April Goals

And March 2017 goals recap

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A Saturday post?! What is this?? Exciting, right? Well, it's the first of the month so of course I had to put up a monthly goals post!

Recap of March Goals:

Writing

Post at least 3 times a week. Welllll I averaged 3 times a week, does that count? 4 posts the first week, 2 the second, 2 the third, 4 the fourth. Yeah, let's say on average I achieved this goal. In reality, no.

Finish the fiction story I started. Nothing got completed, but I certainly made progress! (Liz, tell them about the novel! Shhhhhh, subconscious, don't spoil a good thing. No really, tell them!) OKAY! I STARTED WRITING A NOVEL! ::gasp!:: And now I'm going to crawl back into my hole where I bury all my really good creative stuff. Alright, in all seriousness I might have had the idea of a novel bouncing around in my head for a few years and I miiiiiight have started drafting something. It's just 20 pages so far, so don't get excited or anything. I'm taking it slow, so maybe expect it to come out in about 2027. Or 2037. That sounds good.

And no, you definitely don't want to read it.

Photography

Complete another class. I started my outdoor photography with Chris Burkard course, but it turned out to be a crazy number of hours long. So I made progress on my outdoor photography course!

Save up for a new lens. That Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM zoom lens* is seriously screaming my name right now. And yeah, I should be able to get it soon!

Running/Fitness

Race in the Rock'n'Roll Raleigh half marathon! That's tomorrow, yeah!!

Climb at least once a week and go to at least one climbing Meetup. We were doing great with climbing at least once a week until this week. Our schedule just didn't work out. If I don't feel like death after my half marathon race though we'll climb tomorrow afternoon. I was antisocial though and never went to a Meetup. I'll try to stop being a hermit soon.

Practice yoga twice. Nope. Dud. Total and complete dud. (Let's just scratch this off the list of goals, shall we?)

Go backpacking! Yes! And omg it was amazing!! You can read about it here!

Go on 3 other hikes. Can I count the backpacking hikes as part of this? No? In that case I just did one other hike. Oops. (In my defense there were a lot of long runs this month.) But just as a quick update in my 52 hike challenge I'm up to 8 hikes completed so far this year. Yikes! I'm behind! I did count each day of backpacking as a separate hike (don't judge), and I'm confident I'll make up the hikes this summer after I'm done racing.

Travel

Reschedule the trip to Denver. Welllll at least I've started researching and planning! We'll figure out dates once we know what we want to do. First things first.

Plan a climbing trip! Great idea! Not implemented yet. (Can you spot a theme? Planning? Travel? What?)

Personal

Finish reading that book. I finished reading The Marriage Plot* by Jeffrey Eugenides! And I read Spill Simmer Falter Wither* by Sara Baume, which if you haven't read I highly recommend it. Does reading two books make up for my travel planning deficiencies?

*Correction!* I actually read three books in March! The third was The Bell Jar* by Sylvia Plath!

Do taxes. Hey, they're not due until mid-April. I've got time. #procrastinator #badliz

So this month didn't go exactly as planned. I had some wins and some losses so it evens out.

April Goals:

Writing

Post at least 3 times a week. Good goal. Let's try it again.

Keep working on fiction. I guess I'll aim for another 20 pages of the novel? I have no idea what's a reasonable goal for this, so we'll just see how this goes.

Photography

Complete the outdoor photography class. I'm several hours into the class already and I've rather enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to dedicating more time to it!

Buy that shiny new lens! Ooooh come to mama you sweet sweet Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM zoom lens*!

Work on some surprises. Y'all. I can't even. No really, just you all wait, I'm so excited!

Running/Fitness

Race in the Rock'n'Roll Raleigh half marathon! That's tomorrow, yeah!! Free pass on this one!!

Climb at least once a week and go to at least one climbing Meetup. If I keep doing this every month is it less a goal and more a habit? How long does it take before something is a habit? I'm asking for a friend.

Go backpacking! Yeah! You know there's a long weekend in April, right?? I can't wait! 😃😃😃

Go on 2 other hikes. I'd say three, but April weekends are already crazy busy for me. Oh! Which is a good time to mention: if you want any spring photos, BOOK NOW! My schedule is filling up fast!

Run the Tar Heel 10 Miler! Ugh, that thing again. But it's like a mini Fleet Feet running group reunion after all our races and our official potluck reunion. Because what's a running group reunion without some extra running, right?

Do yoga at least once. Because come on, I love it and I really should do it. Roll that mat out, you lazy Liz.

Travel

Reschedule the trip to Denver. Yep. Good idea. Gotta do it.

Plan a climbing trip! Let's try this again!

Personal

Read another book. I'm liking how many books I'm getting through this year. Originally I'd just pulled out a small post-it note for the "Books Read in 2017" list that's floating around in the office somewhere, but I might make it to a big post-it note by the end of the year! Assuming I don't bonk on my reading for some reason.

Do taxes. Oh, I suppose I'll do them if I have to.

I've got lots of exciting things in the works for this month! Like I mentioned earlier, my spring schedule is filling up fast, so if you're interested in some spring photos, book now! Do you have any goals for April? Let me know in the comments!