Hello everyone! Today, I thought I’d check in with my year 29 goal of “living with intention” as we’re basically at the mid-year point for that one!
In case you’re thinking “Pamela, it is NOVEMBER. How do you consider that to be mid-year?” well, I have an answer for you. This is my birthday goal since very birthday I pick a different one. My birthday is May 12th, so as this is going up on November 11th, that’s the mid-year point! I wrote my initial post introducing this goal back of Live With Intention, so if you want to read that to catch up, feel free. Here’s how it’s going.
Live with Intention
Now, I created this goal in March, even though my birthday wasn’t until May because of the quarantine. At the time that this goal entered my brain, I thought (like everyone else) that the quarantine would be two weeks long and then we’d be able to go on with our lives with renewed energy and purpose. My goal was meant to create more of an incentive to myself to get out there and have new experiences rather than being lazy and staying home. I know, it’s so naive thinking back on it! But this goal wasn’t just for getting me out of my house, it was also meant to make me more aware of how I was spending my time in general. I was almost a year out of grad school and I still didn’t feel like I had found something to fill my time, so I wanted to be more mindful of whether or not I needed downtime or an adventure. Again, I made this goal either just before quarantine or during, so I thought in May we’d be free in the world again so it’d be perfect timing for this goal.
When the quarantine was extended until the end of April, and I was subsequently furloughed, I still kept the goal as, again, I thought it couldn’t possibly last much longer. But eventually it became apparent that the quarantine would keep going, even into the summer. Still, I kept the goal as I was just so optimistic that I’d have the opportunity to have adventures before my 30th birthday anyway.
Now, with eight months into the quarantine (although I’d argue that Illinois has been in a semi-quarantine that hasn’t worked and I’ve heard rumors we’re about to go back into full lockdown again), and six months to go to my next birthday, I’m not sure what to expect! I don’t think that there is going to be any sense or normalcy before my birthday honestly. Even if there was a vaccine in the next six months that was proven to work (I know there is that one that was recently announced but I heard that it’s not fully tested yet even though they have very good results so far), I think there would still be quite some time for it to be fully tested, approved, made for everyone, and then distributed. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an expert on pandemics, infectious diseases, or vaccine creation, but at this point I just don’t think that May is a realistic expectation for normalcy. Of course, I could be wrong, but I’m looking to stay positive about this goal anyway.
So in terms of meeting the original vision of this goal, I would say I definitely failed on that, because of the lockdown and ongoing pandemic. Since a big thing for my original vision for it was to have cool adventures around the Chicagoland and travel more, that just wasn’t possible to do.
The new interpretation that I’ve created for the goal, is that I want to be mindful of why I’m at home and how I’m taking care of my mental health. Of course, the year has been hard on everyone so I’ve tried to workout more often, not stress out about job hunting, and trying to have a good balance of productive versus fun activities at home. I’ve also tried to participate in virtual activities or activities that were socially distant so I can still be connected with people beyond my family and close friends. But also I’ve tried to keep up with my friends by reaching out weekly or at least every couple of months for those that I know prefer more spread out contact. I try to make sure I stay busy but also have downtime, and to get outside at least once a day, especially when it’s nice out as we’re heading to winter. Hopefully we’ll all be better off when May rolls around again!
So that’s the update on my goal! Let me know how yours are coming along, including any New Year’s Resolutions as that’s coming up too.
Thanks for reading!
Pamela
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