2015 Goals Update

April was almost guaranteed to be an improvement over March, and it was!

Physical Health

Exercise/stretch 5+ days per week 

I've been close to 5+ days when you included knee exercises obtained from a physical therapist. Plus with her blessing, I'm back on the recumbent bicycle for cardio.

Body fat 14%

Check. The fat-o-meter even dipped below 12% briefly, its lowest point since I bought it.

Healthy knee

I returned to the Sports Enhancement Center for one more physical therapy appointment and got just what I wanted - some new exercises and some pointers for proper use of my knee during lunge-like activities. It's early to tell, but I am still encouraged by the results.

Fruits/vegetables 5+ days per week

Check.

Increased use of sunscreen and other skin care products

This one actually dropped, the reverse of what I should be doing as summer approaches.

Financial Health

Expenses below 2014 levels

Pleased to say I finally tallied up 2014: $31,000, which is rather exciting considering that my after-tax income exceeded this. My retirement plan had anticipated drawing down on our savings, so to actually contribute to it is way above expectations. Which, of course, is thanks to God's blessings with the tutoring business. As far as the 2015 goal, expenses through first quarter are down by nearly $2,000 from last year due to better health and better buying decisions. Hard to beat!

Improved tutoring records

Long way to go here. In fact I've been as bad as I've ever been. Still keeping up generally with invoices, but not with travel or other records.

Community Engagement

Volunteer for a new organization

No real progress to report here.

Develop and execute a marketing plan for tutoring

I've continued to keep my co-workers busy enough, and at least two plan to continue next semester. My substitute teaching has begun some upward momentum. I've been researching ways to deliver virtual tutoring or on-campus tutoring. Despite losing more than 60 tutoring hours to theater I'm still on pace for about 350 hours this semester.

Personal Character And Leadership

Blog thanks weekly

There was a minor uptick in this one, but still too short. Straying from gratefulness is one of the quickest paths to personal destruction, so I must find a routine next month to get back on track.

Make 10 new acquaintances, including a mentoring relationship

Added a fourth from theater, who also is a potential tutoring co-worker. Also got contact information for a potential tutoring mentor.

Lead condominium association projects, such as new driveway (completed January)

Arrive early/discipline

I've continued to do "C" level work on this one, maybe sliding toward "C minus."

Update Wardrobe
I was skimming my original goal list and realized that I'd missed this one. I did buy a couple items during Dena and my weekend getaway to Peoria. More to come.

Summary

I'm probably 80-90% of the way back to my most productive ways. 2015 has been one of my more ambitious goal years for a reason, so it's natural that more struggle (5 of 14 goals missed) is required to keep up. Let's see if I can keep the upswing going into my birthday month.