Sprint 5 Goal Recap

I’ve altered my goal planning system quite a bit over the past few months, and one major change I’ve adapted is using the idea of “6 week sprints”, where I work on certain goals for 6 weeks, and then take 2 weeks to wrap things up & prepare for the next sprint. I like sharing my progress with you all, so here’s a recap of “Sprint #5”…

(I definitely took on too much this past sprint – Live & learn!)

Body

I was feeling pretty rough about my physical state. I had been taking medication that caused me to gain 25+ pounds in the course of only about 6 months (despite my physician’s assistant insisting it wouldn’t), and I was ready to start working it off. I managed to maintain a doable exercise routine : 2 days with 15 minutes of cardio, 1 day with 15 minutes of bellydancing hehe, 3 days of arm workouts (it’s a pain point for me), and 1 day of yoga or tai chi; plus a quick workout with my kids for their homeschool days, and a few minutes of yoga to end each night. And 5 squats every time I go to the bathroom (which, surprisingly, really slimmed my thighs!) As far as diet, which I consider more important than exercise, I was initially trying to just be mindful & include more water, produce, & protein in my daily meals. I did fairly well at first, but discovered a lot of problems toward the end. So, this is something I’ll be working on during the next sprint, while I continue my enjoyable exercise routine!

Wife

My husband—boy, do I love him, but he drives me fucking crazy sometimes! He’s retired, so we spend an awful lot of time together. Which is a good thing, but I do appreciate my space. And with two young kids, it’s a lot of finagling.

So, I spent the sprint contemplating marriage advice that I occasionally forget about (patience, compassion, all that good stuff), and journaling my way through difficult emotions as they arose (instead of getting upset). I managed to improve our communication & improve his attitude as a result. I also made a point to be more affectionate & open, using things I learned from the Tantra course I took earlier this year. Everything turned out great! Now I need to maintain it without being a main focus, as far as goals go.

One thing I do still need to work on is my libido. I’ve always had low energy in this realm. So, next sprint I’m going to try to work on that (& I’m sure Hubby will be grateful lol!)

Reseller

Ugh.

I realized I don’t really care about resale anymore. At least, not the way I’ve been doing it. I can’t find the time, energy, or motivation to prep inventory, let alone list daily. So, this goal really didn’t go anywhere. However, I did realize I need to restructure my business plan so that I can do something with this path. I don’t have a massive amount of inventory to taking up real estate in my home, but I do have more than I’d feel comfortable donating. The original idea of starting the resale business was to have fun working with Hubby, but he’s more of an “in person” kind of seller. So I need to restructure to offload the inventory I have (which I’m dreading) so that I can get him focused on working with other items in the warmer months. Yeah. I don’t know. lol. I gotta figure something out though.

Ikigai

On a lighter business note (LOL!)… I started journaling about what I wanted more of in my life, and how I can try to make some money from it. I came to the realization that I love writing & I love helping people. So I need to figure out how to make money doing these things – My passion project. I resituated my blog here (though there are definitely more improvements to be made!), and did a ton of research on the directions I want to go with this “Ikigai” project, including useful products & eventually coaching. I’m kind of just enjoying the process & seeing where it takes me right now. I hope you’re enjoying it with me!!

Next Sprint

So, the main things I’ll be focusing on for my next sprint are my diet & my libido. Hubby’s been nagging me about taking a trip (since I had to scrap plans I’d been working on for months because he wasn’t ready for it, but I digress); so, I’ll have to plan a simple cabin camping trip for the family sometime soon. I should also work on my business plans, both for resale & my Ikigai. I’ll update on these when I can ♥️

How have your goals been going this year? What are you contemplating for next year? Let’s chat in the comments below, or feel free to shoot me an email at zenblitz@yahoo.com if you’d like to say hi in private!!

Where I’m at #1

“Where I’m at” posts are just random updates about what’s going on in my life at any random time, based on the areas / roles in my life. Any particular goals I’m working on will be highlighted, so you can easily see what I’m actively working on improving (and see that I do try to practice what I preach). Leave a comment & give me ideas for things you’d like to see me write individual posts about!

  • planner : I’m loving Notion. I forgot that I enjoy moving blocks around like I used to when WordPress first started using that system (I think before I even originally started this blog!) So once I realized you have to play with Notion on a computer and not your phone, a whole new world opened up for me lol! Now I pretty much do everything on Notion, and I love every second of it!!!
  • self (body & mind, emotion & education) : My #1 goals right now is to eat more mindfully & exercise more. So, I’ve been making sure that I eat a lot of protein & produce every day, trying to eat more consistently throughout the day (since I’m the type to graze a little & then go overboard at dinner), and paying attention to my portions. It’s a lot of work, but I’m definitely making progress because I feel a lot better (and that’s the goal!) I’ve implemented a quick 15 minute exercise routine every morning, I do a little exercise with my kids when we do school, and I’ve been doing a few minutes of yoga at night. And I started a habit I like to call Squatty Potty LOL (nothing to do with the Shark Tank idea!) – Every time I go to the bathroom, I do 5 squats lol! I like it actually!! 😆 As for mind, I’ve been trying to write in my A5 Stalogy journal more often, and I’ve been working on a proper PARA PKM setup on Notion (of course).
  • marriage (relationship & libido) : My second most important goal! Hubby & I have been through a lot over the past couple years, so I’m really trying to focus on improving our marriage right now. I’ve been reading a lot of articles on the topic, and making sure that I am giving all the affection that I want to get. And it’s been working! We’re pretty happy right now, though there’s always improvements to be made. A lot of it has just been a shift in perspective. As for my libido… I’ve always had a low libido. Even though Hubby’s a wonderful lover, I just don’t…I don’t know! I really don’t know. I’m always trying to do too many things, honestly, and I have trouble slowing down to make love I guess! But I’m trying. I’m making sure we don’t go very long without some intimate time, and I try to flirt with him a bit every day. We used to get yelled at in restaurants for making out at our table LOL, but we have kids now, so we don’t even get to go out on dates hardly ever, unfortunately. Which is another thing I’ve been working on correcting. Anyway! I took a course on DailyOm last year which focused on tantra called “Sacred Sexuality: Open the Energy of Intimacy”, which I really enjoyed. I might try another course they have, “Radical Intimacy”, which seems to touch on a lot of similar ideas. We’ll see.
  • mom (BooBoo & Bubby) : As I’m writing this, Booboo is sick. She’s just got a bit of a cold. I blame the triplets she was hanging out with at the library, even though they didn’t seem sick. Gotta blame someone, right?!? LOL! I always get nervous when she gets sick because she had a fever seizure the one time, & it freaked me right out. But she’s in good spirits. But very snotty lol. Bubby’s doing great! She really loves watching Baby Bus on YouTube, which is actually fairly educational! And she also loves playing with dolls.
  • teacher (K & PK) : School is going pretty well. I dropped Busy Toddler’s Playing Preschool year 2 for Bubby for now because I felt like it was too advanced for her, and we’re just doing Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool’s Kindergarten & Preschool. They’re really enjoying it! Booboo’s been working through phonics (she had a lot of trouble & irritation with sight words), and she’s doing absolutely awesome with it! She can practically read anything she tries to!
  • zB : My “Ikigai”! I’m having a lot f fun doing research & making a plan to take zenBLITZ to a whole other level by blogging more and eventually working on more products & services such as workbooks, printable stationery, & eventually private coaching. I’m just too excited!!!
  • homemaker (finance, cleaning, gardening, prepping, travel) : Uh, yeah. LOL. I’ve actually been keeping up with housework fairly well. I just audited the fridge, freezer, & pantry, and I found a bunch of stuff in the pantry that we need to get creative with before it ends up in the trash. Hubby used up the French’s fried onions last night in a delicious green bean casserole. Finances are going well. Gonna need to wrap up the garden pretty soon – we’ve still got zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, & herbs producing goodness (when the groundhog lets them!) Ya know, I got one of those motion sensors that are supposed to deter animals, but I don’t think some of them give a crap about it! It emits a high pitched noise when it gets set off, & I’m the only human I know who can actually hear it. And it drives me crazy! Why doesn’t the groundhog care?!? Prepping & travel are on the backburner. We’re usually pretty well prepped for events like snowstorms, power outages, or pandemics lol. We did just get a Jackery portable power station, though, & Hubby’s all excited & wants to get some new solar panels for it. It’s pretty awesome, I’d definitely recommend it! And as for travel… I had plans to go on a nice road trip, but that got derailed by Hubby’s household projects. Especially since he wanted to turn his mini school bus into our camper, & it’s not quite ready yet. Maybe next year.
  • witch : I’ve been meditating daily, and playing with my Happy Grimoire (I’ll have to share that soon, it’s pretty sweet!) And we did a nice little homeschool lesson designed by ChatGPT for Mabon, which we all really enjoyed : Booboo learned a bit about equinoxes (she’s really into “space”), we read about an orchard, we baked some muffins, and we went on an autumn scavenger hunt. It was really fun. We still gotta get to the local orchard, and make a collage with our scavenger hunt findings though! I’m looking forward to planning for Samhain soon!
  • reseller : Ugh. I don’t really enjoy reselling anymore. I have a goal to get the shops in full gear for Q4 so I can at least make enough money to pay off my associated credit card, but I have no enthusiasm for it! I think next year I’m just gonna pivot to local sales so Hubby can have something to do cuz that’s really why I got into it in the first place. I’d rather focus my efforts on zenBLITZ!
  • Other things I’ve been interested in lately :
    • Digital Minimalism : Trying not to spend too much time on my phone. Laptop is for morning productivity. But I’m trying not to get too distracted by reading stuff throughout the day. I’m working on being more intentional about the content I consume, I should say.
    • Capsule wardrobe / daily uniform : I didn’t realize I already pretty much have a “daily uniform”, but I do have certain items I wear for certain occasions. And I didn’t realize I already pretty much have a capsule wardrobe, but I kinda do! I limit myself to certain numbers of certain items! I review my wardrobe twice a year, when I switch my closet to summer or winter clothes! I do need to pair it down quite a bit now because there’s a lot of things that either don’t fit me or I don’t like, so I’m glad I’ll be switching my closet for cold weather soon lol!
    • Meal prepping : I was always really against meal prepping. But I got inspired by Shutterbean’s super lax meal prepping philosophy, and I’ve tried it out the past couple weeks, and I really like it! I don’t prep every single thing, but I prep whatever I feel is manageable to help the week go more smoothly. More on this in a future post!

Currently

eating : protein & produce!

drinking : water, coffee with ID Pumpkin Spice creamer (it’s the only pumpkin spice I really like hehe)

watching : The Mayfair Witches, The Penguin, Resident Alien, Sweet Tooth, Dead Boy Detectives

reading : The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, Good Morning Good Life by Amy Landino, & The Homeschooling Starter Guide by Gina Riley. I read a little bit of whatever strikes me each day.

playing : Russian Roulette with my free time LOL

buying : groceries 🤪

listening to : YouTube planner videos

celebrating : my birthday soon!

pinning : homeschool ideas, recipes, planner spreads

planning : a very busy October!

feeling : tired, optimistic, excited