I’ve started this blog on the 1st of November 2019. This is the 12th month I’ve published my goals and it marks one full year of writing down my goals. A year that I could not have imagined. It turned out completely different from what I had planned.
As you may have noticed, once again I am late. This month has started with a bang. We are having lots of people coming to the coworking. Costa Ricans mostly that are escaping the city. Cities are not the best place to live at the moment and people start realizing that maybe it’s better to be somewhere less crowded. It’s easier to keep social distances haha. And once you remove bars, restaurants, theaters, and shopping… there’s not much left to do in a city than working in a lovely cubicle where you can enjoy nice views of the surrounding mountains. Mountains that you have not explored in a while as work is taking up all your time. But you know, iPhones ain’t cheap and there’s a new one every year with an even nicer price tag. (but don’t buy iPhones, the OnePlus is awesome!)
And besides having a sh*t load of customers (to take with a grain of salt. We went from <10 a day to maybe 20+) to manage, as we have no more staff, the universe has decided to give me its annual forced water fast. We had no water at our place from the 6th to the 10th of October and it still is not fully functioning. It seems like a recurring theme. My birthday shall happen without water. Maybe a hint for me to start drinking beer again?
Oh, and to top it off we had our car at the mechanics for about a month as you know pura vida time is pura vida time. But I’m not complaining as we had nice weather (hence the empty well) so I’ve been biking a lot. Many weeks over 84kms (6x 14kms – from our place to town). My legs are still skinny though but you may have noticed by now that my body is not really into muscle gain… more into burning every single calorie I ingest.
And because Corona is not enough, a lovely segment of the Costa Rican population has decided to strike in the most pacific way possible. By blocking the roads all over the country. Now your survival relies on checking Facebook groups to find out if there’s gas or not at the gas station or if you can get out of town or not.
At least all of this should make me more resilient. But once again, I’ll repeat myself, I’m glad to be here, in the jungle, far away from all the crap that is happening in the USA and Europe. In my bubble. Drinking bubbly water. (yeah it’s a bad one…)
However, all this has had an impact on my goals. And September was not really a good month in terms of achieving them. So much has been happening and there was a lot to manage on all fronts that I’m in need of a vacation. Luckily, we have planned one. We should be leaving on the 13th, my birthday, to enjoy the Pacific ocean for a while. That is if the roadblocks have cleared. Hopefully, the Pacific will be a bit different than water, fish, sand, and corals. I’ll report on that next month.
September, a review
Feel free to re-read my goals for September here.
Relationships
Did I organize a nice surprise for my family? Well I haven’t. Not that I don’t love them, I do, but things were busy and I didn’t really know what to do. I’ll probably keep this goal for sometime in the future. I did spend a lot of time with them and a lot of beach time, although Marine, my wife, would say that I spend too much time working.
Verdict: I failed miserably.
Health & Fitness
I did 50 push-ups every single day in September. One set of 20 and two of 15. I’m not really strict on rest time though as I usually write in between sets. And as you know, my arms are still the same size as one year ago. Probably even less with the intermittent fasting I’ve been doing.
My other goal was to do a 16:8 intermittent fast, meaning I would only eat during an 8-hour window and fast for 16 hours. Usually, it would mean starting my fast at 5 pm and eating again at 9 am. I did feel hunger in the morning after coming to work as I bike 7km without having anything in the stomach. My issue with fasting is that when I do so, I melt. Literally, my tiny muscles disappear. Like an ice cube in the sun. It was interesting to do and maybe it helped my body heal or regenerate but it is not something I would do for too long. Otherwise, the wind might take me…
Verdict: Yay. more push ups, less muscles.
Soul & Mind
To nurture my soul and my mind I did the same thing I do every month. My night routine. Writing, meditating and reading. I like it. My only issue is that often I start too late and can’t finish everything otherwise I’ll be sleep deprived. We don’t want that. I wasn’t as consistent as I have been the previous months.
- Meditation: 25 days
- Writing: 28 days
- Reading: 21 days
Since the reading comes last and the clock shows 10pm I do sometimes skip it to go to bed. 10pm is still as bit late as I usually wake up at 5am. Not by choice. By kids.
However I did finish a book. A shorter one:
- Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and be More Productive by Kevin Horsley
A good book that follows the ideas of the previous one I read. It lays out tactics on how to ‘easily’ improve your memory. The techniques do make sense, but they require training to get used to them and apply them. I’m still not applying them as it requires deliberate practice. I should schedule some time to do so though.
I also wanted to follow a course, Life of Focus. I guess I didn’t have the focus to do so. I’ve only followed the first week of it.
Verdict: Still happy! Can be improved though.
Business
I’m pretty happy with the growth of my websites. While they don’t generate a lot of income, the trajectory is in the right direction.
Last 3 months of my new niche site:
Last 3 months of my digital nomad blog:
Hopefully it’ll continue in that direction!
Verdict: Yay more visitors!
Now in October I will try to take some time off and may not be doing much besides my daily ritual. We’re leaving for 2 weeks holiday and I will simply see how things go. Go with the flow.
Relationships
- Enjoy a nice vacation with my family
We will be going to the Pacific as we found someone to swap houses for a week and then explore a bit more for another week.
Health & Fitness
- 55 push-ups a day
Still adding to the goal I’ve started in January. It’s getting more and more challenging each month.
Soul & Mind
- Daily Meditation
- Daily Reading
- Daily Writing
Business
- Publish at least 12 pieces of content on my two websites
Content is king and the more I have the more likely I am to appear for search queries.
That’s it. What about you? Any special goals or things you’d like to share?
