Thursday's Thoughts - Setting Goals

So recently I've been all obsessed about getting fit and going to the gym as much as possible like a crazy person and not letting myself fall off the fit wagon. It's been good. I've really enjoyed how just a little bit of exercise has improved some pretty important parts of my life. For instance, I usually have really brutal PMS. Like, I'm gonna rip my husband's head off the instance he opens his mouth, all I want to do is sleep and cry... and eat. And life means nothing and I just want to crawl in a hole in die. This time around, when that part of my cycle came around, I was going to the gym every other day. I noticed I had a lot more energy, my cravings weren't a fraction of what they usually are and my husband could actually talk to me without facing off with my evil twin. My moods were just better. Like all around my outlook on life was just cheerier and more optimistic.

Secondly, my outlook on myself has been a lot more positive. I automatically feel better about my body and my self-image the moment I step into the gym. I know I'm doing pretty great and I know I'm going to get even better. My confidence has really received a big lift. I'm really going to try to keep my fitness goals on my radar and sustain my gym routine and continually be trying to keep my best diet habits in mind.

Now that I feel I have that fitness goal under control, I've been thinking about other areas of my life. I'm already enrolled in two classes for next fall and winter to work towards my degree program. There are also 3 Continuing Education classes I need to take to finish my Financial Planning certificate. Completing FIVE courses while working full-time and taking care of my two year old son by myself while my husband works out of town for months on end, and do well in all these courses, is asking a lot. I can feel my stress level rise just thinking about it. I only did 3 courses last year in the same time period and it almost killed me. I really don't think taking on more than that is a good idea. I discussed it with my mom, and a few close friends at work and I've decided I'm going to drop the degree program courses. There's no penalty to my admission status if I take a year off and the courses will still be offered when I go back to do them. The Continuing Ed courses are a lot more unpredictable and passing one up could mean at least a year and a half before I'd have to opportunity to take it again. Bottom line is I'm going to finish my certificate before I continue working on my degree.

The other goal I have for myself is to learn some conversational Spanish. We are thinking of going back to Mexico again at Christmas and I'd like to be able to at least have a small chit chat with our bartenders and servers. I've ordered some Spanish language learning audiobooks from my public library as well as signed up to use this software they have a subscription to. I hope I can work my way through that stuff to at least learn some basics.

So in summary, I am going to finish my Certified Financial Planning program by next summer, learn some Spanish by Christmas and maybe even wear a bikini on the beach.

The future is bright!