2010 Goals: January Review

05. February 2010 · 1 comment · Categories: Goals

Well, it’s the first week of February which means it’s time to take a look at how I’m doing with my goals for the year.

1) Continue to work on my physical fitness and fighting.  I’ve been good about getting my exercise in and working on my physical fitness but my practice attendance has been spotty at best.  Weather, work, and other odds and ends have conspired together so that I probably only made it to one practice in January.  It’s a bit disappointing because I was making 1-2 a week up until Christmas.  So I will need to work harder on my practice attendance this month.  My gym attendance through January though was great!  I routinely made it to spin class Tuesday and Friday mornings and spent Saturday doing some other cardio activity (swimming, elliptical, just not biking!)  This week was a little rough on my gym attendance due to icy conditions early in the week but starting next week I will be adding another spin class on Wednesday mornings and possibly another activity on Sundays.

2) Only have one embroidery project at a time.  Until it’s finished this means my jacket.  I’ve been good about sticking to my new “one embroidery project at a time” rule.  I’ve been on a bit of a break from the jacket this month though.  I’ve been focusing more on my Flanders gown, which has presented me with numerous challenges.

3) Do more sewing.  Ahh, sewing.  As you all know I’ve be focusing on my Flanders gown this month.  It’s been challenging, and at times frustrating, but in retrospect I think that is really a good thing.  So often I feel like we can get in a comfortable rut with our sewing project and while that can be nice and relaxing it can also keep us from growing as seamstresses and tailors.  Well, I’ve certainly been growing this month!  The fur has really been reminding me to take my own advice and take things slowly.  I had hoped to have it done by Ymir but that’s just not going to happen. It’s not really a bid deal though.  I have plenty of things to wear and removing my self imposed schedule has really freed me up to take my time with the project, especially since working with the fur is proving a little more complicated than I originally expected.  It will be done when it’s done.  And it will be fabulous!

4) Learn to play 2 pieces of music appropriate to Elizabethan England by Pennsic.  January proved to be a lot more busy and complicated than I thought it would be so I still have not signed up for classes like I had intended.  I have however been practicing a bit to bring back what I used to know many years ago.  I still need to sign up for classes though.

5) Spend more time with my students.  On going as always. :)   But I do need to talk to both of them about their plans for Ymir.

6) Continue to post Silver and Swetnam installments weekly.  I have not kept up with this goal as I would have liked to.  I only posted one installment last month and that’s just not going to cut it.  I definitely need to bump the priority on this goal back up to the top!

What I wanted to accomplish by the end of January:

1) I need to be in the gym at least 3 days per week. Accomplished!  Time to bump it up to 4-5.

2) I need to accomplish at least 40 hours of embroidery between Jan 1 and Jan 31. Took a break on this one to focus on another project.  I think the break was needed and I’m looking forward to renewed enthusiasm for the jacket project.

3) I need to order fabric for at least one project.  Found out I didn’t actually need to order anything anyway.  Woot!  Started my Flanders gown.

4) I need to actually start lessons.  Still need to start lessons.

5) I need to get together with the guys to talk about things we would like to do together between now and April.  Ongoing as always.

6) Post at least 4 Silver or Swetnam installments.  Fell behind here.  Need to focus on this more in February.

Goals for February:

1) I need to be in the gym at least 4-5 days per week.

2) I need to accomplish at least 40 hours of embroidery between Feb 6 and March 6.

3) Removed self imposed due date! Continue work on Flanders gown.  If I finish before March I’ll start shirts.

4) I need to actually start lessons. 

5) Continue to work to spend more time with students.  Maybe schedule a household project day for this spring?

6) Post at least 4 Silver or Swetnam installments before March 6.

2009: A Year in Review

16. December 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Goals · Tags: , , , ,

I can’t believe it is December 16th.  A lot of people review the previous year at the beginning of the new one but I like to take a look at things a little earlier.  This allows me to evaluate how I did with my old goals and begin to lay the ground work for new ones. 

2009 Goals

  1. Improved Health and Physical Fitness
  2. Improved Fencing
  3. Finish 3 projects: Embroidered Shirt, Embroidered Jacket, Silver and Swetnam HMA project 

How did I do? 

Well, it’s really kind of a mixed bag to be honest.  One of the things I failed to do when setting goals for the New Year was to make them measureable goals.  I did improve my health and physical fitness.  It’s not where I want it to be or where I thought it would be by now but it is “improved”.  It’s the same with my fencing.  My game has “improved” but with out a benchmark for what “improved” means to me it is hard to measure whether or not I really accomplished anything.  As for my 3 projects: I started my embroidered jacket (although it is FAR from finished), I did not start the embroidered shirt project, and the Silver and Swetnam project morphed about 6 months into the year.  I started out with one idea of what I wanted to do but as I progressed down that path I realized that I really wanted to do something else.  The original project has since become the training manuals I’m publishing in installments on this blog so in a way did start it but it too is far from finished. 

So what does this mean for 2010? 

First it means that I need to set actual measureable goals.  I’m sure you’ve all heard the smart acronym before.  My goals need to be specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, and timely (or tangible, your choice).  This will help me set achievable goals that I can actually measure and track my progress towards.  A big improvement over last year! :)   I think I did do the right thing by keeping my goal list short last year.  I often feel that if I set too many goals that they get lost in mess and I never really accomplish much towards them.  So I am going to continue the trend of keeping my list to 6 goals. 

2010 Goals 

1)      Continue to work on my physical fitness and fighting.  I want to have completed a 5K by this summer (even if it means I have to hold my own), and be able to do 20 pullups and 100 pushups by the end of the year.  I will also attend at least one practice weekly and set a schedule for drills.

2)      Only have one embroidery project at a time.  Until it’s finished this means my jacket.  I am setting a goal of 10 hours of embroidery per week for this project.  If I meet those 10 hours I can spend the rest of my free project time working on other sewing projects or getting more embroidery finished.

3)      Do more sewing. I spent most of my project time this year working on embroidery projects which means I spent very little time actually sewing clothing.  I made some rapier armor but that was about it.  I really would like some new clothes and I already have several projects lined up: new shirts, a Flanders gown, new rapier armor, a pourpoint, and a jupon (as well as some ideas for household livery).  So I am setting a goal of finishing at least one sewing project a month.  More complicated projects, such as the fur lined Flanders gown, may take longer and may be broken up into smaller projects.  Similarly simple projects, like shirts, may be combined.

4)      Learn to play 2 pieces of music appropriate to Elizabethan England by Pennsic.  I will be starting classical guitar lessons in January which I am very excited about.  I used to play guitar several years ago (although not classical) so I think being able to play 2 simple Elizabethan pieces by Pennsic is very doable.  We’ll see though.  I may have to reevaluate this one in March depending on how I progress.

5)      Spend more time with my students.  I don’t know that I can actually set this goal by myself.  I think we all should sit down together this winter and set some activities (practices, workshops, events, etc) that we want to do together. 

6)      Continue to post Silver and Swetnam installments weekly.

Evaluating and Tracking my Progress

Ideally I would like to evaluate my progress monthly or at least quarterly.  I didn’t do that this last year and I wish I had.  So starting in January I will be posting here once a month about my progress on each of these goals. 

What needs to be accomplished by the end of January? 

1)      I need to be in the gym at least 3 days per week.

2)      I need to accomplish at least 40 hours of embroidery between Jan 1 and Jan 31.

3)      I need to order fabric for at least one project.

4)      I need to actually start lessons.

5)      I need to get together with the guys to talk about things we would like to do together between now and April.

6)      Post at least 4 Silver or Swetnam installments.

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