In terms of goal achievement, this month probably goes down as my worst yet as I achieved only one out of my six goals in total. I feel okay about this. When I originally set my goals back at the end of July, I failed to take into account that for two weeks in August I would be on holiday. When I did realise, I told myself that I could work on my goals while I was away, however, this was not to be. Because on that holiday I learnt an important lesson about doing less and giving myself recovery time, free of goals and to do lists. See my post titled ‘The importance of being still’ to read more on that.
In this post I update you on how I got on with the goals I set myself for the month of August. To remind you, they were:
Personal goals for August
- Raise £400 in sponsorship for a skydive (in October).
- Learn a 3-5 minute hula-hoop routine.
- Make first sale of a personal item using Baker’s ‘Sell Your Crap’ guide.
Business Goals for August
- Conduct at least one interview with another blogger.
- Double the number of subscribers to lifeislimitless.com.
- Do at least one guest post.
Raising money for Bowel Cancer UK
I haven’t pushed too hard on this yet and I have already raised a grand total of £220, just over half of what I had hoped to raise during August. My overall target is to raise £1000 and I’ll need to do this by the middle of October, two weeks after I complete a skydive. For more details of why I’ve chosen to do a ‘solo’ free fall, see my post titled ‘What do you trust yourself enough to do.’
I’m not too worried about this goal as there are lots of people who haven’t yet sponsored me that I feel sure will. If you are one of those people you can visit my fundraising page here.
Hula-hooping routine
I didn’t come close to completing this one. I recently rediscovered hula hooping after someone made a comment about it on my blog and I then signed up for a six-class course. I only managed to go to two of the classes because of work commitments and then spent two weeks out of the country without my hula-hoop.
I do intend to continue practicing hula as a means of exercise and a way to de-stress as it’s great fun, but in order to keep it fun I won’t be setting any future hula-hooping targets!
Making a sale
As I talked about in a previous post, I have an overall goal of selling most of my belongings in order that I can a) make some money, b) live a more minimalistic lifestyle and c) travel freely.
I haven’t yet made a sale although I have put my surfboard up for sale at the grand total of £183. It hasn’t sold yet but if anyone is interested in buying it, get in touch. This is one goal I will need to carry forward to September.
Conduct at least one interview with another blogger
I completed this one and had great fun doing so. I interviewed Niall Doherty from Disrupting the Rabblement and if you haven’t already done so, check out the post here.
Double the number of subscribers
This didn’t happen. Since I set this goal I’ve only had seven new subscribers and I now have a total of 31 email subscribers and according to Google Reader 18 RSS subscribers to Life is Limitless.
I know that there are more people reading my blog than are subscribed to it. So why should the number of subscribers matter to me? I suppose it’s an indication of how popular my blog is. it’s a measurement of how many ‘committed’ readers I have and it helps me gauge the growth of my blog.
So why did I fail to achieve this goal? I guess I wasn’t exactly sure how to achieve it. I mentioned it a few times on twitter and I put a call to action on this at the end of each of my blog posts but got little response. I’m going to continue to plug away at this one and welcome any suggestions from fellow bloggers on how to increase these numbers.
Write a guest post
I didn’t manage to achieve this goal. If I’m honest I barely got around to even thinking about it. I am keen to start doing guest posts and would be keen to receive invitations from fellow bloggers. So if you have a blog and you’d like me to write a guest post, let me know.
Goals for September
Personal
- Complete a training course in NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming).
- Put my CD collection up for sale.
- Read ChiRunning book and run 5K.
Business
- Write a guest post.
- Create a new section of the blog to share about what books I am reading/find useful.
- Write a business plan using Corbett Barr’s ultimate business plan workbook for bloggers.
Do you have any goals you are working towards? If so, I’d love to hear about them. Also don’t forget to subscribe below to receive regular updates if you haven’t done so already.
Hi there, I'm Caroline. Welcome to Life is Limitless, my blog about personal development with a focus on facing fears and living a life without limits. Check out my about page to find out more and pop your email in the box below to subscribe for regular updates.
Great post, Caroline.
I always admire your honesty and it’s always refreshing and inspiring to read bloggers who are as happy to write about the things that remain on their to-do list as well as those they’ve been able to tick off.
I’m sure the offers will come flooding in now, but I would love to invite you to do a guest post on my blog on the subject of creativity. Let me know if you’re interested!
And seeing your goals set out so clearly always makes me want to get out my to-do list and see where I’m up to, so thanks! x
Thanks for your comments Kellee, I would absolutely love to do a guest post on creativity for your blog, http://www.kelleerich.com/blog/ I’ll be in touch!
Caroline, thanks for being so candid in relaying your personal experience with setting goals.
For me, I’ve known for years that creating and writing down goals is a key ingredient for success, but I often fail to do just that.
Since my 42nd birthday is later this month, your blog post has inspired me to begin anew. I’ve been needing to lose 50 pounds. I eat pretty healthy except I have one downfall: my sweet tooth!
My goal is to limit my sugar intake to just splurges on the weekends. Now that I’ve put it out there, my hope is this will help me to stay the course.
Again, thanks for being so open and honest about how challenging it can be to achieve goals – and how important it is to not give up on them.
Hi Terez, thanks so much for your comments. I’ll be honest, until I started putting my goals on this blog I also struggled to write them down regularly so I’m really grateful for this outlet. I find that not just writing them but making them public really does motivate me to get things done. I’m so pleased that my post has inspired you to set yourself a new and challenging goal and to put it out there for people to see. I’d love for you to come back and let us know how you get on with limiting your sugar intake to the weekends. Good luck and thanks for sharing your goal with us!
FWIW – you may not have sold anything, but after reading your goals, I finally got around to selling a few bits and bobs I’d had sitting around. This raised enough for my new rollerskates (I’ve taken up roller derby). I should probably sell my old rollerskates now
Hi Helen! Thanks for your comment. I love that you’ve sold some stuff especially as it’s to buy roller-skates – sounds like great fun and I’ll try not to rush out and do the same, like I did with hula hooping
Hi Caroline!
Love to see how much progress you’re making. I know you didn’t get everything you wanted done in August but it’s a marathon and not a sprint.
If you are looking to do a guest post, I’d be happy to have you write on my blog! If you’re interested, send me an email!
Hi Benny thanks for your comment. I’m glad you said that because I was never very good at sprinting
I would love to do a guest post for getbusyliving.com and I’ll email you very soon!
Hi Caroline,
Even though you didn’t feel like you finished many of your goals this month you can at least say that you’re making progress. Sometimes some months do a little better than others. Just focus on September and keep going.
Steve recently posted..What Would You Risk for a Once in a Lifetime Opportunity?
Hi Steve, thanks so much for your encouraging comment, it’s made me feel quite motivated to make September a good month!
Caroline,
I’ve keep this simple if I may:
1. Check your donations
– I did a solo static line, but solo freefall – you nutter – excellent!
2. Guest blog on my site anytime – just email me.
3. To increase subscribers implement tips I previously shared with you…
4. I’m exploring some aspects of minimalism – will be fun to watch.
5. Let’s exchange blog workbooks.
Cheers,
Chris
Chris Stott recently posted..Understand How Your Biorhythms Impact Your Creativity
Wow Chris thank you so much for your generous donation!! Thanks also for your offer re guest posting on your blog, I’ll be sure to take you up on that at some point. Let me know how you get on with your exploration of minimalism, I’m always interested to hear how others are finding it. Have you completed your workbook yet? I’d love to share. Thanks again
Not yet. Will send when I do
Chris Stott recently posted..Life Is Great
Love your break down of goals Caroline…for me, I feel like that’s how I’m most productive. It organizes my thoughts an the actions that revolve around them.
I wouldn’t worry too much about not reaching goals. There are oh so many quotes on setting the bar high because then we push ourselves beyond our normal limits. There’s a lot of wisdom here, and although it may not seem like it, falling short of our goals could actually be a gigantic push in the forward direction! It’s all about what we choose to focus on – I’m a firm believer of that!
Hi Chris, thanks so much for your comment. I totally agree with your thoughts about setting the bar high and the importance of what we choose to focus on – I’m also a firm believer!
Charity work, selling stuff, interviews, guest posts, running 5k, NLP training, writing business plans, ALL WHILE HULA HOOPING.
Once again you have enough goals and aspirations to fill like a years worth of action at my current level. But after reading your blog, I’m definitely going to step it up. Maybe not ‘jump out of a plane while running 5k’ step it up, but like….sell my broken Roomba on Craigslist next week.
I think the key for me is going to be the action of putting everything out there on a blog (public accountability). I spend ridiculous amounts of time reading and documenting tons of material, but with no outlet, it’s no help to anyone. Cheers! And keep up the good work!
Haha your comments never fail to make me chuckle Rick! Thanks for your generosity. I had to google Roomba – you learn something new every day. If you launch a blog, you’ve got a guaranteed regular reader in me
Love these posts, Caroline. I really need to get guest posting, too. I did one last month and the result was pretty amazing.
As for building your subscriber base, the best advice I can give is to just hang in there. It was slow progress for me in the beginning. I think you’re way ahead of where I was actually. You already get lots of comments and retweets. It’s only a matter of time before the subscription numbers pick up as well. Definitely keep experimenting though and trying new things to get people signed up.
Niall Doherty recently posted..What To Do If You Hate Your Job
Thanks Niall, you’re always welcome to guest post at Life is Limitless!
Thanks for your words of encouragement, comments, tweets and subscribers are all on the rise at the minute so can’t complain, feeling very grateful to my readers!