet – very hard to get back to sleep after that.

I admit, I am a bit paranoid about the Coronavirus, but I am taking immune suppression. Though as more information comes to light, I am getting less concerned.
Beauty: garden
My garden is peaceful (lush and abundant, providing habitats, weather protection and a mystical threshold)
Q1: plan garden and start landscaping.
Q2: finish landscaping and start planting.
Q3: nurture and enjoy.
Q4: nurture and enjoy.
🙂🙂Started looking at Edna Walling Garden Books again. I like her approach to creating a restful garden you can relax in, that requires little upkeep. And even better, little watering.

Her later plans take greater inspiration from patches of “wild” bush, but her early watercolour plans are quite inspiring.

I’m looking forward to chatting with the local native nursery to see what they recommend.
Beauty: home
I live in a comfortable home that soothes my soul.
🙂🙂Finally got around to putting up my lovely new curtains. Happily using my new superquiet dishwasher, and the new coffee pot makes amazing coffee!
Wisdom: growth
I learn and grow every day.
• Visit a historically or culturally significant venue or event each month.
🙂😐With the recent death of Terry Jones, I’ve spent a bit of time thinking about my youth. And how hard it would be to lose the knowledge of your body of work, and perhaps the creative spirit that makes your work uniquely your own. I’m not exactly how I can deal with this for myself, but it’s ticking away in the back of my mind.
Wealth: time
Turn the computer off by 7 pm.
🙂🙂I’m getting really good at shutting down my computer before I go make dinner!

According to my journal, January 2020 was another month of interrupted sleep, and time spent cleaning up dog messes.

And berating myself for spending too much time online shopping and not enough time writing.

And too few stickers!

How was January 2020 for you?


You can find more monthly reports on the Life Worth Living page.

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