In a June 2020 blog post, I outlined goals for the remainder of 2020. I’m updating how I did here.
Books
June 2020 goal: Finish and publish four this year.
December 2020 result: I published one. Just as I was on track for the remaining three, a friend called to ask how I was doing after the public murder of George Floyd. That led to a conversation in which I shared stories about my black experience in American society.
My friend said, “You should write about that.” I said, “Nope. We should write about it. If I write about it readers may dismiss me as the stereotypical ‘angry black woman.’ I will be told to ‘suck it up and get over it.’ If you write about it black folks may say, ‘what does the white woman know about being black in America?’ Instead, let’s model what we live – one black woman and one white woman who met 20 years ago in the workplace and have remained close friends.”
That led to a LinkedIn series on Race in the Workplace, which led to Margaret Greenberg and me writing a book that McGraw-Hill will publish in August 2021. The working title is, The Business of Race.
Body
June 2020 goal: Breathe hard, lift heavy, walk long.
December 2020 result: I was tracking well up until September, 2020. The intensity of the reading and research associated with co-authoring the Race in the Workplace LinkedIn series kept me seated at my writing desk for long hours. And nibbling a bit too much. I walk fairly regularly – as in two to three times per week – but my goal was five days a week. Maintaining that schedule has been tough.
I climb real stairs everywhere I go (versus riding a stair machine), but I’ve done next to zero weight training. Now that my co-author and I have signed a book deal, that particular sales pressure is off but we still have a manuscript to deliver.
I love to write and can get carried away with it for hours without moving. That’s just not healthy. So, rather than add weight training to the original June goal, I’m focused on adding walking days to the week. That’s reasonable and realistic. Adding much else with an upcoming January manuscript delivery date is fantasy.
Blog
June 2020 goal: This year I launched and continue to play with a new direction.
More:
· Original artwork.
· Storytelling with graphic design, audio and video.
· Voices in addition to mine.
December 2020 result: I’ve made great strides toward this goal, publishing several blogs in each new category. A sampling:
Original artwork.
Storytelling with graphic design, audio and video.
Voices in addition to mine.
My goal for the remainder of 2020 is to balance writing and publishing with more physical activity.
I’ve been experimenting with movement throughout the day. This rather than frontloading it before sitting at my computer or attempting to exercise at night when my energy stores are spent. Before I sat down to craft this blog, I walked two laps around a small lake. After I completed the first draft, I climbed real stairs.
The point of this blog post as a follow-up to the one published in June 2020:
1. Bring your goalsetting to awareness.
2. Review what worked, what didn’t work, and what you didn’t see coming (in my case, a McGraw-Hill book deal!).
3. From that review determine how best to recalibrate self-care when you get off track (even when good things happen).
4. Then, keep going…