I like the idea of doing a quarterly review of my annual theme, as a way to reset, re-evaluate, figure out what I want to change and celebrate what I did actually accomplish.
I set my intention for the year as “health”,and after a rough start in Q1, Q2 was when I tried to come back to my goals and catch up. It’s been a bit hit or miss – there were some highs (my birthday party!), and a lot of travel which was fun, but also the piling up of life debt added a lot of stress to June.
The biggest thing in Q2 was the elaborate birthday party that I threw. I kidnapped 14 friends, with some additional +1s and children for a day of “mystery activities”, which ended up running Friday through Monday over my birthday. We did chocolate making, terrarium making, took a boat ride where everyone got a personal box of cake, and ate some nice dinners. It was a bit of an organizational undertaking, but overall a really great and meaningful event.
An important part of the word “health” is the core habits that keep me grounded. In Q2 I:
- Came slightly short of 2K peloton minutes, making significant progress on the minutes I missed when I was sick in February.
- Read 16 novels, including many new summer releases from authors I love, including Taylor Jenkins Reid (Atmosphere is a phenomenal book) and Ashley Poston (Sounds Like Love is another magical love story).
- Finished 4 non-fiction books: Careless People, Where Am I Now (Mara Wilson), Ambition Monster (Jennifer Romolini), and Decisive.
- Finished three (small) crafting projects
- Wrote 2 blog posts
- Sent 8 WTHIC letters
I had a good number of adventures:
- A trip to Dublin to see a theatre show with friends.
- A couple of days in Barcelona for work. my friend Minkku stopped by from Finland for a day and I played tour guide.
- A divorcation in Paris with three friends, this included visiting the Louvre’s first ever fashion exhibition – my absolute highlight from the trip (and the reason why Paris was a must do whilst that was on!)
- A couple of days in Budapest to speak at Craft conference.
- A long weekend at Castlemartyr for the art show (our third year visiting during this, I love it).
- A trip to London for LeadDev (where I was on a panel, did a book signing, and spoke).
- A weekend in the Wirral for my dad’s birthday.
- A trip to Northern Ireland and Athlone.
- One night in Dublin to see Lana Del Rey.
When I’m stressed I tend to stay with things that are familiar, so one of the things I’m paying attention to is how many new experiences I have, aiming for at least one each month.
- Food: my friends and I went to the Menu Cakery just outside of Cork, we did a food tour in Paris, and as part of my birthday party we did a chocolate making class.
- Experiences: Minkku and I did the La Pedrera Premium experience in Barcelona, which was amazing – I loved getting to see new parts of a building I have visited many times before. In Paris, we went up the Eiffel Tower which I had somehow never been organized enough to book before! I also attended an all women comedy show in Cork, a theatre production of Murder on the Orient Express (so good), and the new Evita musical in London. I chartered a boat around Cork harbour for my birthday, and took a boat along the Danube in Budapest.
- Places: the Wirral, Northern Ireland, Athlone (Wineport Lodge). Bit less exciting that Q1 but still some good novelty. Lots of water and boats!
Part of health for me is definitely keeping the life debt under control, this is always the first thing to give when life is not going well! In Q2 I got a bit buried in life debt, and realized I has dropped a number of things earlier in the year when I was sick and grieving.
- We hung art on the attic stairs, and found some new art for the other set of stairs too. These are the last blank walls in the house, partly because they don’t have art rails, which made it a more weighty decision.
- I worked on renewing or switching my mortgage, including trying to get an updated energy efficiency rating after all the work I’ve done on the house. This was a bit of an ordeal and is not yet complete.
- I got the second round of Botox in my jaw (for the teeth grinding, argh).
My professional dev this quarter was basically conferences.
- I prepped a new talk about DRI-ing your career, which I delivered at Craft Conference in Budapest.
- I refreshed and cut down my “What’s My Job Again?” talk from last year, and gave it at LDX3 in London.
- At LDX3 I was also on a panel about becoming a director, and did a book signing.
Looking forward to Q3 we have a bunch of smaller things planned, and I’m looking forward to spending time at home, enjoying the summer, and finding more downtime to work on a little project with a friend.
I hope your Q2 was what you hoped for, but if not, that’s okay. July is the start of Q3! A good time to reset, and have another go.